Janusz Korczak, the
pen name
A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen na ...
of Henryk Goldszmit
(22 July 1878 or 1879 – 7 August 1942),
was a
Polish Jewish
The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the lon ...
educator,
children's author
Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader.
Children's ...
and
pedagogue
Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken as ...
known as ''Pan Doktor'' ("Mr. Doctor") or ''Stary Doktor'' ("Old Doctor"). After spending many years working as a principal of an orphanage in
Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
, he refused sanctuary repeatedly and stayed with his orphans when the entire population of the institution was sent from
the Ghetto to the
Treblinka extermination camp
Treblinka () was an extermination camp, built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Masovian Voivodeship. The camp ...
during the
Grossaktion Warschau of 1942.
Biography
Korczak was born in Warsaw in 1878. He was unsure of his birth date, which he attributed to his father's failure to promptly acquire a
birth certificate
A birth certificate is a vital record that documents the birth of a person. The term "birth certificate" can refer to either the original document certifying the circumstances of the birth or to a certified copy of or representation of the ensuin ...
for him.
[ His parents were Józef Goldszmit,] a respected lawyer from a family of proponents of the haskalah
The ''Haskalah'', often termed Jewish Enlightenment ( he, השכלה; literally, "wisdom", "erudition" or "education"), was an intellectual movement among the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, with a certain influence on those in Western Euro ...
, and Cecylia ''née
A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...
'' Gębicka, daughter of a prominent Kalisz
(The oldest city of Poland)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = ''Top:'' Town Hall, Former "Calisia" Piano Factory''Middle:'' Courthouse, "Gołębnik" tenement''Bottom:'' Aerial view of the Kalisz Old Town
, image_flag = POL Kalisz flag.svg ...
family. Born to a Jewish family, he was an agnostic in his later life who did not believe in forcing religion on children. His father fell ill around 1890 and was admitted to a mental hospital, where he died six years later on 25 April 1896. Spacious apartments were given up on Miodowa street, then Świętojerska. As his family's financial situation worsened, Henryk, while still attending the gymnasium (the current ), began to work as a tutor for other pupils. In 1896 he debuted on the literary scene with a satirical text on raising children, ''Węzeł gordyjski'' (''The Gordian Knot'').
In 1898, he used ''Janusz Korczak'' as a pen name
A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name.
A pen na ...
in the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Literary Contest. The name originated from the book ''O Janaszu Korczaku i pięknej Miecznikównie'' by Józef Ignacy Kraszewski
Józef Ignacy Kraszewski (28 July 1812 – 19 March 1887) was a Polish writer, publisher, historian, journalist, scholar, painter, and author who produced more than 200 novels and 150 novellas, short stories, and art reviews, which makes him the ...
. In the 1890s he studied in the Flying University. During the years 1898–1904 Korczak studied medicine at the University of Warsaw
The University of Warsaw ( pl, Uniwersytet Warszawski, la, Universitas Varsoviensis) is a public university in Warsaw, Poland. Established in 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country offering 37 different fields of ...
and also wrote for several Polish language
Polish (Polish: ''język polski'', , ''polszczyzna'' or simply ''polski'', ) is a West Slavic language of the Lechitic group written in the Latin script. It is spoken primarily in Poland and serves as the native language of the Poles. In a ...
newspapers. After graduation, he became a pediatrician
Pediatrics ( also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, paediatrics covers many of their youth until the ...
. In 1905−1912 Korczak worked at Bersohns and Baumans Children's Hospital in Warsaw. During the Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...
, in 1905–06 he served as a military doctor. Meanwhile, his book ''Child of the Drawing Room'' (''Dziecko salonu'') gained him some literary recognition.
In 1907–08, Korczak went to study in Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
. While working for the Orphans' Society in 1909, he met Stefania Wilczyńska
Stefania "Stefa" Wilczyńska (26 May 1886 – 6 August 1942) was a Polish educator who was murdered in the Holocaust.
She was born into a wealthy Jewish family in Warsaw, trained as a teacher and was educated at the University of Liège in B ...
