Jan Karski awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom

We are thrilled to notify you that President Barack Obama has announced he will honor Jan Karski with the Presidential Medal of Freedom May 29, 2012.  The Telegram & Gazette carried this story about the award to Jan Karski and about Marc P. Smith’s play, Karski.  This recognition has been a central mission of the Jan Karski U.S. Centennial Campaign committee. Susan L. Smith has been in communication with the committee to identify ways to incorporate Marc’s play, Karski, into the centennial events in 2014, and on a more long-range basis, into curricula within university, high school, and middle-school settings. We’ll keep you up to date as these collaborative plans progress. Their website: www.jankarski.net

Meanwhile, here are the moving words of President Obama regarding his decision to award this honor to Jan Karski:

“We must tell our children about how this evil was allowed to happen; because so many people succumbed to their darkest instincts; because so many others stood silent. But let us also tell our children about the Righteous Among the Nations. Among them was Jan Karski ; a young Polish Catholic who witnessed Jews being put on cattle cars, who saw the killings, and who told the truth, all the way to President Roosevelt himself. Jan Karski passed away more than a decade ago. But today, I’m proud to announce that this spring I will honor him with America’s highest civilian honor: the Presidential Medal of Freedom.”

Jan Karski

Jan Karski

Marc P. Smith’s play Karski was written in 2009, and from 2009-2010 the play was presented in several Massachusetts venues, in New York City (The Kosciuszko Foundation, May 2010), and in Poland (the Lutheran Church in Wroclaw and Kreisau/Krzyzowa)

Theatre, Reconciliation, And A Playwright’s Personal Journey

Detlef Gericke-Schoenhagen, Director of the Goethe Institut-Boston and Susan Smith at The Hanover Theater, Worcester, June 1, 2011. Photo by: Claudia Snell

Susan L. Smith gave a special talk on her late husband Marc’s most recent theatrical work, The Kreisau Project, and the paths opened by this multi-year creative pursuit. The presentation, on June 1, 2011, at The Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts in Worcester, had previously been scheduled for Marc as part of the Center’s Access Hanover speakers’ series. The Kreisau Project centers on a pair of plays Marc wrote and produced dealing  with both German and Polish resistance against the Nazis. The plays, “A Journey to Kreisau” and “Karski,” were presented in several U.S. cities as well as in Germany and Poland.

Screening Of Documentary Film, “Freya”

Freya von Moltke

The first central Massachusetts screening of Boston College professor Rachel Freudenburg’s documentary, Freya!, was presented on May 22, 2011 at the Hibernian Cultural Centre, Worcester. Dr. Freudenburg was on hand, both to introduce the film and to conduct a question/answer session following the screening. Marc Smith had worked with Rachel during the several years of the making of this documentary, consulting on various aspects of the project.

Tribute To Freya Von Moltke

Marc & Susan Smith, at Tribute to Freya von Moltke, January 23, 2011; photo credit: Stuart Dickson

On January 23, Marc was a participant in a Tribute to Freya von Moltke, held at the Goethe Institut-Boston. Freya died on New Year’s Day 2010 at the age of 98 in her home in Vermont. At the center of this tribute event was the premier showing of a new documentary film about Freya, made by Boston College professor Rachel Freudenburg. Marc was a speaker at that event, presenting his personal perspective on his friendship with Freya.