Academy Award Nominee David Strathairn as Jan Karski
The true story of a man who told of humanity’s greatest crimes while there was still time to stop them.
March 13, 2023 at 9pm ET
PBS Great Performances premiere, as part of their 50th anniversary season. Immediately following the broadcast, a behind-the-scenes companion film, Remember Jan Karski, will feature interviews with David Strathairn, the creative team, and those who knew Karski personally to reflect on Karski’s legacy and what his story can teach us about the issues we face today. Produced by the WNET Group’s Exploring Hate initiative, the film examines the ongoing relevance of Jan Karski’s story. See the CLIP of the behind-the-scenes film.
March 13-April 10, 2023
Streaming on the PBS VIDEO APP
More information: Jan Karski Educational Foundation
Past Screenings
Screening through March 8, 2023
See full list of US screenings
January 27, 2023
Quad Cinema
New York, NY
TICKETS – groups of 10+ can receive a discount of $3 per ticket
Q&A session: 5 pm screening, hosted by former President of Georgetown University, Father Leo O’Donovan
Panel discussion: 7:15 pm screening, particpants – Amos (NPR International Correspondent, Ian Levine (head of Human Rights Meta, former head of Human Rights Watch), Cynthia Snyder (co-founder of The Lab), Eva Anskio (Producer)
February 3, 2023
Laemmle Monica Film Center
Los Angeles, CA
February 3, 2023
Gateway Film Center
Columbus, OH
This event is recommended by the Polish Cultural Institute New York.
REMEMBER THIS is a new documentary on the life and legacy of Jan Karski. The true story of a man who told of humanity’s greatest crimes while there was still time to stop them. Read the announcement of the film release in Deadline HERE.
Synopsis
“All I can say is that I saw it, and it is the truth.”
In a virtuoso solo performance, Academy Award nominee David Strathairn (Good Night, and Good Luck, Lincoln, Nomadland) portrays Jan Karski in this genre-defying true story of a reluctant World War II hero and Holocaust witness. After surviving the devastation of the Blitzkrieg, Karski swears allegiance to the Polish Underground and risks his life to carry the first eyewitness reports of war-torn Poland to the Western world and, ultimately, the Oval Office. Escaping a Gestapo prison, bearing witness to the despair of the Warsaw Ghetto and confronted by the inhumanity of a death camp, Karski endures unspeakable mental anguish and physical torture to stand tall in the halls of power and speak the truth. Strathairn captures the complexity and legacy of this self-described “insignificant, little man” whose timely story of moral courage and individual responsibility can still shake the conscience of the world.
Team
Featuring David Strathairn as Jan Karski
Directed by Jeff Hutchens & Derek Goldman
Produced by Eva Anisko
Executive Producers Eva Anisko, Michael Anisko, Dan Logan
Written by Clark Young & Derek Goldman
Director of Photography Jeff Hutchens
Co-Producer Alexander Hyde
Co-Executive Producer Harlene Freezer
Edited by Brandon Bray
Music by Roc Lee
REMEMBER THIS is a production of Sobremesa Media
About Karski
Jan Karski was a courier for the Polish Underground resistance during World War II. In 1942, Karski volunteered to walk through the Warsaw Ghetto and a Nazi extermination camp before traveling to London to report to the Allied Nations on the conditions of occupied Poland and, specifically, the Holocaust. He personally delivered his eyewitness account—and urgent appeal for intervention on behalf of the Jewish people—to British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, and, later, President Franklin D. Roosevelt. His report was ignored.
After the war, Karski earned his Ph.D. at Georgetown University, where he taught in the School of Foreign Service for 40 years. Karski was made an honorary citizen of Israel and was awarded the distinction “Righteous Among the Nations” by Yad Vashem. Karski died in Washington, DC, in July 2000.
“We must tell our children about how this evil was allowed to happen, because so many people succumbed to their darkest instincts, because so many others stood silent. But let us also tell our children about the Righteous Among the Nations, among them was Jan Karski… who told the truth, all the way to President Roosevelt himself.”–President Barack Obama, awarding Karski the Presidential Medal of Freedom
