The Jan Karski Eagle Award (pol. ''Nagroda Orła Jana Karskiego'') was established on 5 May 2000 by Polish

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

Jan Karski Jan Karski (born Jan Kozielewski, 24 June 1914 – 13 July 2000) was a Polish soldier, Polish resistance movement in World War II, resistance-fighter, and diplomat during World War II. He is known for having acted as a courier in 1940–1943 to ...

(1914–2000), war courier of the Polish government in-exile, witness of the

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

and

Righteous Among the Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( ) is a title used by Yad Vashem to describe people who, for various reasons, made an effort to assist victims, mostly Jews, who were being persecuted and exterminated by Nazi Germany, Fascist Romania, Fascist Italy, ...

. Karski wanted this award to go to those who "can worthily worry about

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

" and to those who "although aren't Polish, wish good to Poland". The award has an honorary character and there is no monetary award granted with it, because, as the originator argued, "dignity is incalculable in money". It is symbolized by the Eagle statuette, the project of which was approved by Jan Karski. The organisation side of the award was gifted to Waldemar Piasecki.

Committee

The award committee of the Eagle Award is made of people that received this award. Its first chairman was Jacek Kuroń, who was the only one who was honored to get this award directly from Jan Karski's hands. In handing over the award to Józef Tischner, Jan Karski participated via phone. The committee gives out the award yearly on June 24, on Jan Karski's birthday.

Winners

* 2000:

Jacek Kuroń Jacek Jan Kuroń (; 3 March 1934 – 17 June 2004) was one of the democratic leaders of opposition in the People's Republic of Poland. He was widely known as the "godfather of the Polish opposition," not unlike Václav Havel in Czechoslovakia. Kur ...

Józef Tischner Józef Stanisław Tischner (12 March 1931 – 28 June 2000) was a Polish priest and philosopher. The first chaplain of the trade union, "Solidarity" (Polish ''Solidarność''). Life Tischner was born in Stary Sącz to a Góral family and grew ...

* 2001: Rabin Jacob Baker from

Jedwabne Jedwabne (; , ''Yedvabna'') is a town in northeastern Poland, in Łomża County of Podlaskie Voivodeship, with 1,942 inhabitants (2002). History First mentioned in 1455 records, on 17 July 1736 Jedwabne received town rights from King Augustus III ...

and Krzysztof Godlewski, mayor of

* 2002: Grzegorz Pawłowski,

Marek Edelman Marek Edelman (; 1919/1922 – October 2, 2009) was a Polish Jewish political and social activist and cardiologist. Edelman was the last surviving leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Long before his death, he was the last one to stay in the ...

* 2003:

Tadeusz Mazowiecki Tadeusz Mazowiecki (; 18 April 1927 – 28 October 2013) was a Polish author, journalist, philanthropist and politician, formerly one of the leaders of the Solidarity movement, and the first non-communist Polish prime minister since 1946, hav ...

, Alfons Nossol * 2004:

Viktor Yushchenko Viktor Andriiovych Yushchenko (, ; born 23 February 1954) is a Ukrainian politician who was the third president of Ukraine from 23 January 2005 to 25 February 2010. He aimed to orient Ukraine towards Western world, the West, European Union, and N ...

Feliks Tych Feliks Tych (31 July 1929, Warsaw, Poland, Warsaw, Second Polish Republic, Poland – 16 February 2015, Warsaw, Poland) was a Polish historian and educator. From 1995 to 2006, he was Director of the Jewish Historical Institute (''Żydowski In ...

* 2005: ''

Tygodnik Powszechny ''Tygodnik Powszechny'' (, ''The Common Weekly'') is a Polish Roman Catholic weekly magazine, published in Kraków, which focuses on social, cultural and political issues. It was established in 1945 under the auspices of Cardinal Adam Stefan Sap ...

'',

Oriana Fallaci Oriana Fallaci (; 29 June 1929 – 15 September 2006) was an Italian journalist and author. A member of the Italian resistance movement during World War II, she had a long and successful journalistic career. Fallaci became famous worldwide for h ...

* 2006:

Adam Michnik Adam Michnik (; born 17 October 1946) is a Polish historian, essayist, former Anti-communist resistance in Poland (1944–1989), dissident, Intellectual#Public intellectual, public intellectual, as well as co-founder and editor-in-chief of the P ...

