Jan Czekanowski

Jan Czekanowski (October 8, 1882, Głuchów–July 20, 1965, Szczecin) was a Polish anthropologist, statistician and linguist. Czekanowski is known for having played an important role in saving the Polish-Lithuanian branch of the Karaim people from Holocaust extermination. In 1942 he managed to convince a German "race scientists" that the Karaim were of Turkic origin although professing Judaism and using Hebrew as a liturgical language. This helped the Karaim people escape the tragic destiny of other European Jews and the Romas.