, his future closest associate. In 1911–1912, he became a director of ''Dom Sierot'' in Warsaw, an orphanage of his own design for Jewish children.[Hanna Mortkowicz-Olczakowa (1960). "Goldszmit Henryk", in '']Polski Słownik Biograficzny
''Polski Słownik Biograficzny'' (''PSB''; Polish Biographical Dictionary) is a Polish-language biographical dictionary, comprising an alphabetically arranged compilation of authoritative biographies of some 25,000 notable Poles and of foreigners ...
'', T. VIII. P. 214 He hired Wilczyńska as his assistant. There he formed a kind-of-a-republic
A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...
for children with its own small parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
, court
A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance ...
, and a newspaper. He reduced his other duties as a doctor. Some of his descriptions of the summer camp for Jewish children in this period and subsequently were later published in his ''Fragmenty Utworów'' and have been translated into English.
During World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, in 1914 Korczak became a military doctor with the rank of lieutenant
A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations.
The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often sub ...
. He served again as a military doctor in the Polish Army
The Land Forces () are the land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 62,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military history stret ...
with the rank of major during the Polish-Soviet War, but after a brief stint in Łódź
Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of canti ...
was assigned to Warsaw. After the wars, he continued his practice in Warsaw. Korczak was a lifelong bachelor and had no biological children of his own.
Sovereign Poland
In 1926, Korczak arranged for the children of the ''Dom Sierot'' (Orphan House) to begin their own newspaper, the ''Mały Przegląd'' (''Little Review''), as a weekly attachment to the daily Polish-Jewish newspaper '' Nasz Przegląd'' (''Our Review''). In these years, his secretary was the noted Polish novelist Igor Newerly
Igor Newerly or Igor Abramow-Newerly (24 March 1903, Białowieża – 19 October 1987, Warsaw, Poland) was a Polish novelist and educator. He was born into a Czech-Russian family. His son is Polish novelist Jarosław Abramow-Newerly. His gran ...
. His orphanage was supported by the CENTOS
CentOS (, from Community Enterprise Operating System; also known as CentOS Linux) is a Linux distribution that provides a free and open-source community-supported computing platform, functionally compatible with its upstream source, Red Hat En ...
Polish-Jewish charity.
During the 1930s, he had his own radio program where he promoted and popularized the rights of children. In 1933, he was awarded the Silver Cross of the Polonia Restituta
The Order of Polonia Restituta ( pl, Order Odrodzenia Polski, en, Order of Restored Poland) is a Polish state order established 4 February 1921. It is conferred on both military and civilians as well as on foreigners for outstanding achievement ...
. Between 1934–36, Korczak travelled every year to Mandate Palestine
Mandatory Palestine ( ar, فلسطين الانتدابية '; he, פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א״י) ', where "E.Y." indicates ''’Eretz Yiśrā’ēl'', the Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 i ...
and visited its kibbutz
A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...
im. Additionally, it spurred his estrangement with the non-Jewish orphanage for which he had also been working. A letter he wrote indicates that he had some intentions to move to Palestine, but in the end, he felt he couldn’t leave his children behind. He stayed in Poland, even when Wilczyńska went to live in Palestine in 1938 and continued his role as headmaster.
The Holocaust
In 1939, when World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
erupted, Korczak volunteered for duty in the Polish Army but was refused due to his age. He witnessed the ''Wehrmacht
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previous ...
'' takeover of Warsaw. When the Germans
, native_name_lang = de
, region1 =
, pop1 = 72,650,269
, region2 =
, pop2 = 534,000
, region3 =
, pop3 = 157,000
3,322,405
, region4 =
, pop4 = ...
created the Warsaw Ghetto
The Warsaw Ghetto (german: Warschauer Ghetto, officially , "Jewish Residential District in Warsaw"; pl, getto warszawskie) was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the G ...
in 1940, his orphanage was forced to move from its building, ''Dom Sierot'' at Krochmalna 92, to the Ghetto
A ghetto, often called ''the'' ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished t ...
(first to Chłodna 33 and later to Sienna 16 / Śliska 9). Korczak moved in with them. In July, Janusz Korczak decided that the children in the orphanage should put on Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...
's play ''The Post Office
A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...
''.
On 5 or 6 August 1942, German soldiers came to collect the 192 orphans (there is some debate about the actual number: it may have been 196) and about one dozen staff members to transport them to the Treblinka extermination camp
Treblinka () was an extermination camp, built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Masovian Voivodeship. The camp ...
