Karski: How One Man Tried to Stop the Holocaust by E. Thomas Wood

Author:E. Thomas Wood
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gihon River Press, Texas Tech University Press
Published: 2014-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

“Polish-Soviet relations are not as good as we desire,” said Eden. “They ought to be improved. The main problem seems to be territory, Polish boundaries. But perhaps there is a way around this problem. Perhaps Stalin’s demands can be satisfied without such severe losses to Poland,” he speculated. Jan immediately realized that Eden was leading the conversation in the same direction Savery had taken it. “Suppose General Sikorski makes an agreement with the Soviet government, publicly agreeing that certain eastern territories will be ceded after the war to the Soviet Union,” Eden continued. “My question is: If this agreement will not involve substantial losses, and if His Majesty’s Government will approve such an agreement, and will guarantee the new Polish boundary, what will be the reaction of the underground movement?”

Jan tried to think fast. The chief architect of Great Britain’s foreign policy had gone to a lot of trouble to isolate him and set him up for this question. What would the consequences be if he refused to answer? Should he give the same answer he gave Savery? And on whose behalf was he answering? The London government that he now served, or the underground movement that had sent him to England in the first place?

“Sir, they would denounce General Sikorski,” Jan answered. “They would probably form a secret national government in Poland. There was such a precedent in history, during one of the Polish uprisings. It would be completely impossible. For the prime minister to allow a change in territory during the war—No one would understand it.”

Eden interrupted, leaning over to clap Jan on the shoulder. “The Polish arguments are known to me,” he said with a grim smile.

There was a knock at the office door; a distinguished-looking man entered. “This is Lord Selborne,” said Eden. “On behalf of His Majesty’s Government, His Lordship is interested in underground resistance movements.” Eden would say no more about Selborne, nor did he need to. Karski knew which British organization had a mandate to assist underground movements, although the existence of the organization was a secret guarded almost as tightly as the identity of its director. Roundell Cecil Palmer, the third Earl of Selborne, was in charge of the Special Operations Executive (SOE).

Selborne had taken on the covert-operations job a year earlier, after being summoned to Chequers, the prime minister’s country residence, for a Sunday lunch with Churchill. “When I arrived at Chequers I was ushered into Winston’s bedroom and found him in bed,” Selborne recalled after the war. “The first thing he said to me was ‘Have you any conscientious objection to murdering Hitler?’ I said: ‘None at all.’ The[n] he proceeded to say he would like me to come and help him as Minister responsible for SOE.”

Eden soon excused himself from the meeting. Selborne fired a barrage of questions at Karski about underground life and subversion, many of which the Pole was unable to answer. Specifics of the Home Army’s activities, tactics and supply needs were beyond his knowledge or

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