The Jan Karski Eagle Award (pol. Nagroda Orła Jana Karskiego) was established on 5 May 2000 by Polish professor Jan Karski (1914–2000), war courier of the Polish government in-exile, witness of the Holocaust and Righteous Among the Nations. Karski wanted this award to go to those who "can worthily worry about Poland" 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, Józef Tischner 2001: Rabin Jacob Baker from Jedwabne and Krzysztof Godlewski, mayor of Jedwabne 2002: Grzegorz Pawłowski, Marek Edelman 2003: Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Alfons Nossol 2004: Viktor Yushchenko, Feliks Tych 2005: Tygodnik Powszechny, Oriana Fallaci 2006: Adam Michnik, Abraham Foxman 2007: Elie Wiesel, Tadeusz Pieronek 2008: Shimon Peres, Bronisław Geremek 2009: Stanisław Dziwisz, Hoover Institution 2010: Aleksander Kwaśniewski, Leopold Unger 2011: Lech Wałęsa, Mikhail Gorbachev 2012: Karol Modzelewski, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 2013: Richard Pipes, the movie Aftermath (2012) 2014: The Kozielewski family, Rotary International 2015: Julian Kornhauser, Boris Nemtsov 2016: Nadiya Savchenko, Arthur Schneier 2017: Abraham Skorka, Ibrahim Al-Sabbagh 2018: Władysław Anders, Ghetto Fighters' House 2019: Paweł Adamowicz (granted 14 January 2019, a couple of hours after death announcement), Franciszek Dąbrowski (posthumously) 2020: Father Ludwik Wiśniewski, Dominika Kulczyk 2021: Lampedusa, Remigiusz Korejwo, Jan Holoubek 2022: Volodymyr "Vovka" Bigun, the Polish society (for its solidarity with Ukrainian peoplein Polish: "za bezprecedensowy gest ludzkiej solidarności okazany Społeczeństwu Ukraińskiemu po bestialskiej napaści Rosji na Ukrainę oraz w czasie obecnie realizowanej z premedytacją ludobójczej eksterminacji jej niewinnej ludności". 2023: International Criminal Court and Horst Köhler". 2024: Adam Strzembosz and Vera Jourova. 2025: Yad Vashem and Ronald S. Lauder".
in English: "for its unprecedented gesture of human solidarity shown to the Ukrainian Society after the bestial assault of Ukraine done by Russia and in the time of the current genocidal extermination of the innocent Ukrainian people done with premeditation".) 2023: Horst Köhler and the International Court of Justice in the Hague 2024: Adam Strzembosz and Vera Jourova.
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 (2016) Herbert Hoover (posthumously, 2019) Viasna Human Rights Centre (2020) Alexei Navalny (2021) Volodymyr Zelenskiy (2022) Alex Dancyg (2024) Adam Boniecki MIC (2024) Grzegorz Ryś (2025).
References