. Korczak had been offered sanctuary on the " Aryan side" by the Polish underground organization Żegota
Żegota (, full codename: the "Konrad Żegota Committee"Yad Vashem Shoa Resource CenterZegota/ref>) was the Polish Council to Aid Jews with the Government Delegation for Poland ( pl, Rada Pomocy Żydom przy Delegaturze Rządu RP na Kraj), an un ...
, but turned it down repeatedly, saying that he could not abandon his children. On 5 August, he again refused offers of sanctuary, insisting that he would go with the children, asserting his belief: "You do not leave a sick child in the night, and you do not leave children at a time like this".
The children were dressed in their best clothes, and each carried a blue knapsack and a favorite book or toy. Joshua Perle, an eyewitness whose wartime writings were saved in the Ringelblum Archive
The Ringelblum Archive is a collection of documents from the World War II Warsaw Ghetto, collected and preserved by a group known by the codename Oyneg Shabbos (in Modern Israeli Hebrew, Oneg Shabbat; he, עונג שבת), led by Jewish historian ...
, described the procession of Korczak and the children through the Ghetto to the ''Umschlagplatz
''Umschlagplatz'' (german: collection point or reloading point) was the term used during The Holocaust to denote the holding areas adjacent to railway stations in occupied Poland where Jews from ghettos were assembled for deportation to Nazi dea ...
'' (deportation point to the death camps):
According to eyewitnesses, when the group of orphans finally reached the ''Umschlagplatz'', an SS officer recognized Korczak as the author of one of his favorite children's books and offered to help him escape. In another version, the officer was acting officially, as the Nazi authorities had in mind some kind of "special treatment" for Korczak (some prominent Jews with international reputations were sent to Theresienstadt
Theresienstadt Ghetto was established by the Schutzstaffel, SS during World War II in the fortress town of Terezín, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (German occupation of Czechoslovakia, German-occupied Czechoslovakia). Theresienstad ...
). Whatever the offer, Korczak once again refused. He boarded the trains with the children and was never heard from again. Korczak's evacuation from the Ghetto is also mentioned in Władysław Szpilman
Władysław Szpilman (; 5 December 1911 – 6 July 2000) was a Polish pianist and classical composer of Jewish descent. Szpilman is widely known as the central figure in the 2002 Roman Polanski film '' The Pianist'', which was based on Szpilman ...
's book '' The Pianist'':
Sometime after, there were rumours that the trains had been diverted and that Korczak and the children had survived. There was, however, no basis to these stories. Most likely, Korczak, along with Wilczyńska and most of the children, was murdered in a gas chamber after arriving at Treblinka. A separate account of Korczak's departure is given in Mary Berg's Warsaw Ghetto diary:
Writings
Korczak's best known writing is his fiction and pedagogy, and his most popular works have been widely translated. His main pedagogical texts have been translated into English, but of his fiction, , only two of his novels have been translated into English: '' King Matt the First'' and '' Kaytek the Wizard.''
As the date of Korczak's death was not officially established, his date of death for legal purposes was established in 1954 by a Polish court as 9 May 1946, a standard ruling for people whose death date was not documented but in all likelihood occurred during World War II. The copyright to all works by Korczak was subsequently acquired by The Polish Book Institute (Instytut Książki), a cultural institution and publishing house affiliated with the Polish government. In 2012 the Institute's rights were challenged by the Modern Poland Foundation
Modern Poland FoundationEnglish name as used at https://nowoczesnapolska.org.pl/about-us/ ( pl, Fundacja Nowoczesna Polska) is a Polish non-governmental organization (NGO) based in Warsaw, focused on building open educational resources, developing ...
, whose goal was to establish by court trial that Korczak died in 1942 so that Korczak's works would be available in the public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work
A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...
as of 1 January 2013. The Foundation won the case in 2015 and subsequently started to digitise Korczak's works and release them as public domain e-books.
Korczak's overall literary oeuvre covers the period 1896 to 8 August 1942. It comprises works for both children and adults and includes literary pieces, social journalism, articles and pedagogical essays, together with some scraps of unpublished work, totalling over twenty books, over 1,400 texts published in around 100 publications, and around 300 texts in manuscript or typescript form. A complete edition of his works is planned for 2012.
