A resolution celebrating the centennial year of the birth of Jan Karski and honoring his extraordinary and courageous life.

Whereas Jan Karski was born on April 24, 1914, as Jan Kozielewski, in Lodz, Poland;

Whereas Jan Karski served in the Polish diplomatic service, enlisted in the military, and was serving in the Polish army when German soldiers invaded Poland in 1939;

Whereas Jan Karski was captured by the Red Army when the Soviet Union invaded Poland;

Whereas in 1940, Jan Karski escaped the horrific Katyn Massacre, in which an estimated 22,000 Poles, including 8,000 Polish military officers, were brutally slain by Soviet soldiers;

Whereas Jan Karski escaped to Warsaw and joined the Polish underground resistance movement, where he served as a courier delivering messages to the Polish government-in-exile detailing the horrific brutality of the Nazis in Warsaw;

Whereas Jan Karski risked his life on several occasions, including when he infiltrated the Warsaw ghetto and the Izbica transit camp, and provided some of the first eyewitness accounts of the Holocaust to the Polish government-in-exile, the British government, and the United States Government;

Whereas in July of 1943, Jan Karski traveled to the United States to meet with President Roosevelt to describe the horrors of the Nazi genocide he had witnessed;

Whereas Jan Karski remained dedicated throughout his life to raising global awareness of the atrocities of the Holocaust;

Whereas after World War II, Jan Karski moved to the United States and enrolled in Georgetown University, earning a Ph.D. in 1952 and teaching at the university's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service for 35 years until his retirement in 1984;

Whereas Jan Karski became a citizen of the United States in 1954;

Whereas Jan Karski was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012 for his courageous efforts in uncovering the atrocities of the Holocaust and his commitment to sharing what he witnessed with the world;

Whereas the Parliament of the Republic of Poland has designated 2014 as The Year of Jan Karski; and

Whereas on April 1, 2014, to mark Jan Karski’s 100th birthday, the Senate unanimously passed a resolution honoring his bravery and dedication in telling the world of the atrocities that took place in Poland during the Holocaust: Now, therefore, be it