Memory and Responsibility. The Legacy of Jan Karski

Memory and Responsibility. The Legacy of Jan Karski

Editor: Eugeniusz Smolar

The book is a collection of original articles and speeches from the participants of the ‘Jan Karski — Memory and Responsibility’ conference, held in Warsaw in November 2014 as part of the Jan Karski Centenary celebrations. The organizers — the Jan Karski Educational Foundation, Poland and the Polish History Museum — acknowledge with gratitude the support for the conference and the book granted by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. We also wish to thank warmly all Partners and Supporters who, through their generous support, made this project possible.

ISBN 978-83-7507-186-3
Size B5, p. 306

Table of Contents

Eugeniusz Smolar, Jan Karski — memory and responsibility

INAUGURATION

Bronisław Komorowski, President of the Republic of Poland

Andrzej Rojek, The Jan Karski Educational Foundation

Robert Kostro, The Polish History Museum

Małgorzata Omilanowska, Minister of Culture and National Heritage

I. JAN KARSKI — THE UNFINISHED MISSION OF A MORAL MAN IN IMMORAL TIMES

Szymon Rudnicki, Jan Karski — the anti‐hero hero. The unusual work of an extraordinary man

Stephen D. Mull, The Jan Karski I knew

Maciej Kozłowski, Was it really a failed mission?

Rabbi Harold White, Memories of Jan Karski. Martin Smith, Meeting a messenger from Poland

II. EUROPE AND THE JEWS: HOLOCAUST — RECONCILIATION — ...?

Jerzy Jedlicki, The Holocaust as a unique experience of European civilisation

Paweł Śpiewak, On the uniqueness and singularity of the Holocaust

Karolina Wigura, The era of forgiveness, the inexcusable and radical syncretism

III. CHRISTIANS AND THE HOLOCAUST

Bp. Grzegorz Ryś, The Holocaust — Nostra aetate — The Church

Fr. John T. Pawlikowski, OSM, The Holocaust. Does it have significance for ethics today

Krzysztof Dorosz, The Jew delusion

Jan Grosfeld, The Christian mourning of the Shoa

IV. THE MEMORIES OF TOTALITARIANISMS — ASYMMETRY OF MEMORY, EAST AND WEST, AND THE HOLOCAUST

Andrzej Nowak, Confession. A few comments on memories of totalitarian crimes

Jaroslav Hrytsak, The history of Ukraine and the Ukrainian history of the Holocaust

Heiko Pääbo, Holocaust and the collective memory in Estonia

Pieter Lagrou, Memories of totalitarianism. The Asymmetry of memory, East and West and the Holocaust

V. THE POLES AND THE JEWS — EVOLUTION OF POLISH IDENTITY

Joanna Tokarska‐Bakir, Against editing of the Jan Karski story

Jan T. Gross, Jews as a Polish problem? And why not a part of Polish history?

Robert Kostro, Jews, Polish identity and Polish disputes

Piotr M. A. Cywiński, Understanding Europe

VI. OVERCOMING THE TABOO — POLISH CULTURE AND THE HOLOCAUST

Jacek Bocheński, Musing and taboo

Dominika Kozłowska, Polish culture facing the Holocaust. Three decades of overcoming the Taboo

Iwona Kurz, Between conflict and kitsch

Weronika Szczawińska, Triumphalism and blockade. A few observations about the most recent Polish theatre

Tadeusz Słobodzianek, Taboo and catharsis

VII. JAN KARSKI’S LEGACY — MEMORY AND RESPONSIBILITY

Eugeniusz Smolar, The legacy of Jan Karski — responsibility for the fate of others

Radosław Sikorski, Memory and responsibility — Jan Karski and Raphael Lemkin

Assumpta Mugiraneza, The genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda. The European roots of the Rwandan story

