A Message from Arnold Mittelman After a career in not-for-profit and commercial theater spanning more than 40 years I was honored in 2007 to found the National Jewish Theater / Foundation and in 2010 to assume leadership of its Holocaust Theater International...
Karski
Author(s): Marc P. Smith
The intense and chilling story of Jan Karski, hero of the Polish underground, sometimes referred to as "the man who tried to stop the Holocaust." He not only viewed firsthand many of the horrors of the Nazi regime within his own country, but committed himself to bearing witness by reporting directly to Allied leaders in England and the U.S. His reports were generally received with disbelief as being too outrageous to be true. He remained in the U.S., teaching at Georgetown University until his death in 2000. President Obama posthumously awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.
Format: Full-length drama, written to be presented as staged reading.
Cast Size:3M/3F
Character breakdown:
Karski, male, 25-35 years old
Actor 1, male, Interviewer & other roles
Actor 2, female, various roles
Actor 3, male, various roles
Actor 4, female, various roles
Actor 5, female, various roles
Appropriate for grades 7 through adult
Notes:
Study guide planned; selected programs from previous performances including playwright/director’s statement; roster of excerpted comments on the play.
Snapshot
Original or Prominent Production:
U.S., April, 2009; Wroclaw, Poland, August, 2009.
U.S., April, 2009; Wroclaw, Poland, August, 2009.
Original Source Material: Story of a Secret State, by Jan Karski; KARSKI How One Man Tried to Stop the Holocaust, by E. Thomas Wood & Stanislaw M. Jankowski, plus email correspondence with Tom Wood.
Nationality of Author: U.S.
Original Language: English
Production Rights Holder:
Susan L. Smith
Visit the website: http://www.thekreisauproject.com
Experience(s) Chronicled: Concentration and Extermination Camps | The Ghettos | Resistance | Reactions to the Holocaust | Deniers and Denial | Righteous Gentiles
HTC Insights
Views, reference and research of interest.
Lifetime Achievement Award
The National Jewish Theater Foundation presented its 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award to Alfred Uhry. The presentation took place as part of the Lincoln Center Library event on January 27th 2025 in commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on the 80th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz
Lifetime Achievement Award
On September 30, 2024, French playwright, Mr. Jean Claude Grumberg received the Lifetime Achievement Award. It was presented by NJTF HTII President, Arnold Mittelman with Dominique Trimbur, PhD-Manager for the History of Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, Teaching of the Holocaust of Fondation Pour La Memoir de la Shoah Project.