Jan Karski

“Despite the worldwide opinion that women are loquacious and indiscreet, my own experience has led me to believe that women on the whole make better conspiratorial workers than men…. They are quicker to perceive danger … superior at being inconspicuous and generally display much caution, discretion and common sense…. Men are often prone to exaggeration and bluff and … subconsciously inclined to surround themselves with an air of mystery that sooner or later proves fatal.”
― Jan Karski, Story of a Secret State: My Report to the World

“The photographer was installed in the back of an inconspicurous dry-goods store in the poorer neighbourhood of Warsaw. He seemed to know all about me. His job was to prepare a picture of me which resembled me sufficiently to be claimed as mine, but in which the features were so vague that I could disown it if the need should arise.
He was a bold, spry little man who hardly replied to my few remarks. His deliberate taciturnity was not lost on me and I remained quiet while he concentrated on the task of turning out what proved to be a miniature masterpiece of photographic ambiguity. When it was finished he handed it to me with a pleased smile. I glanced at it and marveled aloud at his skill.
'It's incredible,' I said. 'It makes me feel as though I had met myself before but can't quite remember where.”
― Jan Karski, Story of a Secret State