embassy events 2007 

Tadeusz Mazowiecki Awarded Karski Freedom Award

4 December 2007 

Ambassador Ashe presents Karski Freedom Award to Tadeusz MazowieckiAmbassador Ashe presents Karski Freedom Award to Tadeusz Mazowiecki (more photos)

U.S. Ambassador to Poland Victor Ashe proudly awarded the prestigious 2008 Karski Freedom Award to Tadeusz Mazowiecki for his work to promote democracy and human rights in Poland at a ceremony at the Ambassador's residence on December 3, 2007.  To listen to Ambassador Ashe's remarks at the event, or Mr. Mazowiecki's acceptance speech, please click on the link at Polskie Radio here. The event was well-attended by a broad range of notable Polish government officials, including Culture Minister Bogdan Zdrojewski, Minister of Education Katarzyna Hall, Polish Ambassador to the United States Janusz Koźmiński, Polish Ambassador to Iraq Edward Pietrzyk, Undersecretary of State for Social and Jewish Affairs Ewa Junczyk-Ziomecka, and Sejm Deputy Marek Borowski.  Former President of Poland Aleksander Kwaśniewski also attended the event.  A number of ambassadors to Poland attended, including Ukrainian Ambassador to Poland Olexandr Motsyk, Israeli Ambassador to Poland David Peleg, British Ambassador to Poland Ric Todd, and Canadian Ambassador to Poland David Preston.  Other notables included writer Janusz Głowacki, filmaker Andrzej Wajda, Editor-in-Chief of Gazeta Wyborcza Adam Michnik, Chairman of the Union of Jewish Congregations in Poland Piotr Kadlcik, President of the Polish-American Freedom Foundation Ambassador Jerzy Koźmiński, and Deputy Director of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews Ewa Wierzyńska.

Throughout his entire life, Tadeusz Mazowiecki has worked for the promotion of democracy and human rights within Poland and in the region. When strikes in the Lenin shipyard in Gdansk sparked the birth of the Solidarity labor movement there in August 1980, Mazowiecki became one of the principal advisors to the strikers and helped mobilize Polish intellectuals to support them. For this activity, Mazowiecki was detained and imprisoned when Martial Law was imposed in 1981.

In 1989, Mazowiecki served as the mediator in talks between the government and Solidarity that resulted in Solidarity’s legalization and holding national elections in Poland. He was the first non-communist Prime Minister in Central and Eastern Europe after World War II.

From 1992 to 1995, Mazowiecki was a special reporter of the United Nations Human Rights Commission over conflicts in the former Yugoslavia gathering eyewitness evidence concerning human rights violations against the civilian population.

Just as Jan Karski and his generation served as a model for the brave men and women of the Solidarity movement, so will Tadeusz Mazowiecki serve as an inspiration for future generations of Polish activists.

The Karski Freedom Award is one of three annual awards the Embassy initiated in 2007. Last year, former Polish President and Solidarity Leader Lech Wałęsa was the first recipient of the Jan Karski Freedom Award sponsored by U.S. Embassy Warsaw. 

This award recognizes a Pole who has worked for the promotion of democracy and freedom within Poland, regionally in Eastern Europe, or some other area of the world, either as an individual or through the activities of an organization.

The award is named for Jan Karski, a hero of the underground Polish Home Army during World War II who infiltrated the Warsaw Ghetto and a Nazi concentration camp and then carried the first eyewitness accounts of the Holocaust to the West.   Karski later became a U.S. citizen and taught for over 40 years at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.