Anthony Dworkin, The Responsibility to protect: ambitions and challenges

Payam Akhavan, Confronting genocide and the limits of law

Adama Dieng, Memory — responsibility — justice

Authors

Payam Akhavan, PhD

Professor of international law at McGill University, Montreal and Visiting Fellow at Oxford University. He has served as an advocate and counsel for the International Criminal Court, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. Among others, he has represented Uganda in the case against Joseph Kony, Libya against Saif al‐Islam al‐Gaddafi. He worked as a Human Rights Officer for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Switzerland and Croatia. He has published many articles and books about international criminal law such as Reducing Genocide to Law: Definition, Meaning, and the Ultimate Crime (2012), Confronting Genocide (co‐ed. , 2011), “Making Human Rights Sexy: Authenticity in Glamorous Times” in the Harvard Human Rights Journal (2013), “Preventing Genocide: Measuring Success by What Does Not Happen” in 22 Criminal Law Forum 33 (2011), “Are International Criminal Tribunals a Disincentive to Peace? Reconciling Judicial Romanticism with Political Realism” in 31 Human Rights Quarterly 624 (2009).

Jacek Bocheński

Born in prewar Lviv. The writer and author of several novels including The Taboo (1965), The Roma Trilogy (The Divine Julius 1961, Nazo the Poet 1969, Tiberius Caesar 2009), as well as essays about important, recently deceased leading figures of Polish literature, published in Zapamiętani (Remembered, 2013). In response to Marek Edelman’s invitation, he wrote the preface to his book And There Was Love In the Ghetto (2009). He was the co‐founder and editor‐in‐chief of the independent uncensored Zapis magazine first published in 1977. An active member of the anti‐Communist opposition. He also served as the president of the Polish PEN Club. He was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. Lives in Warsaw.

Piotr M. A. Cywiński, PhD

Holds a PhD in history, and is the author of numerous articles and texts concerning the Middle Ages, as well as issues related to the Holocaust and sites of memory. Director of the Auschwitz‐Birkenau State Museum in Oświęcim since 2006. From 2009, co‐founder and president of the Auschwitz‐Birkenau Foundation. Member of the International Auschwitz Council, co‐creator of the International Centre for Education about Auschwitz and the Holocaust, and Vice‐President of the Center’s Council. Member of the Council for the Protection of Memory of Combat and Martyrdom. In 1996‐2010, Vice‐President and President of the Club of Catholic Intelligentsia in Warsaw. In 2004‐2008, Vice‐President of the global federation of Catholic intellectuals Pax Romana. Since 2002, a member of the Polish Episcopate Working Group for dialogue with the Greek Catholic Church in Ukraine. Named Ambassador of the International Year of Intercultural Dialogue in 2008. Lives in Warsaw and Oświęcim.

Adama Dieng

Appointed in 2012 by the UN Secretary‐General as Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide. For more than 11 years, Mr. Dieng was Registrar of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Before joining the United Nations, Mr. Dieng was for ten years the Secretary General of the Geneva‐based International Commission of Jurists. Mr. Dieng is a well‐acclaimed expert and lecturer on human rights, democracy and the rule of law. He was the driving force behind the establishment of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and also produced the draft of the African Convention to Fight Corruption. He is a member of Africa Leadership Forum, and a former board member of various institutions, including the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, the San Remo Institute of Humanitarian Law, and the René Cassin Institute of Human Rights. He is Honorary Chair of the World Justice Project. Lives in New York.

Krzysztof Dorosz

Writer and journalist, who holds PhD in English literature, and has authored many articles related to religious issues. He has published three books: Maski Prometeusza (The Masks of Prometheus), Sztuka wolności (The Art of Freedom) and Bóg i terror historii (God And The Terror Of History). For over 20 years he worked as a journalist‐broadcaster in the Polish Section of the BBC World Service in London. In the 1970s and 1980s he collaborated with the Polish émigré quarterly Aneks. Since 1989 he has been working as an essayist writing on various issues connected with religion and culture for the magazines Znak, Więź and Przegląd Polityczny. Between 2002‐2003 he was editor‐in‐chief of the Evangelical Reformed Church monthly Jednota. Member of the Polish PEN Club. Lives in Warsaw.

