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Title: Jan Karski papers
Date (inclusive): 1939-2007
Collection Number: 46033
Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Language of Material:
Polish
Physical Description:
20 manuscript boxes, 11 oversize boxes, 1 oversize folder, 6 card file boxes, 24 photo envelopes, and 26 microfilm reels
(21.8 Linear Feet)
Abstract: Correspondence, memoranda, government documents, bulletins, reports, studies, speeches and writings, printed matter, photographs,
clippings, newspapers, periodicals, sound recordings, videotape cassettes, and microfilm, relating to events and conditions
in Poland during World War II, the German and Soviet occupations of Poland, treatment of the Jews in Poland during the German
occupation, and operations of the Polish underground movement during World War II. Includes microfilm copies of Polish underground
publications. Boxes 1-34 also available on microfilm (24 reels). Video use copies of videotape available. Sound use copies
of sound recordings available.
Creator:
Karski, Jan, 1914-2000
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives
The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual
or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Materials were acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives from 1946 to 2008.
[Identification of item], Jan Karski papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Alternative Forms of Material Available
Boxes 1-34 also available on microfilm (24 reels). Video use copies of videotape available. Sound use copies of sound recordings
available.
| 1914 June 24 | Born Jan Kozielewski in Lodz |
| 1935 | Law student at University of Lwow |
| 1939 | First mission to the West, France |
| Mobilized, September campaign - escapes Soviet imprisonment | |
| Recruited into the Polish diplomatic service | |
| 1940 | Second mission - Failed |
| 1942 | Reports on his mission to representatives of governments of Poland and Great Britain |
| Smuggled into Warsaw ghetto and a concentration camp to prepare a report on Nazi war crimes | |
| 1943 | Reports about situation in Poland to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and other U.S. officials |
| 1944 | Publishes Story of a Secret State |
| 1952 | Receives PhD from Georgetown University |
| 1953 | Enrolls at School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University |
| 1954 | Naturalized as American citizen. Works for United States Information Service |
| 1965 | Marries Pola Nirenska |
| 1984 | Retires from Georgetown University |
| 1985 | Publishes The Great Powers and Poland |
| 1994 | Made honorary citizen of Israel |
| 2000 July 13 | Dies in Washington D.C. |
Jan Karski, 1914-2000, born Jan Kozielewski, was a Polish liaison officer working for the Polish underground during World
War II. He carried the first eyewitness accounts of the Holocaust to a generally unbelieving West.
The process of the deposition of his papers at Hoover began in 1946 and lasted for over sixty years. Herbert Hoover, who was
aware of Karski's excellent connections within diplomatic circles, enlisted him in 1945 to collect documents of the Polish
Government in Exile, which by that time had lost recognition of all western powers who accepted the Soviet-imposed government.
Karski went on a trip around the world to urge the former government members to send all available documents to Stanford and
deposit them at the Hoover Archives.
Karski's papers document two main areas of activity: 1) Collecting activities on behalf of the Hoover Library, and 2) Missions
to the Government in Exile during World War II
Karski went on his last top-secret mission across the German territory in 1942 carrying a small suitcase and a microfilm of
hundreds of documents. Most of what he conveyed to his superiors in London depended on his amazing ability to memorize dozens
of pages and hundreds of names. After he reached his destination safely they were written down. Karski wasn't given access
to the documents concerning the publicity surrounding his meetings with influential politicians, journalists or activists
until they were opened decades after the war. In the 1980s he visited archival institutions in Europe, Israel and the United
States to obtain such copies and incorporate some of their content into this collection. During his trips to Stanford he was
presented with documents produced by the Polish government, the agencies he either worked for or was loosely associated with
(see list in Related Collections).
In the Hoover collection of Karski's papers the best sources of information on his mission and its aftermath are twenty volumes
of scrapbooks. Karski decided to create them in the mid-1980s. His visitors were given the opportunity to come into contact
with documents illustrating his biography. It was the donor's wish to keep them in the same order. A visual file, containing
audio and video tapes with interviews and documentaries supplements the information in scrapbooks.
Besides a few photographs, very little in Karski's papers concerns his personal life. Later demand for information about his
family's background compelled him to reproduce photos depicting his relatives before World War II.
This finding aid was created in 2008 when all of materials Hoover Institution expected to receive were delivered. A register
existing before 2008 described the content of the first nine boxes. Since these boxes had been microfilmed the decision was
made to keep materials in the same order and not incorporate them into the later acquisitions. Cross references have been
provided in the container list.
Poland. Ambasada (Great Britain) Records, Hoover Institution Library & Archives
Poland. Ambasada (U.S.) Records, Hoover Institution Library & Archives
Poland. Ministerstwo Spraw Zagranicznych Records, Hoover Institution Library & Archives
Stanislaw Mikolajczyk papers, Hoover Institution Library & Archives
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Audiotapes
Video tapes
World War, 1939-1945 -- Underground movements
World War, 1939-1945 -- Jews
Poland -- History -- Occupation, 1939-1945
World War, 1939-1945 -- Poland
Propaganda, German
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
Jews -- Poland
Sikorski, Władysław, 1881-1943