Janusz Korczak

Janusz Korczak, real name Henryk Goldszmit (July 22, 1878 or 1879 – August, 1942) was a Polish-Jewish children's author, pediatrician, and child pedagogist, known as Old Doctor (Stary Doktor). He is also the subject of the stage play Korczak's Children, by Jeffrey Hatcher. Image File history File links according to USHMM (www. ... Image File history File links according to USHMM (www. ... July 22 is the 203rd day (204th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 162 days remaining. ... 1878 (MDCCCLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... 1879 (MDCCCLXXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Year 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ... From the Middle Ages until the Holocaust, Jews were a significant part of the Polish population. ... Jane Frank: illustration from Thomas Yoseloffs The Further Adventures of Till Eulenspiegel (1957). ... Pediatrics (also spelled paediatrics) is the branch of medicine that deals with the medical care of infants, children, and adolescents (from newborn to age 16-21, depending on the country). ... Pedagogy is the art or science of teaching. ...

Biography

Korczak was born in Warsaw in an assimilated Jewish family. His father Józef Goldszmit died in 1896, possibly by his own hand, leaving the family without a source of income. Over the next few years, the family was forced to abandon their spacious apartment and, during his teens, Korczak was the sole breadwinner for his mother, sister, and grandmother. Warsaw (Polish: , , in full The Capital City of Warsaw, Polish: ) is the capital of Poland, its largest city, and a gamma world city. ... For other uses, see Jew (disambiguation). ... Year 1896 (MDCCCXCVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display calendar). ...

In 1898 he used Janusz Korczak as a writing pseudonym in Ignacy Paderewski's literary contest. The name originated from the book Janasz Korczak and the pretty Swordsweeperlady by Józef Ignacy Kraszewski. In 1890s he studied in the Flying University. In years 1898–1904 Korczak studied medicine in Warsaw and also wrote for several Polish language newspapers. 1898 (MDCCCXCVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... A pseudonym (Greek pseudo + -onym: false name) is an artificial, fictitious name, also known as an alias, used by an individual as an alternative to a persons true name. ... Ignacy Jan Paderewski Ignacy Jan Paderewski (November 6, 1860 – June 29, 1941) was a Polish pianist, composer and politician, the third Prime Minister of Poland. ... Józef Ignacy Kraszewski Józef Ignacy Kraszewski (1812-1887) was a Polish writer and novelist. ... Flying University (Polish: , sometimes also translated as Floating University) was the name of the secret educational underground[1] enterprise[2] that functioned from 1885 to 1905 in Warsaw, the historic Polish capital, then under the control of the Russian Empire, and was renewed in the Peoples Republic of Poland... 1898 (MDCCCXCVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Year 1904 (MCMIV) was a leap year starting on a Friday (see link for calendar). ... Polish (jÄ™zyk polski, polszczyzna) is the official language of Poland. ...

After his graduation he became a pediatrician. During the Russo-Japanese War in 1905–1906 he served as a military doctor. Meanwhile his book Child of the Drawing Room gained him some literary recognition. After the war he continued his practice in Warsaw. Pediatrics (also spelled paediatrics or pædiatrics) is the branch of medicine that deals with the medical care of infants and children. ... Combatants Imperial Russia Empire of Japan Commanders N/A N/A Strength 500,000 Soldiers 400,000 Soldiers Casualties 134,817+ KIA/POW, 170,000 MIA etc. ... 1905 (MCMV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar). ... 1906 (MCMVI) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...