Anthony Dworkin

Senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, focusing on human rights, democracy and justice. Among the subjects he has worked on are the EU’s human rights policies, European support for the transitions in North Africa, and counterterrorism and human rights. He has written several papers for ECFR, including Towards an EU Human Rights Strategy for a Post‐Western World (with Susi Dennison, 2010), The Struggle for Pluralism After the North African Revolutions (2013), and most recently International Justice and the Prevention of Atrocities (2014). Before joining ECFR he was executive director of the Crimes of War Project, and edited the book Crimes of War: What the Public Should Know (2nd ed. 2007). He has been a member of the Terrorism/Counterterrorism Advisory Committee of Human Rights Watch, and a contributing editor of Prospect magazine.

Jan Grosfeld

Political scientist, professor at Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University, holding the Political Theory and Thought Chair in the Institute of Political Science there. Prior to that he held the European Culture and Civilization Chair and the Contemporary Social Thought of the Catholic Church Chair at the same institute. His research interests focus on the relationship between politics and religion, and a variety of topics in political anthropology, the Judeo‐Christian roots of European civilization, and interfaith dialogue, especially Jewish/Christian. He has written several books, the most important of which include: Od lęku do nadziei. Chrześcijanie, Żydzi, świat (From fear to hope. Christians, Jews and the World, 2011), Czekanie na Mesjasza (Waiting for the Messiah, 2003), Krzyż i gwiazda Dawida (The Cross and the Star of David, 1999). He also translates religious and scientific literature from French and English. He is the editor‐in‐chief of the journal Chrześcijaństwo — świat — polityka (Christianity — World — Politics). Lives in Warsaw.

Jan Tomasz Gross

Historian and sociologist, a professor at Princeton University where he teaches history. Researcher of the modern history of Poland and Central‐Eastern Europe. He was involved in the anti‐Communist opposition since high school in the 1960s. Forced to leave Poland in consequence of the 1968 anti‐Semitic policy, he remained an active supporter of the democratic opposition in exile. He collaborated with the Polish émigré quarterly Aneks. His research focuses on Polish/Jewish and Christian/Jewish relations, especially in the context of the so‐called third wave of the Holocaust. The results of his research published in books such as Neighbors, Fear and Golden Harvest have opened up the public debate about anti‐Semitism in Poland and the attitude and actions taken by Poles during the Holocaust. Lives in New York.

Jaroslav Hrytsak

Professor of modern history at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv. He taught at Columbia University (1994, 2004), Harvard University (2000‐2001), and the Central European University in Budapest (1996‐2009). The author of numerous publications on the modern history of Eastern Europe and has received several awards, including the Anton Gindely‐Preis für Kultur und Geschichte Mittel‐, Ost‐ und Südosteuropas (Austria, 2010), two Polish medals: Pro Publico Bono (2010) and the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (2013), and an award for intellectual courage from the independent Ukrainian journal Yi (2010). His biography of Ivan Franko, Prophet in his Fatherland: Ivan Franko and His Community (2006) was chosen as Best Book of the Year 2007 in Ukraine and was awarded the Antonovych Prize (Ukraine, 2007) and the Jerzy Giedroyc Prize (Poland, 2013). In 2013, he was listed among the top 100 most influential persons in Ukraine. Lives in Lviv.

Jerzy Jedlicki

A professor emeritus in history. His research focuses on the economic and social history of Poland in the nineteenth century and the history of ideas in modern Europe. From 1954 until 2009 he worked at the Historical Institute of the Polish Academy of Science, where he was head of the Intelligentsia History Lab from 1991 to 2006. He is the editor of the three volumes of Dzieje inteligencji polskiej do roku 1918 (The history of Polish intelligentsia until 1918) and the author of its second volume, entitled Błędne koło 1832‐1864 (Vicious circle 1832‐1864). Between 1978 and 1981 he conducted classes within the Society of Academic Courses — an underground initiative of the anti‐Communist opposition in Poland, aimed at providing an independent academic curriculum. Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington D. C. (1989‐1990). Among his most important books are: A suburb of Europe: Nineteenth‐century Polish approaches to Western civilization (1999), Źle urodzeni, czyli o doświadczeniu historycznym (Poorly born–The historical experience, 1993), Świat zwyrodniały: lęki i wyroki krytyków nowoczesności (The degenerate world: Fears and rules of the critiques of Modernity, 2000). Lives in Warsaw.

