The Committee of the Jan Karski Eagle Award announced that Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, will receive its annual award for 2025, citing Yad Vashem’s mission to preserve the memory of the Holocaust.
The award was established in 2000 by Karski, who had been a courier in the Polish underground and tried to galvanize the West into stopping the massacre of Jews.
Yad Vashem Chairman Dani Dayan welcomed the committee’s decision, which comes as the world commemorates 80 years since the liberation of the Nazi concentration and death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.
“Yad Vashem is honored to receive this prestigious award. Jan Karski courageously tried to expose the Nazi crimes in real time and convince world leaders to take action. Eighty years later, Yad Vashem is working tirelessly to tell the truth about the Holocaust, about the horrors that led to the murder of six million Jews, and to debunk the chorus of denials and distortions to ensure that history can never repeat itself.”
The award committee said it chose Yad Vashem for “bearing witness that the good of memory always triumphs over the evil of death.”
At the height of the demise of the Jewish population in Poland, Karski twice smuggled himself into the Warsaw ghetto and snuck into a holding camp to witness first-hand their suffering. He later met with leaders from the West, reporting on what he saw and passing on pleas for help from Jewish leaders, which sadly fell on deaf ears.
In 1982, Yad Vashem designated Karski as a Righteous Among the Nations.
More About Yad Vashem:
Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, serves as the global epicenter of Holocaust commemoration, research, education, and documentation. Through its groundbreaking exhibitions, educational initiatives, and digital resources, Yad Vashem ensures that the memory of the Holocaust continues to inspire and educate future generations
