A German who died with Jewish children. Janusz Korczak: biography, pedagogical ideas, literary creativity
In the modern world, many people are familiar with this name - Janusz Korczak. The biography of the famous Polish doctor, writer and teacher amazes with its amazing love for life and children. His tragic fate and human feat are worth getting acquainted with in more detail.
Years of childhood and study at the gymnasium
Korczak's real name is Hirsch (in Polish, Henryk) Goldschmidt. He was born into a Jewish family in the Kingdom of Poland, which was then part of the Russian Empire, in 1878.
Despite the fact that he never lived to a ripe old age, J. Korczak managed to see a lot in his lifetime. A biography cannot briefly convey all the events of his life.
Henrik came from an educated family: his grandfather was a doctor and his father a lawyer. In order to feel more comfortable in Polish society, the Goldschmidt family assimilated with the Poles, without particularly emphasizing the Jewish traditions of their family.
The future writer Janusz Korczak (biography, whose photographs taken in childhood tell us about him as a capable and inquisitive boy) was not particularly healthy. However, thanks to his knowledge, he entered a prestigious Russian gymnasium. Teaching there was conducted in Russian, and then all the main dead and modern European languages were studied. Despite the high level of training, teachers did not show interest in their students. Severe rules reigned in the gymnasium, physical punishment and denunciation flourished.
Much later, Janusz Korczak (the biography for children will be presented in an accessible manner and will become widely known) noted that it was the trials in the gymnasium that prompted him to create a new humanistic pedagogy.
First difficulties
Korczak Janusz went through a lot. The autobiography of this great man tells us about the first test in his life. This was his father’s severe mental illness, which overtook him when Henrik was only 11 years old. All the family’s funds were spent on treating the patient, so young Henrik was forced to take up tutoring in order to financially support his loved ones.
Then the amazing pedagogical talent of the young teacher was revealed; Henrik, like no one else, knew how to find a common language with his students, listen to them calmly and carefully and achieve more with affection than other teachers with the help of a rod.
Janusz Korczak: brief biography. Vocation and teacher
In 1898, following the example of his grandfather, after whom he was named, Henrik entered the Faculty of Medicine. However, the young man was keenly interested not only in medical issues, but also in the problems of modern pedagogy. At the age of 18, he published his first pedagogical work entitled “The Gordian Knot.” In this article, the author reproaches contemporary parents for doing anything in their lives except raising their children. They shift the most important matter in their lives onto the shoulders of nannies and tutors, who often simply cannot cope with their responsibilities.
The reviews for this publication in the newspaper were so positive that the editor-in-chief of this publication instructed young Henrik to run an entire column under the same name.
Later, Korczak (the biography of this man is briefly outlined in this article) will write 22 volumes of essays devoted to the issues of raising children.
Henrik began his practical teaching activities during the same period. In 1903, having thoroughly studied Pestalozzi’s experience, he began working as a doctor and teacher in one of the Jewish children’s hospitals, and joined the Jewish Society for Aid to Orphans.
Development of professional skills and opening of the “Orphanage”
Having received a diploma in 1905 confirming the right to practice medicine, Janusz Korczak, whose biography forever connected him with both medicine and pedagogy, did not look for a lucrative position.
For some time he became a military doctor (at that time there was a difficult Russian-Japanese War, so the medical personnel of the Russian Empire were very much needed), and then he left for Europe to get acquainted with advanced ideas in the field of education and pediatrics.
He is still little known, but writes and publishes quite actively, using his pseudonym Janusz Korczak.
Returning to his homeland, Korczak Janusz, whose biography forever connected him with children, leaves the profession of a doctor and opens a charitable institution called the “Orphans’ House.” From 1911 until his tragic death, Korczak would lead this institution and devote all his strength to raising children left without parental care.
Pedagogical activity
Janusz Korczak, whose biography gives us an example of true dedication to his work, combines active teaching work with active writing. Gradually his name becomes widely known, patrons appear who support his endeavors financially.
In the first years of their intense work, Korczak and his colleague Stefania Wielczynska work 16 hours a day; it is not so easy for them to cope with a large number of children with broken destinies who have lost faith in people.