Bronisław Komorowski

President of the Republic of Poland. A historian, graduated from the Faculty of History at the University of Warsaw. As a secondary‐school student he was involved in opposition activities and took part in some demonstrations, including during the March Protests in 1968; arrested for the first time in December 1971. He took part in relief actions for persecuted workers in Radom and Ursus in 1976; cooperated with the Workers’ Defence Committee KOR and the Movement for Defence of Human and Civil Rights. He worked as a printer, journalist, publisher and distributor of the underground press. In the years of opposition activities he was frequently arrested and persecuted. In 1980‐1981 he worked with the independent trade union “Solidarność”. Interned during martial law imposed on 13 December 1981. Following his release he worked as an editor of the underground magazine ABC (Adriatic–Baltic–Black Sea). From 1983 to 1989 he taught history at the secondary theological school in Niepokalanów.

Parliament: From 1991‐2010 he was a deputy of the Sejm (the lower chamber of the Polish parliament) and worked in the Commission for Poles Overseas and in the Commission for National Defence (as Chairman from 1997 to 2000), and then in the Commission for Foreign Affairs. Elected as Deputy Marshal of the Sejm (October 2005) and Marshal in November 2007.

Government: director in the Office of the Council of Ministers (1989‐1990), Deputy Minister of National Defence (1990‐1993) and Minister of National Defence (2000‐2001)

President: As a result of the tragic death of President Lech Kaczyński in the Smoleńsk plane catastrophe on 10 April 2010, Bronisław Komorowski, as Marshal of the Sejm, became Acting President under the regulations of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. He won the presidential election on 4 July 2010 and took office on 6 August 2010.

Robert Kostro

Historian and publicist. Director of the Polish History Museum in Warsaw since 2006. He worked as the Director of the Foreign Affairs Department in the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Poland and as Director of the Office of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage. He was Commissioner General of the Europalia 2001 Poland festival, the co‐founder and program director of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, and a member of the Academic Council of the Ossolińscy National Institute. He has published numerous articles in national newspapers such as Rzeczpospolita, Gazeta Wyborcza, Życie, Tygodnik Powszechny, Przegląd Polityczny, Więź. Co‐author of books, including The world of politics, diplomacy, ideas — a manual with Rafal Matyja and Memory and responsibility with Tomasz Merta. Lives in Warsaw.

Dominika Kozłowska

Holds a PhD in philosophy, and is an essayist and editor‐in‐chief for the monthly Znak. Her interests focus mainly on the relationship between democracy and religion, the Catholic Church in Poland and cultural and social change in Europe. She started her studies at the Pontifical Academy of Theology in Cracow (now the Pontifical University of John Paul II) when the Department of Philosophy was led by Professor Dean Reverend Józef Tischner. She has strong ties to the group of students and friends of Reverend Tischner engaged in the development of the Józef Tischner Institute. In the years 2005‐2011 she was editor‐in‐chief of the Thinking in Values magazine, dedicated to promoting the achievements of the Tischner Institute. Since 2006 she has been working at the Znak Publishing House, first as the editor of the Religious and Philosophic Literature Section, and since the end of 2010 as the editor‐in‐chief of Znak magazine. Lives in Cracow.

