Janusz Korczak, a Polish pediatrician killed in 1942 at the Treblinka death camp, created for the 20th century a new vision for the care of vulnerable children. I have written about him previously, but his lessons bear restatement in these conflicted times for many children here and around the world.
Born Henryk Goldszmit in 1878 in Warsaw, he grew up in a large, respected Jewish community. Following the death of his father, he supported his mother and sister by tutoring a variety of students. As a medical student, he repeatedly observed the plight of the many orphans who were relegated to a harsh life on the streets of Warsaw. These experiences informed his reportage and fictional writings, for which he adopted his pen name. He set a course to reform a corrupted system for treated abandoned children.
Korczak left a prosperous practice as Warsaw’s only pediatrician to establish an orphanage for Jewish children in 1911. He named the institution The Children’s Republic. Instead of simply warehousing children as was customary in most orphanages in Central Europe, he established a formal curriculum extending from primary grades through preparation for college or for a trade. Children published a newspaper, elected a parliament, staged dramas and defined rules for behavior. A summer camp exposed them to the countryside. Graduates of the Republic returned to the staff as nurses and teachers. Educators and reformers from Europe and North America visited the Republic to study its revolutionary accomplishments.
Drafted into the Russian army in World War I, Korczak observed the harsh impact of fighting on the lives of children who were trapped in the war zone. He barely survived typhus near war’s end.
Returning to his beloved Republic, Korczak redoubled his efforts on behalf of endangered children. He repeatedly attended court to advocate on behalf of juvenile offenders. On one occasion, he brought a fluoroscope into the courtroom to show the judge and jury the impact of fear upon the heart of a young boy. Adults should never forget the images of the fluttering heart of a frightened child.
Korczak wrote and campaigned extensively on the need for educational reform. Children had rights that must be honored. He composed a manual for parents and hosted a weekly, national radio program that offered gentle advice on the raising of children. He founded a second orphanage based upon the principles of the Children’s Republic for Catholic children.
A novel, “King Matt the First,” imagined a nation in which children took over the reins of power to create a kingdom more responsive to their needs. “How To Love a Child” offered advice on the care of children, much as the writings of Dr. Spock for American parents.
Extreme, nationalist politicians took control of Poland’s government in the mid-1930s and initiated repressive policies against the nation’s large Jewish population. Korczak lost the directorship of the Catholic orphanage. His radio program was canceled.
Following the conquest of Poland by German and Russian armies in 1940, the Jews of Warsaw were herded into a crowded ghetto, ringed with barbed wire, walls and guard towers. The Children’s Republic was moved into a cramped, tumbledown space. Further shrinkage of the ghetto in 1941 meant that Korczak, his staff and 200 children would be confined to even smaller space.
Hundreds of people died daily within the ghetto from starvation and disease. The doctor struggled to acquire basic nourishment for his children. Rather than surrender to despair, he insisted that classes continue. In July 1942, his children staged their final play, “The Post Office,” by Rabindranath Tagore. An adult who attended the performance compared the Republic, even in its desperate circumstances, to an island of sanity in a world of chaos and cruelty.
On Aug. 7, 1942, Nazi troops emptied the orphanage in a roundup of the ghetto’s children and marched them to the railway station. The doctor led the procession, carrying a young child. An older boy walked alongside him and carried the green flag of The Children’s Republic to which a star of David was affixed. Staff and students followed. The next day, Nazis at Treblinka murdered them all – 200 of more than 1 million Jews killed at the death camp.
Through his life and teachings, Dr. Korczak stood up for the rights of all children to be treated with kindness and respect. In practical terms, this translates into the need to provide food, shelter, education and an environment in which each child can reach his or her full potential. Idealistic? Yes. Relevant to our day? Yes. Feasible? Absolutely.
“King of Children: The Life and Death of Janusz Korczak” by Betty Jean Lifton, “Korczak’s Ghetto Diary” and the 1997 film “Korczak” provide a detailed account of this timeless humanitarian.
Clif Cleaveland, M.D., is a retired internist and former president of the American College of Physicians. Email him at ccleaveland@timesfreepress.com.