Korczak bases his pedagogical method on moral education. In those same years, he published a book for teachers and parents entitled “How to Love Children?” In this book, the author talks about the basic principles of his humanistic pedagogy, based on love for the child, acceptance of his personality, inclinations and interests, satisfaction of his needs and development of his emotional-volitional sphere.
A. S. Makarenko becomes an active supporter of such humanistic pedagogy in Russia. It is known that J. Korczak, whose biography is connected with Russia, read Makarenko’s published works and highly appreciated his methods of working with children.
Period after the collapse of the empire
After the collapse of the Russian Empire, Poland declares its independence. J. Korczak was serving at the front as a military doctor at this time. However, the government of the young Polish Republic does not allow the writer to return to his children; he is again drafted, now into the Polish troops, where he experiences severe typhus, after which he miraculously remains alive.
When the bloody Soviet-Polish war subsides, Korczak returns to his orphans, never to be separated from them again.
He devotes all his strength to teaching work. He organizes and publishes a newspaper together with children (and the children themselves become journalists), writes a lot and publishes his works.
He hosts radio broadcasts and gives lectures to students. Finally, in 1934, he formulated his famous 5 commandments of upbringing, which were based on the need to love the child, observe his behavior, the absence of violence in upbringing, pedagogical honesty and the endless process of self-knowledge.
Tragic pages of biography
Janusz Korczak saw and experienced a lot, his biography is proof of this. But, probably, the most powerful test in his life was the Second World War. This was already the fourth difficult war in the teacher’s life. Korczak asked to be allowed to the front as a doctor, but due to his age he was left in Warsaw.
German troops advanced rapidly, and the city soon found itself under occupation.
The old doctor and teacher did everything to prevent his children from feeling the hardships of wartime, but this was beyond his power. There was a catastrophic shortage of food, there was no clothing or warm clothes. Jewish orphans were an object of direct destruction for the Germans, so they were soon relocated to the Warsaw Ghetto. Korczak tried his best to resist this, but he was imprisoned. Having left it, he went to his children in the ghetto, where his death awaited him.
Life feat
In the inhuman conditions of life in the ghetto, Korczak tried not to lose heart and did his best to support those who found themselves there. However, the fate of his children was sealed. In 1942, an order was received to send them to a death camp. All the teachers, including Korczak, had to go with the children.
It is known for certain that the Nazi government at the last moment suspended sending Korczak to the camp, wanting to save the life of the famous teacher. However, the old doctor himself refused such a merciful decision and shared the fate of his children. Janusz Korczak died in 1942 in a German special
Janusz Korczak (Heinrich Goldschmit) is an outstanding Polish teacher, doctor, and writer. Korczak was born in Warsaw on July 22, 1878 into an educated Jewish family. His father was a lawyer, his grandfather a doctor. The Goldschmites assimilated with the Poles without emphasizing Jewish traditions.
Childhood and adolescence
Korczak's school years were spent in Warsaw, where he studied at a Russian gymnasium. The gymnasium was distinguished by strict discipline, and physical punishment flourished. Teaching was carried out in Russian, and subsequently all European languages were studied. Korczak later said that it was the strict morals of the gymnasium that exposed him to the creation of humanistic pedagogy.
In 1889, Janusz Korczak faces the first serious challenge of his life. My father showed the first signs of mental illness. Specialized clinics were expensive for Janusz's family and a difficult financial situation soon followed.
In order to make life easier for his family, Henrik began working as a tutor from the fifth grade of the gymnasium (15-16 years old). It was during this period that the talent of the young teacher manifested itself. Henrik easily found a common language with his students, listened carefully and achieved greater results than other teachers using physical punishment.
In 1898, Henryk entered the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Warsaw. In addition to medicine, he was actively interested in pedagogy and in 1899 he left for Switzerland to become acquainted with the pedagogical activities of Pestalozzi. At the age of 18, his first pedagogical work, “The Gordian Knot,” was published, which described in detail the modern problems of parents and children. In his work one can clearly hear a reproach to parents for doing anything other than raising their children.
Feedback on the publication was positive and the editor of the magazine assigned him to run an entire column devoted to this topic.
Vocation of a doctor, writer and teacher
Note 1
During his life, Korczak would write 22 volumes of essays on issues of raising children.
In 1903, Korczak began practical teaching work in one of the Jewish children's hospitals.