Maciej Kozłowski

Historian and diplomat. After graduating from the Jagiellonian University, he spent a year in London and Paris where he started the collaboration with the émigré monthly Kultura. Convicted and imprisoned for smuggling émigré publications into Poland. Active member of the anti‐Communist opposition, suffering reprisals. Since the 1980s, a journalist and editor of Tygodnik Powszechny. He has authored the award‐winning books Krajobrazy przed Bitwą (Landscapes Before The Battle, 1986) and Między Sanem a Zbruczem (Between The Rivers San and Zbrucz, 1990). After Poland’s democratic transformation, he started a diplomatic career in 1990, first as the deputy ambassador in Washington, DC and from 1993 as chargé d’affaires. Polish ambassador to Israel (1999‐2003), later the deputy director of the Department of Africa & the Middle East in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Minister Plenipotentiary for Polish‐Jewish relations. He has lectured at various Universities in the US, Europe and Israel. Professor at Collegium Civitas in Warsaw. Collaborates with the Polish NGO Forum for Dialogue, and editor of a book published by the Forum Difficult questions in Polish‐Jewish Dialogue. Lives in Warsaw.

Iwona Kurz

Holds a PhD in cultural anthropology, lecturer at the Institute of Polish Culture, University of Warsaw. She researches the history of modern Polish culture, especially using the analytical framework of visual anthropology, as well as questions of body and gender. She is the author of Twarze w tłumie (Faces in the crowds) a book nominated in 2005 for the Nike award, one of Poland’s most important literary awards, and won the Michałek Award for the best book in film studies. She was the co‐author of Obyczaje polskie. Wiek XX w krótkich hasłach (Polish customs. The 20th century in short entries, 2008), the editor of the anthology Film i historia (Film and history, 2008), co‐editor of the academic handbooks Antropologia ciała (The anthropology of the body, 2008) and Antropologia kultury wizualnej (The anthropology of visual culture, 2012). Lives in Warsaw.

Pieter Lagrou

Professor of contemporary European history at the Université Libre de Bruxelles since 2003. He studied history at the University of Leuven, Yale University and the European University Institute in Florence, taught at the Université d’Aix‐Marseille and Sciences‐Po Paris, and was a researcher at the Institut d’Histoire du Temps Présent in Paris from 1998 to 2003. Among his publications are The Legacy of Nazi Occupation. Patriotic Memory and National Recovery in Western Europe, 1945‐1965. (2000), ‘Historical trials: getting the past right — or the future?’ in Ch. Delageand, P. Goodrich, The Scene of the Mass Crime. History, Film and International Tribunals (2013), ‘Europe as a Place for Common Memories? Some Thoughts on Victimhood, Identity and Emancipation from the Past’ in M. Blaive, Ch. Gerbel, T. Lindenberger (eds. ) Clashes in European Memory. The Case of Communist Repression and the Holocaust (2010). Lives in Brussels.

Assumpta Mugiraneza

Co‐founder and director of the IRBA Centre for Multimedia Heritage. She graduated in social psychology and political sciences from l’Université Paris VIII, where she teaches courses in psychology. She conducts research on hate speech and comparative studies on the genocide in Rwanda and the Holocaust. Authored many articles about the Tutsi genocide published in a wide range of French‐language journals. Co‐editor of an issue of Review of the History of Shoah: Rwanda 15 years later. Writing and thinking about the history of Tutsi génocide. Together with Joël Hubrecht she has published the book Enseigner l’histoire et la prévention des génocides: Peut‐on prévenir les crimes contre l’humanité? (Teaching about history and preventing genocide: can we prevent crimes against humanity?, 2008). She has also contributed significantly to many educational publications aimed at combating hate, anti‐Semitism, negrophobia and racism such as Anti‐Semitism; the generic hatred (in honour of Simon Wiesenthal, 2007). Containing anti‐Semitism: A paradigm to combating negrophobia? (2008), Combating intolerance, violence and exclusion through Holocaust education, Rebuilding Rwanda : challenges in education on the genocide (2009), Les mots du génocide, Quelques mots du génocide des Tutsi (2011). Every year she organises a wide range of academic, cultural and artistic events in collaboration with national and international partners. Lives in Kigali.