Children's books
Korczak often employed the form of a fairy tale
A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic, incantation, enchantments, and mythical ...
in order to prepare his young readers for the dilemmas and difficulties of real adult life, and the need to make responsible decisions.
In the 1923 '' King Matt the First'' (''Król Maciuś Pierwszy'') and its sequel '' King Matt on the Desert Island'' (''Król Maciuś na wyspie bezludnej'') Korczak depicted a child prince who is catapulted to the throne by the sudden death of his father, and who must learn from various mistakes:
He tries to read and answer all his mail by himself and finds that the volume is too much and he needs to rely on secretaries; he is exasperated with his ministers and has them arrested, but soon realises that he does not know enough to govern by himself, and is forced to release the ministers and institute constitutional monarchy
A constitutional monarchy, parliamentary monarchy, or democratic monarchy is a form of monarchy in which the monarch exercises their authority in accordance with a constitution and is not alone in decision making. Constitutional monarchies dif ...
; when a war breaks out he does not accept being shut up in his palace, but slips away and joins up, pretending to be a peasant boy - and narrowly avoids becoming a POW; he takes the offer of a friendly journalist to publish for him a "royal paper" -and finds much later that he gets carefully edited news and that the journalist is covering up the gross corruption of the young king's best friend; he tries to organise the children of all the world to hold processions and demand their rights – and ends up antagonising other kings; he falls in love with a black African
African or Africans may refer to:
* Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa:
** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa
*** Ethn ...
princess and outrages racist opinion (by modern standards, however, Korczak's depiction of blacks is itself not completely free of stereotype
In social psychology, a stereotype is a generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can be, for example ...
s which were current at the time of writing); finally, he is overthrown by the invasion of three foreign armies and exiled to a desert island, where he must come to terms with reality – and finally does.
In 2012, another book by Korczak was translated into English. '' Kajtuś the Wizard'' (''Kajtuś czarodziej'') (1933) anticipated Harry Potter
''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...
in depicting a schoolboy who gains magic powers, and it was very popular during the 1930s, both in Polish and in translation to several other languages. Kajtuś has, however, a far more difficult path than Harry Potter: he has no Hogwarts
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry () is a fictional Scotland, Scottish boarding school of Magic in Harry Potter, magic for students aged eleven to eighteen, and is the primary setting for the first six books in J. K. Rowling's ''Harry Pot ...
-type School of Magic where he could be taught by expert mages, but must learn to use and control his powers all by himself - and most importantly, to learn his limitations.
Korczak's ''The Persistent Boy'' was a biography of the French scientist Louis Pasteur
Louis Pasteur (, ; 27 December 1822 – 28 September 1895) was a French chemist and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation and pasteurization, the latter of which was named afte ...
, adapted for children - as stated in the preface - from a 685-page French biography that Korczak read. The book clearly aims to portray Pasteur as a role model for the child reader. A considerable part of the book is devoted to Pasteur's childhood and boyhood, and his relations with parents, teachers and schoolmates. It is emphasised that Pasteur, destined for world-wide fame, started from inauspicious beginnings - born to poor working-class parents in an obscure French provincial town and attending a far from high-quality school. There, he was far from a star pupil, his marks often falling below average. As repeatedly emphasised by Korczak, Pasteur's achievements, both in childhood and in later academic and scientific career, were mainly due to persistence (as hinted in the title), a relentless and eventually successful effort to overcome his limitations and early failures.
Pedagogical books
In his pedagogical works, Korczak shares much of his experience of dealing with difficult children. Korczak's ideas were further developed by many other pedagogues such as Simon Soloveychik
Simon L'vovich Soloveychik (1930–1996) was a Russian publicist, educator and social philosopher.
Brief biography
Simon Soloveychik was born in a Jewish family. His father, Lev I. Soloveychik, was editor, writer and administrator at the ''Krasnay ...
and Erich Dauzenroth.
