GRAMNet Film Series

Karski and the Lords of Humanity
Poland, USA (2015) | Director: Slawomir Grünberg | 70 mins

‘Karski & The Lords of Humanity’ is a partially animated documentary film about Jan Karski, who risked his life to try to prevent the Holocaust.

Jan Karski, alias “Witold”, was the very first person to reveal to the Western allied governments the atrocities and mass murders committed by the Nazis in occupied Poland. He was an emissary of the Polish Underground State, sent to the Warsaw ghetto under cover on a mission to investigate the situation of Jews on the eve of the “final solution”. He aimed to reveal the shocking news about the tragedy of the Jewish people to the world. “Without the intervention of the Allies, the Jewish community will cease to exist in eighteen months’ time”, he reported in the so-called Karski Report, which was mostly based on intelligence acquired firsthand, as an eyewitness. Regrettably, the information on the Holocaust, smuggled by Karski to the West, only made it to the 16th page of the New York Times. A few years ago, the American edition of Newsweek named Jan Karski one of the most outstanding personalities of 20th century, calling his wartime mission one of the moral mile-stones of 20th century civilization.