Stephen D. Mull

U. S. Ambassador to the Republic of Poland since September 2012. He served as Executive Secretary in the State Department. Before then, he had served as Senior Advisor to William Burns, Under‐Secretary of State for Political Affairs, in which capacity he coordinated U. S. diplomatic efforts on Iran, managed the State Department’s crisis response during the Russian‐Georgian war of August 2008, and led negotiations on a range of U. S. national security issues, including the agreement permitting the flight of U. S. military resupply flights to Afghanistan through Russian airspace. At the beginning of the Obama administration, he led and exercised the authorities of the Office of the Under‐Secretary for International Security Affairs and Arms Control. Mr. Mull is the recipient of two Presidential Meritorious Service Awards and many other awards for excellence in diplomatic service. He joined the Foreign Service in March 1982, and holds the rank of Career Minister.

Andrzej Nowak

Professor at the Historical Institute of the Polish Academy of Science, and the head of the Institute of Eastern Europe History and 19th‐20th Century Empire Studies. Since 2004 he has been also the head of the Institute of Eastern European History at the Historical Institute of the Jagiellonian University. Editor‐in‐Chief of Arcana journal. He specialises in the political and intellectual history of Eastern Europe, Polish‐Russian relations, and comparative studies on empires in the 19th and 20th Century. He has lectured on Polish and Russian history at many universities, including Columbia, Harvard, the University of Toronto, Cambridge University and Tokyo University. Member of the Polish‐Russian historical commission within the framework of collaboration between the Polish Academy of Science and Russian Academy of Science. A journalist and columnist since the 1980s, first in unofficial, uncensored journals, then later as an editor‐in‐chief of Russian and Central‐Eastern Europe History Studies. His most important publications were: Polska i „trzy” Rosje. Studium polityki wschodniej Józefa Piłsudskiego (Poland and the ‘three’ Russias. A study of the foreign policy of Józef Piłsudski, 2001), History and geopolitics: A contest for Eastern Europe (2008), Od Polski do post‐polityki. Intelektualna historia zapaści RP (From Poland to post‐politics. An intellectual history of the collapse of the Republic of Poland, 2010), Imperiological Studies. A Polish Perspective,(2011), Strachy i Lachy. Przemiany polskiej pamięci 1982‐2012 (Poles and fears. The transformation of Polish memory, 2012). Awarded with the Jerzy Giedroyc award, the Wacław Jędrzejewicz History Medal by the Józef Piłsudski Institute in New York, and the Włodzimierz Pietrzak academic award for his research on Eastern European history amongst others. Lives in Cracow.

Małgorzata Omilanowska

Minister of Culture and National Heritage. She is an art historian who specialises in architecture of the 19th and 20th centuries, theories of art and the protection of monuments. A graduate of the University of Warsaw, where she earned her PhD in 1995. She also studied at the Faculty of Architecture of the Technical University of Berlin. Habilitated at the Institute of Art of the Polish Academy of Sciences in 2005. In 2013 she was conferred an academic degree of full professor. From 1985 she worked as a researcher at the Institute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences, became its deputy director (1999‐2007), and most recently editor in chief of the Dictionary of Polish Architects. Since 2006 she has also worked as a Professor at the Institute of Art History, University of Gdańsk, and was the director of the Institute (2008‐2012). A member of many scientific councils of Polish and German institutions, including the Herder Institute in Marburg and the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg. She is the author of several academic books, including ‘Stefan Szyller (1857‐1933). Warszawski architekt doby historyzmu’ (‘Stefan Szyller (1857‐1933). Warsaw architect of the Historicism period’), ‘Atlas zabytków architektury w Polsce’ (‘Atlas of architectural monuments in Poland’).