Thoughts on corporal punishment
Korczak spoke against corporal punishment of children at a time when such treatment was considered a parental entitlement or even duty. In ''The Child's Right to Respect'' (1929), he wrote,
List of selected works
Fiction
* ''Children of the Streets'' (''Dzieci ulicy'', Warsaw 1901)
* ''Fiddle-Faddle'' (''Koszałki opałki'', Warsaw 1905)
* ''Child of the Drawing Room'' (''Dziecko salonu'', Warsaw 1906, 2nd edition 1927) – partially autobiographical
* ''Mośki, Joski i Srule'' (Warsaw 1910)
* ''Józki, Jaśki i Franki'' (Warsaw 1911)
* ''Fame'' (''Sława'', Warsaw 1913, corrected 1935 and 1937)
* ''Bobo'' (Warsaw 1914)
* '' King Matt the First'' (''Król Maciuś Pierwszy'', Warsaw 1923)
* '' King Matt on a Deserted Island'' (''Król Maciuś na wyspie bezludnej'', Warsaw 1923)
* ''Bankruptcy of Little Jack'' (''Bankructwo małego Dżeka'', Warsaw 1924)
* ''When I Am Little Again'' (''Kiedy znów będę mały'', Warsaw 1925)
* ''Senat szaleńców, humoreska ponura'' (''Madmen's Senate'', play premièred at the Ateneum Theatre
The Ateneum Theatre in Warsaw ( pl, Teatr Ateneum im. Stefana Jaracza w Warszawie) is a Polish dramatic theatre founded in 1928. It resides in a building erected a year earlier in the interwar Poland as headquarters for the Professional Union of ...
in Warsaw, 1931)
* '' Kaytek the Wizard'' (''Kajtuś czarodziej'', Warsaw 1935)
Pedagogical books
* ''Momenty wychowawcze'' (Warsaw, 1919, 2nd edition 1924)
* ''How to Love a Child'' (''Jak kochać dziecko'', Warsaw 1919, 2nd edition 1920 as ''Jak kochać dzieci'')
* ''The Child's Right to Respect'' (''Prawo dziecka do szacunku'', Warsaw, 1929)
* ''Playful Pedagogy'' (''Pedagogika żartobliwa'', Warsaw, 1939)
Other books
* ''Diary'' (''Pamiętnik'', Warsaw, 1958)
* ''Fragmenty Utworów''
* ''The Stubborn Boy: The Life of Pasteur'' (Warsaw, 1935)
Remembrance
Korczak is commemorated in a number of monuments and plaques in Poland, mainly in Warsaw. The best known of them is the cenotaph
A cenotaph is an empty tomb or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although the vast majority of cenot ...
located at the Okopowa Street Jewish Cemetery
The Warsaw Jewish Cemetery is one of the largest Jewish cemetery, Jewish cemeteries in Europe and in the world. Located on Warsaw, Warsaw's Okopowa Street and abutting the Christians, Christian Powązki Cemetery, the Jewish necropolis was establis ...
, which serves as his symbolic grave. It is a monumental sculpture of Korczak leading his children to the trains. Created originally by Mieczysław Smorczewski in 1982, the monument was recast in bronze in 2002. The original was re-erected at the boarding school for children with special needs in Borzęciczki, which is named after Janusz Korczak.
However, the monument
The Monument to the Great Fire of London, more commonly known simply as the Monument, is a fluted Doric column in London, England, situated near the northern end of London Bridge. Commemorating the Great Fire of London, it stands at the j ...
set up in the Świętokrzyski Park in 2006 is not only the largest but also, due to its very convenient location, the most frequently visited by school trips and tourists monument commemorating Korczak. Every year, around June 1, on Children's Day, trips from Warsaw schools go to the monument.
Due to decommunization policies, the Nikolay Bauman
Nikolay Ernestovich Bauman () ( – ) was a Russian revolutionary of the Bolshevik Party.
His death in a struggle with a royalist upon his release from Taganka Prison in 1905 made him one of the first martyrs of the Revolution, and later o ...
street in Kyiv
Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...
, Ukraine
Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
was renamed after Korczak in 2016.
A minor planet, 2163 Korczak
Year 163 ( CLXIII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Laelianus and Pastor (or, less frequently, year 916 ''Ab urbe condi ...
, is named after him.
File:Pomnik Janusza Korczaka na cmentarzu żydowskim w Warszawie 2017.jpg, Cenotaph
A cenotaph is an empty tomb or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although the vast majority of cenot ...
dedicated to Janusz Korczak at the Okopowa Street Jewish Cemetery
The Warsaw Jewish Cemetery is one of the largest Jewish cemetery, Jewish cemeteries in Europe and in the world. Located on Warsaw, Warsaw's Okopowa Street and abutting the Christians, Christian Powązki Cemetery, the Jewish necropolis was establis ...