The Krochmalna Street orphanage where Korczak worked. He lived in a room in the attic

In years 1907–1908 Korczak continued his studies in Berlin. When he was working for Orphan's Society in 1909 he met Stefania Wilczyńska. In 1911–1912 he became a director of Dom Sierot, the orphanage of his own design for Jewish children in Warsaw. He took Wilczyńska as his closest associate. There he formed a kind-of-a-republic for children with its own small parliament, court and newspaper. He reduced his other duties as a doctor. Image File history File links according to USHMM (www. ... Image File history File links according to USHMM (www. ... 1907 (MCMVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... 1908 (MCMVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Berlin is the capital city and one of the sixteen states of the Federal Republic of Germany. ... Year 1909 (MCMIX) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... 1911 (MCMXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). ... 1912 (MCMXII) was a leap year starting on Monday in the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday in the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... An orphanage (historically an orphans asylum before the latter word took on its modern insane asylum connotation) is an institution dedicated to caring for orphans (children who have lost their parents) and abused, abandoned, and neglected children. ... For other uses, see Republic (disambiguation). ... States currently utilizing parliamentary systems are denoted in red and orange—the former being constitutional monarchies where authority is vested in a parliament, and the latter being parliamentary republics whose parliaments are effectively supreme over a separate head of state. ... A trial at the Old Bailey in London as drawn by Thomas Rowlandson and Augustus Pugin for Ackermanns Microcosm of London (1808-11). ...

In 1914 Korczak again became a military doctor with the rank of lieutenant during the World War I. He wrote his pedagogic essays in his spare time. In Kyiv he also met Maryna Falska, who later became his aide in Warsaw. He returned to Warsaw prior to the regaining of independence by Poland in 1918. Year 1914 (MCMXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... Lieutenant is a military, naval, paramilitary, fire service or police officer rank. ... Combatants Allied Powers: Russian Empire France British Empire Italy United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary German Empire Ottoman Empire Bulgaria Commanders Nicholas II Aleksei Brusilov Georges Clemenceau Joseph Joffre Ferdinand Foch Herbert Henry Asquith Douglas Haig John Jellicoe Victor Emmanuel III Luigi Cadorna Armando Diaz Woodrow Wilson John Pershing Franz... An essay is a short work of writing that treats a topic from an authors personal point of view. ... Kiev (Київ, Kyiv, in Ukrainian; Киев, Kiev, in Russian) is the capital and largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper river. ... Year 1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ...

After the war he resumed his job in Dom Sierot and also founded another orphanage called Nasz dom (Our Home). During the Polish-Soviet War he served again as a military doctor with the rank of major but was assigned to Warsaw after a brief stint in Łódź. He contracted typhus and his mother died of it. Combatants Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic Second Polish Republic Commanders Mikhail Tukhachevsky Semyon Budyonny Joseph Stalin Józef PiÅ‚sudski Edward Rydz-ÅšmigÅ‚y Strength 950,000 including reserves 5 million 360,000 including reserves 738,000 Casualties Unknown, dead estimated at 100,000 - 150,000 Unknown, dead estimated at... Łódź ((?)) is Polands second largest city (population 776,297 in 2004). ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Epidemic typhus. ...

In 1926 he let children begin their own newspaper, the Mały Przegląd, as a weekly attachment to the daily Polish-Jewish Newspaper Nasz Przegląd. Year 1926 (MCMXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar). ...

During the 1930s he had his own radio program until it was cancelled due to complaints from anti-semites. In 1933 he was awarded the Silver Cross of the Polonia Restituta. In 1934–1936 Korczak traveled yearly to Palestine and visited its kibbutzim. That lead to increasing anti-semitic attacks in Polish press. That also lead to a break with the non-Jewish orphanage he had been working for. Still he refused to move to Palestine even when Wilczyńska moved there for a year in 1938. The 1930s (years from 1930–1939) were described as an abrupt shift to more radical and conservative lifestyles, as countries were struggling to find a solution to the Great Depression, also known in Europe as the World Depression. ... The Eternal Jew: 1937 German poster. ... Year 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday. ... Commanders Cross The Order of Polonia Restituta (Polish Order Odrodzenia Polski) is a Polish Order (decoration), established on February 4, 1921. ... 1934 (MCMXXXIV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Map of the British Mandate of Palestine. ... Kibbutz Dan, near Qiryat Shemona, in the Upper Galilee, 1990s A kibbutz (Hebrew: קיבוץ; plural: kibbutzim: קיבוצים, gathering or together) is an Israeli collective intentional community. ... Year 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ...