Father John T. Pawlikowski, OSM

A priest of the Servite Order. Professor of social ethics at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, director of the Catholic‐Jewish Studies Program in CTU’s Cardinal Joseph Bernardin Center. Researches issues of the Holocaust, war and peace in context of the Catholic theology, involved in interfaith dialogue, especially Christian‐Jewish‐Muslim. Author and editor of many books related to these issues, such as Good and evil after Auschwitz (1982), Biblical and theological reflections on the ‘Challenge of peace’ (1984), The challenge of the Holocaust for Christian theology (1990); Christ in the light of Christian‐Jewish dialogue (2001). Served for seven years as Editor of the New Theology Review, serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Ecumenical Studies, The Journal of Holocaust and Genocide Studies and the Irish Theological Quarterly. Appointed by Governor Pat Quinn to the Illinois Holocaust and Genocide Commission. For many years, he was co‐chair of the National Polish‐American/Jewish‐American Council. Appointed by President Carter to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Council in 1980, reappointed for three successive terms by Presidents Bush and Clinton. Served for many years on the Advisory Committee on Catholic‐Jewish Relations of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Participant in the Millennium Peace Summit. In 1986 he received the Yad Vashem Righteous Among the Nations Award. Honoured with many awards for his achievements in building peace and tolerance. Lives in Chicago.

Heiko Pääbo

Dr. Heiko Pääbo is the head of the Centre for Baltic Studies and a lecturer at the Institute of Government and Politics, University of Tartu. His research interests are focused on the collective memory‐related conflicts in the post‐imperial space, especially the former Russian empire. He has conducted a comparative analysis of history textbooks from Estonia, Ukraine, Georgia and Russia, and on the development of narrative in Estonian textbooks from Soviet Estonia to the sovereign nation state. His recent analysis is related to the development of Holocaust narrative in Estonian history textbooks. He is the author of the monograph Potential of the collective memory‐based international identity conflicts in post‐imperial space. Comparison of the Russian master narrative with Estonian, Ukrainian and Georgian master narratives and several other articles. Lives in Tartu.

Andrzej Rojek

Chairman of the Board of the Jan Karski Educational Foundations in Warsaw and Chicago. A founder of the Jan Karski U. S. Centennial Campaign, which achieved Karski’s decoration by President Barack Obama with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian decoration of the United States.

He has been active in global finance since 1986, and has recently retired as the Managing Director at Advent Capital Management. Previously, he was one of the founders of the global hedge fund Lydian Asset Management. He served as a managing director and partner at Bankers Trust, and also with the convertibles groups at Merrill Lynch.

A US citizen who was born in Poland, Mr. Rojek graduated with honours from the University of Warsaw in 1979 with a degree in economics, and received his master’s degree in economics from Columbia University in 1985. Andrzej Rojek presently serves as a trustee of the Kosciuszko Foundation in New York, the Packer Collegiate Institute in New York, and as a member of the investment committee of Mount Holyoke College. He is involved in numerous charitable initiatives in Poland (the Museum of History of Polish Jews) and the U. S. (the Polish Studies Chair at Columbia University). In 2012, he was decorated by the President of the Republic of Poland, Bronisław Komorowski, with a Knight’s Cross of the Order for Merit of the Republic of Poland for his work with the Jan Karski U. S. Centennial Campaign.

Szymon Rudnicki

A professor emeritus at the University of Warsaw Historical Institute. Author of many books and articles concerning the issue of Polish nationalist and conservative right‐wing movements, the gentry, Polish/Jewish relations. His writings have been published in several countries. Author of books such as Narodowa Demokracja w Warszawie, 1918–1939 (National Democracy in Warsaw, 1918–1939, 1972), Obóz Narodowo‐Radykalny. Geneza i działalność (The National Radical Camp. Genesis and activity, 1985), Żydzi w parlamencie II Rzeczypospolitej ( Jews in the parliament of the Second Republic, 2003), Równi, ale niezupełnie (Equal, but not completely, 2008). He has been awarded the Polityka weekly Klio prize and the Jan Karski and Pola Nireńska Award. He met Jan Karski during Karski’s visit to Poland as a Fulbright scholar in Warsaw in the 1970s. Lives in Warsaw.

