|
JANUSZ KORCZAK
A TEACHER'S GUIDE TO THE HOLOCAUST
From the Editors:
We are publishing the
following text about Janusz Korczak - one of the greatest
Poles and greatest Jews of the bygone century - in our
April issue. April is the month in which the anniversary
of the Ghetto Uprising will be commemorated.
At the beginning of August 1942,
Dr. Henryk Goldszmidt, better known by his pen name
of Janusz Korczak, was deported with the children of
his Orphanage to the gas chambers of Treblinka. The
outrage shocked the Warsaw Ghetto and some eye-witnesses
recorded it. One of them, Wladyslaw Szpillman, wrote:
The column was led by an SS man
who like most of the Germans liked children, even those
whom he was shortly going to kill. Particularly he seemed
to be fond of twelve-year old violinist, who carried
his instrument under his arm. He ordered him to take
his place at the head of the column and to start playing
and so they marched. When I met the procession on Gesia
Street, all the children were singing together, with
beaming faces, while the little violinist was playing.
Korczak marched with two of the youngest children in
his arms.
Korczak was a legend of his own
time. Born into an assimilated Jewish family in Poland,
he followed in the footsteps of his paternal grandfather,
a physician, and his father, a prolific writer. He studied
medicine, specializing in pediatrics. In 1904, he was
drafted for the Russo-Japanesse war and ten years later,
for World War I. In 1912 he received a grant to create
a Jewish orphanage on Karmelicka 92 in Warsaw.
It became his laboratory in which
he experimented with his method of institutional education,
which he based on the developmental enhancement of a
child's inborn abilities. After the wars in which he
participated, he felt deeply that his world needed basic
changes and he devised a motto: If you want to reform
the world, first you must reform education.
Reaching into his childhood and
formative years, he discovered that his upbringing and
schooling were built on serious flaws, which surfaced
in occassional pangs of distress and loneliness. He
felt deprived of love and support, and in his mature
years wrote a philosophical treatise entitled How to
Love a Child. Deeply aware of his Jewish roots, he felt
empathy with Jewish children, especially those in Orthodox
families, who were afraid to leave their neighborhood
and were severely restricted by their parents In this
connection, he wrote Mosheks, Yoskes and Srulics and
also Jewish Child in the Diaspora.
In his orphanage, known as our
home, he tried to maintain an atmosphere of candid discussion
and sharing of thoughts and ideas. He also encouraged
expression of feelings in writing and assisted older
children to establish their own newsletter, called Maly
Przeglad (Little Review).
In the early 1930's, Korczak began
to communicate with his former pupils who emigrated
to Israel. They urged him to visit the country and he
traveled there in 1932 and 1934. Visiting cities, kibbutzim
and moshavim, he discovered a new world which he described
In the Land of Israel, In the Kibbutzim and the Children
of the Bible he also felt an urge to emigrate to the
Holy Land, deeply regretting that his ancestors never
spoke about it. And so the great educator and humanitarian
returned to Poland with a deep yearning for Israel.
His wish of being in Israel is
partially fulfilled by the fact that children in Israel
learn about Korczak and his educational legacy. They
flock to Yad Layeled, the children's museum at the Ghetto
Fighters' house in Israel. This is treated like a sanctuary
where they share their thoughts and feelings about Korczak
and the Jewish children who perished in the Holocaust.
They are told about his unrestricted sacrifices and
they begin to appreciate the efforts of their own educators
and their parents who sacrifice to make Israel what
it is today.
- Visit the Resource section to view photographs of
Korczak monuments in Warsaw.
- The complete script of the play, Korczak and the
Children, by G. E. Farrell.
- The complete script of the play, Dr. Yanush Korczak,
by Alina Kentof.
- This Web site offering scores of photographs related
to the life and work of Janusz Korczak was created
by the son of one of the staff members at Korczak's
orphanage.
- Janusz Korczak Study Center offers many resources
including excerpts of Korczak's writings.
- The complete text of The King of Children: The Life
and Death of Janusz Korczak by Betty Jean Lifton.
- Korczak entry from the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust.
- An extensive bibliography of books and articles
related to Dr. Korczak is available at the Wiesenthal
Center site.
- View the Korczak memorial at Yad Vashem in Israel.
A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust
Produced by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology,
College of Education, University of South Florida ©
2001.
|
