What Does it Mean to Be a Hero? Could You Become One Too?

From left to right: Elorm Avakame, Immanuel Lokwei, Ewa Wierzyńska (Jan Karski Project, Polish History Museum), and Tomasz Pyszko

By HIA Fellows: Immanuel Lokwei, Tomasz Pyszko, and Elorm Avakame

Who is a hero? What are the characteristics of heroism? Is heroism inherent or can it be learned? Does the potential for heroism exist within some of us? Within all of us? Why should we study heroes? Is there anything to be learned from their example? What if there isn’t? These are the questions we grappled with as a group upon learning that we’d been commissioned to illuminate the life and legacy of Jan Karski for the education of youth.

Karski was a veteran of the Polish Army during World War II, a prisoner of war in Soviet and German prison camps, a survivor who managed to escape from both camps. He is most famous for being  a courier in the Polish Underground resistance to German Nazi occupation and became one of the organization’s most invaluable members. He toiled endlessly and under constant risk of assassination. He was a survivor of Gestapo torture, and one of few non-Jewish men  to have ever entered the Warsaw Ghetto and the German Nazi death camp for the purpose of reporting the plight of the Polish Jews to the world, including to the President of the United States. There may be no clearer exemplar of heroism.

However, what does his example mean for Polish youth today? If Karski is the model hero, is it possible for youth to aspire to heroism in a context devoid of warfare? Without tanks or bullets, without occupiers to resist against, without the constant threat of death, what can youth take away from Karski? More importantly, is it possible that his accomplishments were only possible because he possessed characteristics distinctly superior to the average human being?

In considering these questions, we recognized that an emphasis on the mythology of Karski’s heroism may have the unintended consequence of making his example inaccessible to the learner. In truth, it may be counterproductive to hail Karski as an extraordinary man of unadulterated moral virtue. We chose to reposition Jan Karski an ordinary man who chose to act in the face of the injustice that he observed around him – a choice that each of us can make every day of our lives. This fundamental repositioning is our way of making him  more approachable to the young people. The workshop that we have created salutes Karski, and rightfully so. However, by looking at his’s life through a different lens, we are able to connect his experience to the experience of the learner.

In interviews held with Ewa Wierzyńska and Wojciech Białożyt, representatives of the Jan Karski Educational Foundation we learned that their mission is similar to ours: educate the world about Jan Karski, and inspire young people to follow his example. Though our circumstances may differ from his, we all encounter examples of injustice. In taking even a small step of action, we tread on the road taken by Jan Karski and by all those who have been committed to the pursuit of justice.