Bishop Grzegorz Ryś

Auxiliary bishop of Cracow, holds a PhD in humanities, a specialist in the history of the Church. The head of Medieval Church History at the Historical Institute of the History and Cultural Heritage Department at the Pontifical University of John Paul II in Cracow. A member of the historical commission during the beatification process of John Paul II. Working in the stream of the Neo‐Catechumenal Way, an active participant of interfaith and ecumenical dialogue. He is the head of the Group on New Evangelisation at the Ministry Commission of the Polish Bishops Conference. He publishes amongst other in the monthly Znak and the Tygodnik Powszechny weekly. Since 2012 he has been a member of the International Auschwitz Council. Lives in Cracow.

Radosław Sikorski

Marshal of the Polish Sejm (Lower Chamber of Parliament), former Minister of Foreign Affairs (2007‐2014) and Senator (2005‐2007) and a Member of Parliament (since 2007). He graduated from the University of Oxford with a B. A. and an M. A. in Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE). He was a war correspondent in Afghanistan and Angola (1986‐1989) and won the World Press Photo award in 1987 for a photograph taken in Afghanistan. As Deputy Minister of National Defence in 1992, he argued for Poland’s NATO accession. In 1998‐2001 he served as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. From 2002 to 2005, he was resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D. C. and executive director of the New Atlantic Initiative. He was editor of the analytical publication European Outlook and organised international conferences on topics such as UN reform and the 25th anniversary of the Solidarity movement. He authored the books Dust of the Saints: A Journey to Herat in Time of War (1989), Full Circle: A Homecoming to Free Poland (2008) and (in Polish) Strefa Zdekomunizowana (Commie‐free Zone — 2007) as well as many articles in the Polish and international Press. Lives in Warsaw.

Tadeusz Słobodzianek

A Polish playwright, director and producer. Since 2013, director of the Warsaw Dramatyczny Theatre. In 1991 he founded the Wierszalin Theater in Supraśl near Białystok. He is the author of such plays as Obywatel Pekosiewicz (Citizen Pekosiewicz, 1986), Turlajgroszek (1990), Prorok Ilja (The Prophet Ilya, 1992), Merlin (1992), Kowal Malambo (The Blacksmith Malambo, 1992), Sen pluskwy (A bug’s dream, 2001), Śmierć proroka (The death of a prophet, 2011), Młody Stalin (Young Stalin, 2013). Among the many prizes he has won are the Kościelski Foundation Literary Award and the Paszport Polityki prize. For the play Nasza klasa (Our class), which premiered in the National Theatre in London, he won the Nike literary award in 2010. He started the first school for playwrights in Poland. His plays have been staged around the world, in the U. K. , U. S. , Canada, Israel, Germany, Hungary, Macedonia, Slovakia, Italy and Brazil. Lives in Warsaw.

Martin Smith

Martin Smith has been making, directing and writing international documentary films for more than forty years. His awards include an Emmy, several BAFTA nominations, two George Peabody Awards, an Outstanding Archival Achievement prize from the British Film Institute, a Royal Television Society Award and numerous Film Festival successes. Smith’s oeuvre includes such films as The World at War, Vietnam–A Television History, The Struggles for Poland and Cold War. His documentaries for the BBC include the prophetic States of Terror–Soldiers of God and China–The Giant Awakes. For his work as exhibition director at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D. C. , Smith received a Presidential award from President Bill Clinton. Lives in London.

Eugeniusz Smolar

Senior Fellow at the Centre for International Relations; foreign policy analyst, concentrates on issues related to European security, the Eastern policy of Poland and of the European Union. His studies of Political Economy at the University of Warsaw were interrupted by political imprisonment after the students’ demonstrations of March 1968. He emigrated to Sweden in 1970 and studied sociology and political sciences at Uppsala University. In 1975, he joined the Polish Section of the BBC World Service in London as a journalist‐broadcaster, and later became its Director (1982‐1997). For years he actively assisted democracy movements and Solidarność in Poland and other then‐Communist countries. He was also a co‐founde