Karski, Jan

Jan Karski (aka Jan Kozielewski, 24 April 1914 – 13 July 2000) was an agent of the Polish government in exile, whose task was to invent and spread “black propaganda” – meaning atrocity lies – in German-occupied Poland (Laqueur 1998, p. 230). During World War Two, the Polish government in exile maintained close relations with the resistance movement in occupied Poland, which, in addition to sabotage activities, had a dense network of agents, couriers and propagandists. These propagandists, for example, sent atrocity stories about Auschwitz to London on a regular basis. (Cf. Mattogno 2021, pp. 105-289.)

In November 1942, Karski created a story he handed to the Polish government in London about Jews being deported en masse in trains whose floors were covered in moist lime and chlorine, resulting in half the deportees dying before arriving at their destination Treblinka, Belzec and Sobibór, where they were mass murdered “by firing squads, electrocution and lethal gas-chambers.” For Belzec, Karski specifically insisted on an “electrocution station” consisting of a huge metal plate as a floor, as was en vogue at the time. That text about Belzec is identical to an earlier text by Ignacy Schwarzbart, hence was simply copied. Karski’s text was subsequently published in England.

Two years later, in 1944, a book appeared authored by Karski and titled Story of a Secret State, where the story changed from trains of torture driving to Belzec, where those who had survived were electrocuted, to a new story line in which people arriving at Belzec got loaded into trains with floors covered with quick lime. This chemical ate away the flesh from the deportees’ bones, killing them in the process. These trains actually drove away from Belzec, then stood in some field for days waiting for the chemical to finish them all off. Then their load of corpses was dumped, burned, and the ashes buried (Karski 1944, pp. 339-351). How could he “know” any of this? Because he claimed to have gotten smuggled, disguised as an Estonian guard, in and out of the Belzec Camp, which he described as being located on a “large flat plain.” In that camp, he was allegedly shown around by a “real” Estonian guard. The problem is that the Belzec Camp was located on the side of a hill, not a plain, and that no Estonian ever served there in any function.

In a 1987 interview, he even tried to bail out of the orthodox narrative completely by stating that he had thought during the war “that Bełżec was a transit camp,” and that he found out about its real role only after the war. (See Jansson 2014.)

The historical framework of Karski’s story is also invented, as he claimed that his mission was to see what happened to Jews deported from the Warsaw Ghetto, and that the Jews present in Belzec had all come from the Warsaw Ghetto; but the Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto were all deported to Treblinka, not to Belzec.

True to his job description, Karski merely spread “black propaganda” about Belzec. This is now also recognized increasingly by mainstream historians who disregard his “testimonies” as “unreliable.” (For details, see Mattogno 2004a, pp. 22-33.)

Karski was the Polish government’s agent who brought the world’s attention to the mass murder allegedly committed at Belzec by the Germans. While his story is now disregarded, transmogrified versions of his themes live on, and Karski himself is still revered as a hero.

The black propaganda spread by Karski and his many colleagues has served, does serve, and will continue to serve to instigate wars, sustain wars, and escalate them to fiercer levels. A world that makes “heroes” of such people can only be a darker world.