Abraham Foxman Abraham Henry Foxman (born May 1, 1940) is an American lawyer and activist. He served as the national director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) from 1987 to 2015, and is currently the organization's national director emeritus. From 2016 to 20 ...

* 2007:

Elie Wiesel Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel (September 30, 1928 – July 2, 2016) was a Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, List of Nobel Peace Prize laureates#1980, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He authored Elie Wiesel bibliogra ...

Tadeusz Pieronek Tadeusz Pieronek (; 24 October 1934 – 27 December 2018) was a Polish Roman Catholic auxiliary bishop-emeritus, Catholic academic and professor of theology and civil law. Pieronek was a leading member of the Stefan Batory Foundation (a George S ...

* 2008:

Shimon Peres Shimon Peres ( ; ; born Szymon Perski, ; 2 August 1923 – 28 September 2016) was an Israeli politician and statesman who served as the prime minister of Israel from 1984 to 1986 and from 1995 to 1996 and as the president of Israel from 2007 t ...

Bronisław Geremek Bronisław Geremek (; born Benjamin Lewertow;

* 2009:

Stanisław Dziwisz Stanisław Jan Dziwisz (; born 27 April 1939) is a Polish Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Kraków from 2005 to 2016. He was created a cardinal in 2006. He was a long-time and influential aide to Pope John Paul II, a friend of Pope ...

Hoover Institution The Hoover Institution (officially The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace and formerly The Hoover Institute and Library on War, Revolution, and Peace) is an American public policy think tank which promotes personal and economic ...

* 2010:

Aleksander Kwaśniewski Aleksander Kwaśniewski (; born 15 November 1954) is a Polish politician and journalist. He served the maximum two terms as the president of Poland from 1995 to 2005. His tenure as President was marked by modernization of Poland, rapid economi ...

, Leopold Unger * 2011:

Lech Wałęsa Lech Wałęsa (; ; born 29 September 1943) is a Polish statesman, dissident, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as the president of Poland between 1990 and 1995. After winning the 1990 Polish presidential election, 1990 election, Wałę ...

Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...

* 2012:

Karol Modzelewski Karol Cyryl Modzelewski (23 November 1937 – 28 April 2019) was a Polish historian, writer, politician and academic of Russian origin, one of the leading figures of the democratic opposition in the Polish People's Republic from the 1960s to the 1 ...

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust, dedicated to the documentation, study, and interpretation of the Holocaust. Opened in 1993, the museum explores the Holocaust through p ...

* 2013:

Richard Pipes Richard Edgar Pipes (; July 11, 1923 – May 17, 2018) was an American historian who specialized in Russian and Soviet history. Pipes was a frequent interviewee in the press on the matters of Soviet history and foreign affairs. His writings als ...

, the movie ''Aftermath (2012)'' * 2014: The Kozielewski family,

Rotary International Rotary International is one of the largest service organizations in the world. The self-declared mission of Rotary, as stated on its website, is to "provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, goodwill, and p ...

* 2015:

Julian Kornhauser Julian Kornhauser (born 20 September 1946 in Gliwice, Poland) is a Polish poet and literary critic. Biography He was born to a Jewish father and a Catholic mother, Jakub and Małgorzata Kornhauser. He is an author of poems, novels and literary ...

Boris Nemtsov Boris Yefimovich Nemtsov; (9 October 195927 February 2015) was a Russian physicist, liberalism in Russia, liberal politician, and outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin. Early in his political career, he was involved in the introduction of reform ...

* 2016:

Nadiya Savchenko Nadiya Viktorivna Savchenko (; born 11 May 1981) is a Ukrainian politician, former Army aviation pilot in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and former People's Deputy of Ukraine. During the 2014 War in Donbas (2014–2022), War in Donbas, Savchen ...

Arthur Schneier Arthur Schneier (born March 20, 1930) is an Austrian American rabbi and human rights activist. Rabbi Schneier has served for over 50 years as the Senior Rabbi of New York City’s Park East Synagogue. While being honored with the Presidential Citi ...

* 2017: Abraham Skorka, Ibrahim Al-Sabbagh * 2018:

Władysław Anders Władysław Albert Anders (11 August 1892 – 12 May 1970) was a Polish military officer and politician, and prominent member of the Polish government-in-exile in London. Born in Krośniewice-Błonie, then part of the Russian Empire, he serv ...