In 1905, on March 23, Janusz Korczak received a diploma giving him the right to practice medicine. Serving as a military doctor during the Russian-Japanese War.
In 1911, he founded the Orphans' Home for Jewish children and retired from medical practice. He was in charge of this house until the end of his life with a short break (1914-1918).
Janusz Korczak's teaching activities are actively intertwined with his writing. His name is gradually becoming widely known. In the first years of his intense work, Janusz devotes 16 hours a day to his work in order to cope with so many children.
Moral education became the basis of his pedagogical work. During these same years, his book “How to Love Children?” was published, dedicated to humanistic principles based on love for a child, acceptance of his individuality, satisfaction of needs and development of his emotional sphere.
After the collapse of the Russian Empire, Poland declares its independence. Janusz was serving at the front as a military doctor at this time. After a lull in hostilities, Janusz returns to his orphans and continues to develop the orphanage, writes a lot and publishes his works.
In 1934, he formulated his 5 commandments of upbringing, which are based on love for the child, absence of violence in upbringing, and pedagogical honesty.
Tough final test
The most difficult test for Janusz Korczak was the Second World War. Janusz asked to be allowed to go to the front, but due to his age he was left in Warsaw.
The German army advanced and soon the city was under occupation.
Note 2
Janusz did everything so that his children would not feel the hardships of wartime, but there was a catastrophic shortage of food and clothing. Jewish orphans were a direct target of destruction for the Nazis, so they were soon resettled in the Warsaw ghetto. With his last strength, Janusz tried to support everyone who was there, but the fate of the children was sealed. In 1942, on August 6, 200 children from the orphanage and Janusz Korczak died in the gas chamber in Tremblinka.
Janusz Korczak (Janusz Korczak; real name Henryk Goldszmit; July 22, 1878, Warsaw - August 6, 1942, Treblinka) was a Polish teacher, writer, doctor and public figure of Jewish origin.
Born in Warsaw on July 22, 1878 into an intelligent, assimilated Jewish family. Korczak’s grandfather, physician Hirsch Goldschmidt, collaborated with the newspaper Ha-Maggid; his father, Jozef Goldschmidt (1846-96), was a lawyer and author of the monograph “Lectures on Divorce Law under the Law of Moses and the Talmud” (1871).
Korczak writes in “Memoirs”: “I was named after my grandfather, whose name was Gershem,” which is the name that appears on his birth certificate. It’s just that in the assimilated Jewish family in which he was born and raised, he was called Henryk - in the Polish manner.
My school years were spent in Warsaw, in a Russian gymnasium. Strict discipline reigned there; a trip to the theater or a trip home during the holidays was possible only with written permission from the management. Teaching was conducted in Russian. Already in the first grade (children 10-11 years old) Latin was taught, in the second - French and German, in the third - Greek.
After the death of his father in 1896, the family found itself in a difficult financial situation. From the fifth grade (15-16 years old), Henrik began working as a tutor.
In 1898, Korczak entered the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Warsaw. In the summer of 1899, he traveled to Switzerland to become better acquainted with Pestalozzi's teaching activities. On his trip, Korczak is particularly interested in schools and children's hospitals. In 1903 he received his medical degree.
In 1903-11 worked at the Jewish children's hospital named after Berson and Bauman and as a teacher in summer children's camps. He was a member of the Jewish Charitable Society for Aid to Orphans.
In 1904-1905 Korczak took part in the Russo-Japanese War.
In 1907, Korczak went to Berlin for a year, where he attended lectures for his own money and did internships in children's clinics, getting acquainted with various educational institutions.
In 1911, Korczak left the medical profession and founded the “Orphanage” for Jewish children at 92 Krochmalna Street, which he led (with a break in 1914-18) until the end of his life. From the philanthropists who subsidized his endeavor, Korczak demanded complete independence in his administrative and educational activities.
In 1914-18 Korczak was in Ukraine, in particular in Kyiv, where, in addition to his activities as a military doctor, he was engaged in the arrangement of an orphanage for Polish children, and also wrote the book “How to Love a Child.”
In 1919-36. he took part in the work of the boarding school “Our House” (in Bielany), an orphanage for Polish children, where he also applied innovative pedagogical methods.