, Warsaw
File:פולין 001.jpg, Commemorative stone at Treblinka
Treblinka () was an extermination camp, built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Masovian Voivodeship. The camp ...
File:Yad Vashem BW 2.JPG, ''Janusz Korczak and the children'', memorial at Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem ( he, יָד וַשֵׁם; literally, "a memorial and a name") is Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; honoring Jews who fought against th ...
Cultural references
In addition to theater, opera, TV, and film adaptations of his works, such as '' King Matt the First'' and '' Kaytek the Wizard,'' there have been a number of works about Korczak, inspired by him, or featuring him as a character.
Biographies and legacy
* ''King of Children: The Life and Death of Janusz Korczak'' by Betty Jean Lifton (1989/2018), an acclaimed biography on the selfless life of Janusz Korczak from childhood and leading up to the Last March he would take with his orphans from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Treblinka-bound cattle cars.
* The influential twentieth-century Hebrew-language educator and publisher Zevi Scharfstein
Zevi Scharfstein (Hebrew: ''צבי שרפשטיין'') was a prolific Hebrew-language educator, writer, and publishing entrepreneur who authored 423 works in 698 publications during his career. The hosts of a special celebration in Detroit honori ...
profiled Korczak in his 1964 work ''Great Hebrew Educators'' (גדולי חינוך בעמנו, Rubin Mass Publishers, Jerusalem, 1964).
* ''Loving Every Child: Wisdom for Parents'' edited by Sandra Joseph.
Fiction books
* ''Milkweed
''Asclepias'' is a genus of herbaceous, perennial, flowering plants known as milkweeds, named for their latex, a milky substance containing cardiac glycosides termed cardenolides, exuded where cells are damaged. Most species are toxic to humans ...
'' by Jerry Spinelli
Jerry Spinelli (born February 1, 1941) is an American writer of children's novels that feature adolescence and early adulthood. His novels include ''Maniac Magee'', '' Stargirl'', and ''Wringer''.
Life
Spinelli was born in Norristown, Penn ...
(2003) – Doctor Korczak runs an orphanage in Warsaw where the main character often visits him
* '' Moshe en Reizele'' (Mosje and Reizele) by Karlijn Stoffels (2004) – Mosje is sent to live in Korczak's orphanage, where he falls in love with Reizele. Set in the period 1939-1942. Original Dutch, German translation available. No English version .
* ''Once
Once means a one-time occurrence.
Once may refer to:
Music
* ''Once'' (Pearl Jam song), a 1991 song from the album ''Ten''
* ''Once'' (Roy Harper album), a 1990 album by Roy Harper
* ''Once'' (The Tyde album), a 2001 debut album by The Tyd ...
'' by Morris Gleitzman
Morris Gleitzman (born 9 January 1953) is an English-born Australian author of children's and young adult fiction.[Galila Ron-Feder Amit
Galila Ron-Feder Amit ( he, גלילה רון־פדר-עמית, born 1949) is an Israeli children books author. She has written 400 books, as well as television and film scripts. She also published a children`s nature magazine, and served as edito ...]
(2007) is an Israeli children's book in the Time Tunnel series that takes place in Korczak's orphanage.
* ''The Book of Aron'' by Jim Shepard (2015) is a fictional work that features Dr Korczak and his orphanage in the Warsaw Ghetto as main characters in the book.
* ''The Good Doctor of Warsaw'' by Elisabeth Gifford (2018), a novel based on a true story of a young couple who survived the Warsaw ghetto and of Dr Korczak and his orphanage.
Stage plays
* ''Dr Korczak and the Children'' by Erwin Sylvanus (1957)
* '' Korczak's Children'' by Jeffrey Hatcher
Jeffrey Hatcher is an American playwright and screenwriter. He wrote the stage play ''Compleat Female Stage Beauty'', which he later adapted into a screenplay, shortened to just ''Stage Beauty'' (2004). He also co-wrote the stage adaptation o ...
