korczak

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JANUSZ KORCZAK

"- You lived - how many fields did you plow,
- How many loaves of bread did you bake,
- How much seed did you sow,
- How many trees did you plant,
- How many bricks did you lay,
- How many buttons did you sew
- How many patched, how many seams did you make
- To whom did you give your warmth
- Who would have stumbled but for your support,
- Whom did you show the way
without demanding gratitude or prize,
- What was your offering,
- Whom did you serve?"

Dr. Janusz Korczak

was a writer, educator, founder of an original system of education,
and patron of children to whom he remained faithful to the end. Not
wanting to abandon the orphans entrusted to his care in the Warsaw
ghetto when they were condemned to death by the Nazis, Korczak
refused a chance to save himself. He was voluntarily deported
together with the children of his orphanage on August 6, 1942
and died with them at Treblinka -

says 'A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust'.

This is what you can usually find at the first attempt about the man I have been fascinated with for almost all my life. I have loved his books for children since I was a child myself, I wrote about him while studying, I translated his works. I ended up with a monograph... Then I was privileged to meet people who had known him. I have been to one of the Korczak conferences - the impression was huge. Not that you can easily find all I have written - which is why I am going to try to put some of it on the Web now. As well as everything else I can find about Janusz Korczak.

As my great THANK YOU, DEAR OLD DOCTOR.
Maria Breitman.

"The World Must Know"
The Story of Janusz Korczak

Bibliography

Videography

Small photoalbum

Janusz KORCZAK
The Poem by Gloria G. Brame

Remember It Forever
By Vadim Bogomolny

Biography, Table of Life

Mural painted
by Miriam Kreuter

(Photo of Dr. Janusz Korzak, about 1930.
Courtesy of USHMM Photo Archives.)

Janusz Korczak
Communication - Center

Dzennik Liberalny

Janusz Korczak: Es lebe die Pünktlichkeit

Le groupe local de Buffault Janusz Korczak

Jewish Medical History
Henryk Goldszmit, M.D. a.k.a. Janusz Korczak

A SELECTION OF HOLOCAUST SITES

Dr. Yanush Korczak
The play by Alina Kentof

Korczak and the Children
The play by G.E. Farrell

Many people consider Janusz Korczak one of the 36 Just Men
(unknown righteous ones) who live on earth at any one time
whose pure souls, according to Jewish tradition, make the
world's salvation possible.

Janusz Korczak/Henryk Goldszmit stands with Mother Theresa as one of the finest examples of selflessness and caring for others in human history.

"The World Must Know"
The Story of Janusz Korczak
An excerpt from the book by Michael Berenbaum.
Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1993, p.79.

Janusz Korczak (Henryk Goldszmit) was a Jewish pediatrician and Poland's most famous children's advocate. He dedicated his life to orphaned children, both Christian and Jewish. The Christian and Jewish orphanages that he ran provided children with food, shelter and training in various trades so that the orphans could be self-supporting.
Korczak was very interested in the education of children and was well known for his weekly children's radio program. Janusz Korczak was the pseudonym that he used for writing children's books. The main character of these books was the kindly King Matt, a heroic boy-king who tried to improve the lives of his people. Korczak also started a popular children's newspaper, written by young people, that appeared as an insert in a Polish newspaper.
In 1940 the Warsaw ghetto was formed and the Jewish orphanage was forced to move into the crowded quarters of the ghetto. There Korczak and his assistants devoted all their energies to caring for the 200 orphans, educating and helping them survive in dignity.
Friends of Korczak tried to help him escape the ghetto but he refused to leave his orphans. On August 6, 1942 the Nazis rounded up the children from all the ghetto institutions, including Korczak's orphanage. Korczak probably understood that this deportation meant death.
He lined his children up in rows of four. The orphans were clutching flasks of water and their favorite books and toys. One hundred and ninety-two children and ten adults were counted off by the Nazis. Korczak stood at the head of his wards, a child holding each hand. One child carried the flag of King Matt, with the star of David set against a white field on the other side.
They marched through the ghetto in dignified silence and were transported in cattle cars to the concentration camp, Treblinka. Korczak and all his orphans were gassed at Treblinka.

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"A child, too is entitled to respect - respect for his ignorance, for his failures, for his image, for his efforts, for his belongings: respect for the mysteries and uncertainties of the difficult
task of growing up."
Janusz Korczak

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