Crisscrossing Europe during the first six months of 1946, Karski secured tens of thousands of documents, publications and photographs, which were deposited at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace at Stanford University. Together with Karski’s own papers, it remains one of the most important collections in the United States pertaining to World War II as well as a valuable resource for Holocaust researchers.
Little by little in recent years, the Karski story has begun to gain public attention – -and was even included in Disney’s new series of animated shorts about America’s response to the Holocaust (www.TheySpokeOut.com). It’s not clear what role, if any, the film had in highlighting Karski as a candidate for the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Rafael Medoff is director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies. His latest book, which he coauthored with Prof. Sonja Schoepf Wentling, is “Herbert Hoover and the Jews: The Origins of the ‘Jewish Vote’ and Bipartisan Support for Israel.”