(2003)
* ''Dr Korczak's Example'' by David Greig (2001)
* ''The Children's Republic'' A play based on the life and work of Yanusz Korczak (2008) by Elena Khalitov
Harmony Theatre Company and School
* ''The Children's Republic'' by Hannah Moscovitch
Hannah Moscovitch (born June 5, 1978) is a Canadian playwright who rose to national prominence in the 2000s. She is best known for her plays ''East of Berlin'', ''This Is War'', "Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story", and '' Sexual Misconduct of the Mi ...
(2009)
* ''Chlodnagaden nr. 33'' By Rober Parr with music by Michael Ramløse, Teatret Fair play (Eng: The Fair Play Theater)
* ''Monsieur Fugue'' (1967) by Liliane Atlan
Liliane Atlan (14 January 1932 – 15 February 2011) was a French Jewish writer whose work often focused on the psychological effects of the Holocaust.
Life
Atlan was born Liliane Cohen in Montpellier, southern France, in 1932, to parents Elie an ...
is based in part on the story of Korczak
Film
* ' (''The Martyr''), written by Ben Barzman
Ben Barzman (October 12, 1910 – December 15, 1989) was a Canadian journalist, screenwriter, and novelist, blacklisted during the McCarthy Era and best known for his screenplays for the films ''Back to Bataan'' (1945), '' El Cid'' (1961), and ''T ...
and Alexander Ramati
Alexander Ramati (December 20, 1921 – February 18, 2006), born David Solomonovich Grinberg,[Aleksander Ford
Aleksander Ford (born Mosze Lifszyc; 24 November 1908 in Kiev, Russian Empire – 4 April 1980 in Naples, Florida, United States, U.S.) was a Polish film director; and head of the Polish People's Army of Poland, People's Army Film Crew in the Sov ...](_blank)
(1975)
* '' Korczak'', written by Agnieszka Holland
Agnieszka Holland (born 28 November 1948) is a Poles, Polish film and television director and screenwriter, best known for her political contributions to Polish cinema. She began her career as assistant to directors Krzysztof Zanussi and Andrzej ...
, directed by Andrzej Wajda
Andrzej Witold Wajda (; 6 March 1926 – 9 October 2016) was a Polish film and theatre director. Recipient of an Honorary Oscar, the Palme d'Or, as well as Honorary Golden Lion and Honorary Golden Bear Awards, he was a prominent member of the ...
(1990) portrayed by Wojciech Pszoniak
* ''Uprising
Rebellion, uprising, or insurrection is a refusal of obedience or order. It refers to the open resistance against the orders of an established authority.
A rebellion originates from a sentiment of indignation and disapproval of a situation and ...
'' (2001) directed by Jon Avnet, written by Avnet and Paul Brickman. Palle Granditsky portrayed Korczak.
*''The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler'' (2009) directed by John Kent Harrison. Krzysztof Pieczynski played Dr. Janusz Korczak.
* ''The Zookeeper's Wife
The Zookeeper's Wife is a non-fiction book written by the poet and naturalist Diane Ackerman. Drawing on the diary of Antonina Żabińska, unpublished in English (though published in Polish in 1968), it recounts the true story of how Antonina an ...
'' (2017), directed by Niki Caro
Nikola Jean Caro (born 20 September 1966) is a New Zealand film director and screenwriter. Her 2002 film ''Whale Rider'' was critically praised and won a number of awards at international film festivals. She directed the 2020 live action versi ...
. Arnošt Goldflam
Arnošt Goldflam (born 22 September 1946 in Brno
Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, ...
played Korczak.
Television
* ''Studio 4: Dr Korczak and the Children'' - BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
adaptation of Sylvanus's play, written and directed by Rudolph Cartier
Rudolph Cartier (born Rudolph Kacser, renamed himself in Germany to Rudolph Katscher;
17 April 1904 – 7 June 1994) was an Austrian television director, Filmmaking, filmmaker, screenwriter and Film producer, producer who worked predominantly i ...
(13 March 1962)
Music
* ''Kaddish
Kaddish or Qaddish or Qadish ( arc, קדיש "holy") is a hymn praising God that is recited during Jewish prayer services. The central theme of the Kaddish is the magnification and sanctification of God's name. In the liturgy, different version ...
