Jan Karski

Hoover curator and Research Fellow Katharina Friedla tells the story of Jan Karski, the Polish diplomat who in 1942 infiltrated the Warsaw Ghetto, witnessed the unfolding Holocaust, and tried to warn British and American officials, including President Franklin Roosevelt. Drawing on Karski’s papers, housed in the Hoover Institution Library & Archives, Friedla describes the skepticism that greeted Karski’s warnings about the complete destruction of Europe’s Jews. She recounts how, after the war, Karski was enlisted as a Hoover curator and played a pivotal role in helping the Library & Archives amass its outstanding Polish wartime collections.