Shortly after the comic Jan Karski - L' uomo che scoprì l'Olocausto/ The Man Who Discovered the Holocaust, released by Italian authors Marco Rizzo and Lelio Bonaccorso, another comic book about Karski has appeared. This time, the original authors are Polish - Jerzy Porębski (script) and Eve Łabaj (artwork) – the book was commissioned by the Jan Karski Institute in Washington, DC and is availabe in full at jankarskiinstituteus.org.
The comic primarily serves educational goals, showing Karski’s life from his birth to death, and even further, showing him being granted a posthumous Medal of Freedom by the current U.S. president, Barack Obama. Soon, the new release will also be available in English.
Of course, the events associated with Karski’s entrance into the Warsaw ghetto, and later, his transition to the camp in Izbica, Lublin are also highlighted. Karski's knowledge of the scale and reality of the Holocaust is fundamental to the overall storyline. His meeting with some of the most important U.S. and U.K. officials of the time is also mentioned. Karski’s efforts to warn Western leaders proved fruitless at the time, even though he was able to meet with Roosevelt and published his 1944 book, Story of a Secret State.
Read more about Karski’s life here: Photographic Memory: Snapshots of a Spy
Previously, in 2010, Karski's story was shown in motion comic format by Disney Educational Productions as part of a series on American Heroes of the Holocaust named They Spoke Out: American Voices Against the Holocaust. Jan Karski’s story within the series Messenger From Hell was narrated by comics legend Stan Lee with art by Neal Adams, a famed comic book artist who helped redesign iconic DC characters such as Batman and Superman.
See other videos in the series on www.theyspokeout.com
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Jan Karski. For this occasion, the Polish Parliament has marked 2014 as the Year of Karski.
Source: press releases, edited by E.M. 01.23.2013.