On October 19th, 2016 at the All-Polish Gathering of Jan Karski Schools organized by MTO Lesser Poland Educational Society and SPLOT Jan Karski Community School Complex in Nowy Sącz, the Nomina Rosae Theatre presented the play “Jan’s Story”. The play premiered at the Transfiguration of Jesus Auditorium of the st. Margaret parish thanks to the kindness of the vicar of St. Margaret Parish and the principal of the Catholic Primary School in Nowy Sącz

The “Jan’s story” play takes place in a dream, in which the protagonist faces the memories from his past. He is guided in his journey into the past by a ghost of his dead wife, Pola. The ghost, like a powerful hypnotist, forces him – like a never-waning guilt – to relive the painful experiences again. The people in the dream are not only figments of dreamer’s imagination, they are also ghosts who stay with Jan all his wife. Painful experiences, but also living through the feeling of his own powerlessness in the face of the cruelty of war and indifference of the world are the worst phantom of the past constantly haunting the hero. Was Jan able to fight it? Won’t his story – being also such an important message for the world – be forgotten?

Jan Karski was born in 1914 in Łódź as Jan Romuald Kozielski. He graduated from law faculty, diplomacy and officer’s school. During the war he was an emissary of Polish Underground State. He gained renown as a man who informed the allied forces and the public opinion about the Jewish people’s Holocaust. He saw with his own eyes the immensity of suffering, that the Jewish people suffered in the Warsaw ghetto, and also witnessed a monstrous loading of people into the trains of Izbica camp. His appeals didn’t succeed – the great of this world – including the president of the United States, Roosevelt himself – never undertook any action to stop the Holocaust. Still the testimony of Jan Karski resonated loudly, leaving a warning and a message to the next generations.

„Jan’s Story”, Nomina Rosae Theatre
Written and directed by: Maria Molenda
Starring: Józef Więcławek, Justyna Stasik Oleksandra Powęzka, Łukasz Oleś, Daniel Klaczak