In 1939, when the World War II erupted, Korczak volunteered for duty in the Polish Army but was refused due to his age. He witnessed Wehrmacht taking over Warsaw. When Nazis created a Warsaw Ghetto in 1940, his orphanage was forced to move to the ghetto. Korczak moved in with them. 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Combatants Allied Powers Axis Powers Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000,000 Total dead: 50,000,000 Military dead: 8,000,000 Civilian dead: 4,000,000 Total dead 12,000,000 World War II (abbreviated WWII), or the Second World War, was a worldwide conflict... Image:Wehrmacht 20 April 1939 Birthday Parade. ... The Nazi party used a right-facing swastika as their symbol and the red and black colors were said to represent Blut und Boden (blood and soil). ... The Ghetto Heroes Memorial The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of the Jewish ghettos established by Nazi Germany in General Government during the Holocaust in World War II. In the three years of its existence, starvation, disease and deportations to concentration camps and extermination camps dropped the population of the... Year 1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ... A ghetto is an area where people from a specific racial or ethnic background or united in a given culture or religion live as a group, voluntarily or involuntarily, in milder or stricter seclusion. ...

On August 5 (some say August 6), 1942, German soldiers came to collect the 192 (there is some debate about the actual number and it may have been 196) orphans and about one dozen staff members to take them to Treblinka extermination camp. Korczak had been offered sanctuary on the “Aryan side” of Warsaw but turned it down repeatedly, saying that he could not abandon his children. Now too, he refused offers of sanctuary, insisting that he would go with the children. The children were dressed in their best clothes, and each carried a blue knapsack and a favorite book or toy. Joshua Perle, an eyewitness, described the procession of Korczak and the children through the ghetto to the Umschlagplatz (deportation point to the death camps): August 5 is the 217th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (218th in leap years), with 148 days remaining. ... August 6 is the 218th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (219th in leap years), with 147 days remaining. ... Year 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ... Treblinka was a Nazi extermination camp in German-occupied Poland during World War II. Extermination camps like the one at Treblinka were used in the Holocaust for the systematic genocide of sub-humans by the Nazis. ... The Aryan race is a concept in European culture that was influential in the period of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. ... Jews loading onto trains at the Umschlagplatz In the Holocaust, the Umschlagplatz (German literally meaning change-place) in the Warsaw Ghetto was where Jews gathered for deportation to the Treblinka extermination camp. ...

... A miracle occurred. Two hundred children did not cry out. Two hundred pure souls, condemned to death, did not weep. Not one of them ran away. None tried to hide. Like stricken swallows they clung to their teacher and mentor, to their father and brother, Janusz Korczak, so that he might protect and preserve them. Janusz Korczak was marching, his head bent forward, holding the hand of a child, without a hat, a leather belt around his waist, and wearing high boots. A few nurses were followed by two hundred children, dressed in clean and meticulously cared for clothes, as they were being carried to the altar. (...) On all sides the children were surrounded by Germans, Ukrainians, and this time also Jewish policemen. They whipped and fired shots at them. The very stones of the street wept at the sight of the procession.

According to a popular legend, 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, but once again, Korczak refused. He boarded the trains with the children and was never heard from again. For other uses, see Jew (disambiguation). ... SS or ss or Ss may be: The Schutzstaffel, a Nazi paramilitary force Steamship (SS) (ship prefix) The United States Secret Service A submarine not powered by nuclear energy (SS) (United States Navy designator), see SSN A Soviet/Russian surface-to-surface missile, as listed by NATO reporting name Shortstop...