Korczak returned to Warsaw in 1918, where he ran orphanages, taught, collaborated with magazines, spoke on the radio, and lectured at the Free Polish University and at the Higher Jewish Pedagogical Courses.
In 1926-32 Korczak edited the weekly Maly przeglad (“Small Review,” a supplement for children to the Zionist newspaper Nasz przeglad “Our Review”), in which his students actively participated.
In 1899, Korczak attended the Second Zionist Congress as a guest. Admiring Theodor Herzl, he, however, did not accept the ideas of Zionism and considered himself a Pole in everything except religion, the adherence of which, in his convictions, was a personal matter for everyone.
He waited for the independence of Poland like a great miracle and believed in the complete assimilation of the Jews. The bloody Jewish pogroms carried out by Polish nationalists in 1918-19 sowed deep disappointment in Korczak’s soul.
With Hitler's rise to power in Germany and the rise of anti-Semitism in Poland, Korczak's Jewish consciousness awakened. He became the Polish non-Zionist representative at the Jewish Agency.
In 1934 and 1936, he visited Mandatory Palestine, where he met many of his former students. The pedagogical and social principles of the kibbutz movement made a deep impression on Korczak. In a letter in 1937, he wrote: “Around May I am going to Eretz. And just for a year in Jerusalem. I have to learn the language, and then I’ll go wherever they call me... The most difficult decision was. Today I want to sit in a small dark room with a Bible, a textbook, a Hebrew dictionary... There, the very last will not spit in the face of the best just because he is a Jew.”
The only thing that prevented his departure was the inability to leave his orphans. During these years, Korczak was planning to write a story about the revival of the Jewish homeland, about the Halutzim pioneers.
In 1940, together with the pupils of the Orphanage, he was moved to the Warsaw Ghetto. He rejected all offers from non-Jewish admirers of his talent to take him out of the ghetto and hide him on the “Aryan” side.
During this period, Korczak was arrested and spent several months in prison. He was released at the request of the provocateur A. Ganzweikh, who thus wanted to gain authority among the Jews.
In the ghetto, Korczak devoted all his energy to caring for the children, heroically obtaining food and medicine for them. Korczak’s students studied Hebrew and the foundations of Judaism, and he himself, seeing the indifference of the Christian world to the suffering of the Jews, passionately dreamed of returning to the roots of Judaism.
A few weeks before Passover in 1942, Korczak held a secret ceremony in a Jewish cemetery: holding the Pentateuch in his hands, he took an oath from the children to be good Jews and honest people.
When the order to deport the Orphanage came in August 1942, Korczak went with his assistant and friend Stefania Wilczynska (1886-1942) and 200 children to the station, from where they were sent in freight cars to Treblinka. He refused the freedom offered at the last minute and chose to stay with the children, accepting death with them in the gas chamber.
In the “House of Orphans,” Korczak introduced a system of broad children’s self-government, innovative for those years, a children’s comradely court, the decisions of which were binding on the leadership, a plebiscite, etc.
Since 1918, Korczak spoke under the pseudonym “Old Doctor” with educational conversations on the radio, gave lectures at the Free Polish University and at the Higher Jewish Pedagogical Courses, and worked in court on cases of juvenile delinquents.
An abstract believer in God (“Alone with God,” 1922; contains 18 prayers “for those who do not pray”), Korczak was distinguished by broad religious tolerance and saw faith as a source of moral purification.
Korczak began publishing in 1898, at which time he took his pseudonym. His stories for adults and children “Children of the Street” (1901), “Child of the Living Room” (1906), “Pugs, Yoski and Sruli” (1910; in Russian translation “Summer in Michałówka”, 1961), “King Matt the First” ( 1923) and others; short stories, conversations, articles and a diary from 1942 introduce the reader to the complex world of child psychology, contain observations on the life of Poland 1900-1939, and reflect the rich experience of a doctor and teacher.
Korczak also owns over 20 books on education (the main one is “How to Love a Child,” 1914, and “The Child’s Right to Respect,” 1929).
Essays
Books for children
* Ktoredy (1898) - drama
* Street children (Dzieci ulicy, Warsaw 1901)
* Koszalki Opalki (Warsaw, 1905)
* Child of the Living Room (Dziecko salonu, Warsaw 1906, 2nd edition 1927) - partly autobiographical.