Ghetto Fighters' House The Ghetto Fighters' House ( ''Beit Lohamei Ha-Getaot'', Itzhak Katzenelson Holocaust and Jewish Resistance Heritage Museum, Documentation and Study Center) is a Holocaust museum founded in 1949 by members of Kibbutz Lohamei Hagetaot. It is loc ...

* 2019:

Paweł Adamowicz Paweł Bogdan Adamowicz (; 2 November 1965 – 14 January 2019) was a Polish politician and lawyer who served as the List of city mayors of Gdańsk, city mayor of Gdańsk from 1998 until Assassination of Paweł Adamowicz, his assassination in 20 ...

(granted 14 January 2019, a couple of hours after death announcement),

Franciszek Dąbrowski Franciszek Dąbrowski (17 April 1904 in Budapest - 24 April 1962 in Kraków) was an officer of the Polish Navy during the Invasion of Poland in 1939. Life In September 1939, he served at Westerplatte military transit depot, which took part in t ...

(posthumously) * 2020: Father Ludwik Wiśniewski,

Dominika Kulczyk Dominika Kulczyk (born 30 July 1977) is a Polish billionaire businesswoman, and the daughter of Jan Kulczyk, who was Poland's richest man. She is the co-founder and president of the Kulczyk Foundation, chair of the supervisory board of Kulczyk Ho ...

* 2021:

Lampedusa Lampedusa ( , , ; ; ) is the largest island of the Italian Pelagie Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. The ''comune'' of Lampedusa e Linosa is part of the Sicilian province of Agrigento which also includes the smaller islands of Linosa and Lamp ...

, Remigiusz Korejwo,

Jan Holoubek Jan Holoubek (born 4 March 1978) is a Polish director and cinematographer. He is best known for directing the Netflix series '' The Mire'', ''High Water'', and '' Heweliusz''. He also directed the 2020 drama film '' 25 Years of Innocence''. Earl ...

* 2022: Volodymyr "Vovka" Bigun, the Polish society (for its solidarity with Ukrainian people) * 2023:

Horst Köhler Horst Köhler (; 22 February 1943 – 1 February 2025) was a German politician who served as President of Germany from 2004 to 2010. As the candidate of the two Christian Democratic sister parties, the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, CDU ...

and the International Court of Justice in the Hague * 2024:

Adam Strzembosz Adam Strzembosz (born 11 September 1930) is a Polish lawyer, judge and officeholder. Biography Strzembosz was born on 11 September 1930 in Warsaw, Poland. Between September 1989 and June 1990, he served as a Ministry of Justice (Poland), Vicemini ...

and

Vera Jourova Vera may refer to: Names *Vera (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) *Vera (given name), a given name (including a list of people and fictional characters with the name) **Vera (), archbishop of the archdiocese of Tarrag ...

Special editions

Aside from yearly awards, occasionally there are Special Awards given out honoring the achievements and merits of the winners in the longer time schedule, sometimes even over their entire lives. To this day there are only 6 winners: *

Walentyna Janta-Połczyńska Walentyna Janta-Połczyńska (née Stocker; 1 February 1913, Lemberg — 2 April 2020, New York City) was the last surviving member of the Polish government-in-exile during the Second World War, and a founder of the Polish wartime resistance radio ...

(2016) *

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st president of the United States, serving from 1929 to 1933. A wealthy mining engineer before his presidency, Hoover led the wartime Commission for Relief in Belgium and ...

(posthumously, 2019) *

Viasna Human Rights Centre The Viasna Human Rights Centre () is a human rights in Belarus, human rights organization based in Minsk, Belarus. The organization aims to provide financial and legal assistance to political prisoners and their families, and was founded in 1996 ...

(2020) *

Alexei Navalny Alexei Anatolyevich Navalny (, ; 4 June 197616 February 2024) was a Russian Opposition to Vladimir Putin in Russia, opposition leader, anti-corruption in Russia, corruption activist and political prisoner. He founded the Anti-Corruption Found ...

(2021) * Volodymyr Zelenskiy (2022) * Alex Dancyg (2024) *

Adam Boniecki Adam is the name given in Book of Genesis, Genesis 1–5 to the first human. Adam is the first human-being aware of God, and features as such in various belief systems (including Judaism, Christianity, Gnosticism and Islam). According to Chris ...

MIC (2024)

References

{{Reflist Polish awards