Feb. 4 – Jan Karski escaped from a gulag and the Warsaw Ghetto, endured tortures from the SS, and survived bombings. He held a truth that was supposed to shake the world to its foundations, but once in the presence of the powerful his voice was lost in unbelief and indifference, crushed by the iron laws of war. These are the unheard words of the Polish partisan that in 1943 met Churchill and Roosevelt and denounced the horrors of the Holocaust. This is the incredible story of Jan Karski, a story now told by Marco Rizzo and Lelio Bonaccorso: two Italian authors who wanted to do him justice, “explaining” his story in a compelling and touching comic book. “Jan Karski. The man who discovered the Holocaus” will be presented on February 16 at 6pm at the Uprising Museum of Warsaw, on ul. Grzybowska 79 (at the Audytorium Jana Nowaka-Jeziorańskiego). The event was sponsored by the Publishing House Alter in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute in Warsaw and the Polish Institute in Rome. Jan Karski was an emissary and diplomat of the Secret Polish State during the Second World War. He tried to convey the truth about the Holocaust and the situation of the occupied country to the Allies. He carried out his mission to the end, but no one believed his truth, perhaps because it was simply more comfortable to not believe it. Poland dedicated 2014 to Jan Karski. Appreciated by the media, cultural and official institutions, the comic book reaches now the Polish audience for the first time, one year since its Italian debut. The comic was recently translated into French (for Steinkis) and author Lelio Bonaccorso confirmed on his website that “soon the book will be published in Poland. My biggest thanks goes to our new publisher, who believed in the project.”
