Janusz Korczak

I made this photo somewhere in the year 2017 and did not pay real attention to the statue to be honest. Just a while ago I noticed it was a man holding children in his arms. The man, Janusz Korczak, is a war hero. Not an army General or Marshall, but a normal civilian with a great heart. Let me tell you a bit more about him. 

Janusz Korczak 

1878 - 1942

Physician, pedagogue, writer, journalist and social activist. Born as Henryk Goldszmit  in Warsaw, died in Treblinka. 

Janusz Korczak was born into the polonised Goldszmit family - his great-grandfather was a glazier, his grandfather was a doctor and his father, Józef Goldszmit, was a well-regarded Warsaw attorney. He himself, as both a Jew and a Pole, felt that he had two nationalities.

In March 1905 Henryk Goldszmit obtained his PhD and began working at the Jewish Berson and Bauman Hospital for Children in Śliska 51 street in Warsaw. As the resident doctor, he was obliged to provide 24-hour care to the ill and medical advice in the hospital's infirmary (regardless of faith); apart from that he also acted as a home-visiting doctor. Korczak was drafted to the Russian-Japanese war and in the years 1905-1906 gained experience as a military doctor.

Orphans Society

In 1912 he once and for all gave up work at the hospital and took up the post of director of the newly-opened Jewish House of Orphans, which operated under the patronage of the Help to the Orphans Society. There he collaborated with Stefania Wilczyńska, who helped him implement his authorial pedagogical concepts and creatively contributed to the development of the establishment. The House of Orphans became for Korczak a place of daily detailed observation of the psychophysical development of a child. There, innovative paedagogical ideas were conceived, such as that of the children's parliament, court, newspaper and notary. 

During the first days of the II World War, together with fellow tutors and co-workers he was present at the House of Orphans day and night. In September 1939 he spoke for the last time on Polish Radio, appealing to the people to remain calm. From the very beginning he constantly tried to obtain support for his institution. In the summer of 1940 he managed to organize summer camp for the children at a branch of the House of Orphans in the Wawer district of Warsaw. In the autumn of 1940 the House of Orphans - as a Jewish institution - was relocated to the ghetto to Chłodna 33 street, to the building of the Maria and Józef Roesler Secondary Trade School and Korczak was arrested for a brief period for not wearing an armband with the Star of David, which the Nazis ordered every Jew to wear.

In October 1941 the House of Orphans was once again forced to relocate. Korczak fought constantly for financial resources to pay for the maintenance of the children, but above all he made efforts so that, despite of the hopeless situation, life in the House of Orphans would run according to the prewar rhythm. As much as possible the old ways of functioning and internal habits were preserved. In the beginning of 1942 Korczak officially took up supervision of the shelter for orphans Main House of Shelter in Dzielna 39 street, which was in terrible condition. In May 1942 he began writing a diary which described the dreadful reality of the Nazi occupation.

Korczak consciously turned down opportunities which could have saved his own life: he didn't accept help to leave the ghetto and going into hiding, which was offered to him by his friends and on deportation day, in the morning of the 5th of August 1942, during the Grossaktion (the main stage of exterminating the population of the Warsaw ghetto) - he refused abandoning the children and workers of the House of Orphans. 

The last march taken up by Korczak and the children to Umschlagplatz is legendary, certified by many accounts and memories (not always coherent and credible in detail). It lived and continues to live its own life - in a mythologised version. However the essence of this legend reflects the real truth about Korczak - that he was a solid moral authority for all those who looked up to him for guidance and hope.

Source: culture.pl