'' – long poem/song by Alexander Galich (1970)
* ''Facing the wall - Janusz Korczak'' – musical by Klaus-Peter Rex and Daniel Hoffmann (1997) presented by Music-theatre fuenf brote und zwei fische, Wülfrath
* '' Korczak's Orphans'' – opera, music by Adam Silverman, libretto by Susan Gubernat (2003)
* ''Korczak'' – musical by Nick Stimson and Chris Williams. Performed by the St Ives Youth Theatre at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2005 and by Youth Music Theatre UK
British Youth Music Theatre (BYMT), formerly Youth Music Theatre UK, is a UK-based national performing arts organisation founded in December 2003. BYMT provides music theatre training to young people aged 11–21 and a stepping stone to drama ...
at the Rose Theatre, Kingston
The Rose Theatre Kingston is a theatre on Kingston High Street in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames. The theatre seats 822 around a wide, thrust stage.
It officially opened on 16 January 2008 with ''Uncle Vanya'' by Anton Chekhov, with ...
in August 2011
* '' King Mattias I'' - opera, music by Viggo Edén, from writings by Korczak, given World Premiere at Höör's Summer Opera (Sweden) on 9 August 2012.
* ''The Little Review'' from album ''Where the Darkness Goes'', Awna Teixeira, 2012
* ''Janusz'' - piece for piano, music by Nicola Gelo (2013)
See also
* List of Holocaust diarists
Diarists who wrote diaries concerning the Holocaust (1941-1945).
* Mary Berg
* Hélène Berr - a French diarist
* Willy Cohn
* Adam Czerniaków
* Arnold Daghani
* Petr Ginz
* Zalman Gradowski
* Etty Hillesum - Dutch Jewish diarist and Holocaust ...
* List of diarists
This is an international list of diarists who have Wikipedia pages and whose journals have been published.
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
Y
Z
Diaries of disputed authenticity
*The B ...
* List of posthumous publications of Holocaust victims
This is a list of Holocaust victims whose writings were published posthumously.
Published in English or translated into English
*Hinde Bergner (1870–1942): ''On Long Winter Nights: Memoirs of a Jewish Family in a Galician Township, 1870–19 ...
References
Further reading
*
*
* Joseph, Sandra (1999). ''A Voice for the Child: The inspirational words of Janusz Korczak.'' Collins Publishers.
* Lifton, Betty Jean (1988). ''The King of Children: The Life and Death of Janusz Korczak'' Collins Publishers.
* Mortkowicz-Olczakowa, Hanna (1961). ''Bunt wspomnień.'' Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy.
Parenting Advice from a Polish Holocaust Hero
from National Public Radio
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other n ...
* Lawrence Kohlberg
Lawrence Kohlberg (; October 25, 1927 – January 19, 1987) was an American psychologist best known for his theory of stages of moral development.
He served as a professor in the Psychology Department at the University of Chicago and at the Gra ...
(1981). ''The Philosophy of Moral Development: Education for Justice'' pp. 401–408. Harper & Row, Publishers, San Francisco.
*Mark Celinscak (2009). "A Procession of Shadows: Examining Warsaw Ghetto Testimony." New School Psychology Bulletin. Volume 6, Number 2: 38-50.
External links
Janusz Korczak Living Heritage Association
* ttp://www.adambsilverman.com/korczak ''Korczak's Orphans'' operaby Adam Silverman and Susan Gubernat
''I'm small, but important''
German Documentary by Walther Petri and Konrad Weiss
Wiersz Kazimierza Dąbrowskiego "Wątek X - Janusz Korczak" ''Heksis'' 1/2010
Janusz Korczak
at culture.pl
Janusz Korczak
at poezja.org (polish)
2012 - The Year of Janusz Korczak
{{DEFAULTSORT:Korczak, Janusz
1878 births
1942 deaths
Writers from Warsaw
Jewish agnostics
Jewish Polish writers
Jewish physicians
Polish agnostics
Polish Jews who died in the Holocaust
Polish educational theorists
Polish humanitarians
Polish murder victims
Polish medical writers
Polish pediatricians
Polish people of World War II
Polish children's writers
Recipients of the Order of Polonia Restituta
Warsaw Ghetto inmates
Polish people who died in Treblinka extermination camp
Golden Laurel of the Polish Academy of Literature
Holocaust diarists
Polish male novelists
Physicians from Warsaw
20th-century pseudonymous writers