EMBASSY EVENTS 2009
Dr. Marek Edelman and Prof. Barbara Skarga Receive the Jan Karski Freedom Award
18 February 2009
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| Ambassador Ashe presents the Jan Karski Freedom Award to Dr. Edelman (photo gallery) |
The award, part of the American Ambassadorial Awards Program, recognizes Poles who have worked for the promotion of democracy and human rights within Poland, regionally in Eastern Europe, or some other area of the world, either as an individual or through the activities of an organization. Dr. Edelman is the third recipient of the award. Prof. Barbara Skarga is the co-winner of this year’s Jan Karski Freedom Award.
Dr. Edelman was among the founders of the underground Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa (Jewish Fighting Organization) and succeeded Mordechai Anielewicz as one of the three sub-commanders in the Ghetto Uprising of 1943. Aided by the People’s Army, he escaped the liquidation of the ghetto, joined the Home Army and fought in the Warsaw Uprising. After the War, he studied medicine in Łódź and became a cardiologist. He was an activist in the Solidarity movement and was interned during martial law in 1981. Dr. Edelman participated in the Round Table and was also active in supporting humanitarian causes. Concerned with the events in Bosnia, then in Kosovo, he accompanied a humanitarian convoy to Sarajevo, and made an appeal to NATO’s leadership in April 1999 “…not to stop the air strikes and to send soldiers to Kosovo so that what I witnessed in the Warsaw Ghetto will not be repeated.” Dr. Edelman has been awarded Poland’s highest decoration, the Order of the White Eagle.
Prof. Barbara Skarga, who will celebrate her 90th birthday in October this year, also worked as a courier for the Home Army. She was arrested in 1944, spent a year in jail in Wilno (VIL-no, now Vilnius), and was then sent to labor camps in Russia for almost 10 years. After surviving these experiences, she dedicated herself to philosophy and enhancing Polish political consciousness. She captured her experiences in the Soviet labor camps in the book After Release, and her writings and work as a philosopher continue to influence Polish social and political life, guiding them in the direction of freedom and greater democracy. She was also a recipient of the Order of the White Eagle, in 1995, and then became the chancellor of the Order of the White Eagle until 2005.
On Friday, February 13, numerous family and friends gathered at Dr. Edelman’s apartment to attend the award ceremony, including several Polish politicians and intellectuals: former Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki; author and journalist Adam Michnik; Jacek Fedorowicz; Seweryn Blumsztajn and Eugeniusz Smolar.
On Tuesday, February 17, Ambassador Ashe hosted a reception at his Warsaw residence for both recipients. Although Professor Skarga was unable to receive the award in person due to a recent injury, Professor Magdalena Środa attended and accepted the award on her behalf. Several distinguished persons were in attendance, including Adam Michnik, Ewa Junczyk-Ziomecka from the Presidential Chancellery, Polish Ambassador to Iraq Edward Pietrzyk, the Ambassadors to Poland from France, Israel, Latvia, and Ukraine, and Brigadier General Joe Ramirez, HQ European Command Deputy for Plans and Strategy, who’s visiting Poland this week for meetings with military officials in Warsaw and the NATO Defense Ministerial Meetings in Kraków.
Initiated in 2007, the American Ambassadorial Awards Program honors outstanding Poles for their work in a variety of fields. The awards recognize leaders who are reshaping the political, economic, and social topography of Poland and the world in ways harmonious with abiding U.S. interests. Winners receive a statuette, created by the Jabłoński Art Glass Factory in Warsaw, which is presented to them personally by the U.S. Ambassador, and their names are added to a plaque in the Embassy’s main lobby.
Please follow this link for a Polskie Radio report on the Jan Karski Freedom Award ceremony.