"Janusz Korczak and the children" in Yad Vashem

Some time after, there were rumors 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 was killed with most of his children in a gas chamber upon their arrival to Treblinka. There is a memorial grave for him at the Powązki Cemetery in Warsaw. Image File history File links Israel - Yad Vashem Memorial, Janus Korczak children memorial Im the owner of the copyright. ... Image File history File links Israel - Yad Vashem Memorial, Janus Korczak children memorial Im the owner of the copyright. ... Yad Vashem memorial sculpture Yad Vashem (יד ושם) is Israels official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust established in 1953 through the Memorial Law passed by the Knesset, Israels parliament. ... // For other uses, see Gas chamber (disambiguation). ... Treblinka is a small village in the Mazowieckie voivodship (province) of Poland. ... Powazki Cemetery Powązki Cemetery (Polish Cmentarz powązkowski) is the oldest and most famous cemetery in Warsaw, Poland, which is situated in the western part of the city. ...

Themes in the Children's Books

Korczak often employed the form of the fairy tale in order to actually prepare his young readers for the dilemmas and difficulties of real adult life, and the need to take responsible decisions. A fairy tale is a story, either told to children or as if told to children, concerning the adventures of mythical characters such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, giants, and others. ...

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 catapulted to the throne by the sudden death of his father, who must learn from various mistakes. 1923 (MCMXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ...

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 minsters 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; when a war breaks out he does not accpet 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 anatagonising other kings; he falls in love with a black African princess and outrages racist opinion (by modren standards, however, Korczak's depiction of blacks is not free of stereotypes 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. This does not cite its references or sources. ... World map showing location of Africa A satellite composite image of Africa Africa is the worlds second_largest continent in both area and population, after Asia. ... For the term used in its original printing sense, see etymology below. ...

The later "Kajtuś The Wizard" (Kajtuś czarodziej) (1935) anticipated Harry Potter in depicting a schoolboy who gains magic powers (and its popularity in the 1930's, in both Polish and translation to several other languges, was nearly compareable to the present one of the Potter series). Kajtuś has, however, a far more difficult path than Harry Potter: he has no Hogwarts-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. 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Cover of the first book in J. K. Rowlings series: Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone (British/Canadian/Australian/Irish/ Japanese/Taiwanese/African version) The Harry Potter books are a series of fantasy novels by British writer J. K. Rowling. ... Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is a fictional school of magic that is the main setting of the Harry Potter series. ...

Selected writings

Fiction

• Children of the streets (Dzieci ulicy, Warsaw, 1901)
• 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)
• Sława (Warsaw, 1913, corrected 1935 and 1937)
• Bobo (Warsaw, 1914)
• King Matt the First (Król Maciuś Pierwszy, Warsaw, 1923)
• King Matt on the Desert Island (Król Maciuś na wyspie bezludnej, Warsaw 1923)
• Bankructwo małego Dżeka (Warsaw, 1924)
• When I Am Little Again (Kiedy znów będę mały, Warsaw, 1925)
• Senat szaleńców, humoreska ponura (a screenplay for the Ateneum theatre in Warsaw, 1931)
• Kajtuś czarodziej (Warsaw, 1935)

1901 (MCMI) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ... 1905 (MCMV) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar). ... 1910 (MCMX) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Sunday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar. ... 1911 (MCMXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). ... Year 1913 (MCMXIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Year 1937 (MCMXXXVII) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Year 1914 (MCMXIV) was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... 1923 (MCMXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ... 1923 (MCMXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ... Year 1924 (MCMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar). ... 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1931 (MCMXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link is to a full 1931 calendar). ... 1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Pedagogic 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)
• Pedagogika żartobliwa (Warsaw, 1933)

Year 1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ... Year 1924 (MCMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar). ... Year 1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ... Year 1920 (MCMXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ... 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Year 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday. ...

Other books

• Diary (Pamiętnik, Warsaw, 1958)

Year 1958 (MCMLVIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Janusz_Korczak

• Janusz Korczak Communication Center
• Janusz Korczak Living Heritage Association
• Ojemba Productions presents 'KORCZAK' at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2005!
• Pole Apart - The Life and Work of Janusz Korczak
• Korczak's Orphans opera by Adam Silverman and Susan Gubernat
• I'm small, but important, German Documentary by Walther Petri and Konrad Weiss