Jan’s story

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?

an 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 gain 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, 2016
Written and directed by: Maria MOLENDA
starring:
Józef WIĘCŁAWEK – Jan Karski
Justyna STASIK – Pola
Aleksandra POWĘZKA – Liaison officer, Nurse, Ghetto woman
Łukasz OLEŚ – Partisan, Camp guard
Daniel KLACZAK – German Officer

he play was created for the Małopolskie Towarzystwo Oświatowe (Lesser-Poland Educational Association) for the All-Polish Gathering of Jan Karski Schools.