* Moski, Joski and Sruli (Moski, Joski i Srule, Warsaw 1910); in Russian translation “Summer in Michałówka”, 1961
* Jozki, Jaski and Franki (Jozki, Jaski i Franki, Warsaw 1911)
* Slava (Slawa, Warsaw 1913, corrected 1935 and 1937)
* Bobo (Warsaw 1914)
* Fatal week (Feralny tydzien, 1914)
* King Matt the First (Krol Macius Pierwszy, Warsaw 1923)
* King Matt on a Desert Island (Krol Macius na wyspie bezludnej, Warsaw 1923)
* The Bankruptcy of Little Jack (Bankructwo malego Dzeka, Warsaw 1924)
* When I become small again (Kiedy znow bede maly, Warsaw 1925)
* Senat szalencow, humoreska ponura (1931) - script for the Warsaw Ateneum Theater
* Kaitus the sorcerer (Kajtus czarodziej, Warsaw 1935)
Pedagogical works
* Momenty wychowawcze (Warsaw, 1919, 2nd edition 1924)
* How to love a child (Jak kochac dziecko, Warsaw 1919; 2nd edition 1920 Jak kochac dzieci)
* The child’s right to respect (Prawo dziecka do szacunku, Warsaw 1929)
* Rules of life. Pedagogy for children and adults (1930)
* Playful pedagogy (Pedagogika zartobliwa, Warsaw 1933)
Other books
* Diary (Pamietnik, Warsaw 1958) - published posthumously
* Stubborn Boy: The Life of Pasteur (Warsaw 1935)
Works dedicated to Janusz Korczak
Korczak's heroism and martyrdom are legendary. Numerous studies and works are devoted to his life and death: the memoirs of I. Neverly “Living Connections” (1966, Polish), the poem by A. Tseitlin (1898-1973) “The Last Journey of Janusz Korczak” (“Janusz Korczaks Lezter Gang”, 1970? , Yiddish), drama by E. Silvanius “Korchak and the Children” (1958, German) and others.
Books in Russian
* In 1970, Alexander Galich wrote one of his best poems, “Kaddish,” dedicated to Janusz Korczak.
* Lifton B.J., “The King of Children. The Life and Death of Janusz Korczak. M.: Rudomino: Text, 2004. ISBN 5-7516-0479-2
* Pedagogy of Janusz Korczak and Jewish education, Gerard Kahn
* In memory of Korczak: Sat. Art.: (About the doctor, teacher and writer J. Korczak, 1878-1942) / Rep. ed. O. R. Medvedeva. M.: Ross. Janusz Korczak Island, 1992. ISBN 5-900365-01-8
* Valeeva R. A. Humanistic pedagogy of Janusz Korczak: Textbook. Kazan: KSPI, 1994.
* Kochnov V.F. Janusz Korczak: A book for teachers. M.: Education, 1991.
Movies
* “Korczak”, director A. Wajda, script A. Holland. Poland-Germany-Great Britain. 1990.
Cartoons
* “Tell a story, doctor” - Soviet cartoon, EKRAN, 1988.
Director: Aida Zyablikova. The cartoon has two storylines, one is based on Janusz Korczak’s story “King Matt the First”, the other tells about real events during the Second World War. Janusz Korczak voluntarily stayed with his students and died with them in a German concentration camp. The cartoon consists of 3 parts. Psychologically, a very difficult cartoon.
Theater
* Jeffrey Hatcher’s play “Korczak’s Children”
Opera
* Children's opera-musical “King Matt I”, by Lev Konov based on the fairy tale by Janusz Korczak. The premiere took place in Moscow, 1988. The opera was recorded in 1992.
* Opera “King Matt the First” in a new edition of 2009.
Author of the libretto-script and music - Lev Konov
* Opera “Korczak’s Orphans”. Music by Adam Silverman, libretto by Susan Gubernat.
Real name Janusz Korczak Henryk Goldschmidt. He was born on July 22, 1878 in Warsaw into a wealthy family of a famous lawyer. When he was eleven years old, the family suffered a misfortune that left a tragic imprint on the boy’s soul: his father developed mental illness, he was placed in a hospital, from where he never returned. Seven years of father's illness led to the family's economic situation deteriorating sharply. Henryk is forced to help his mother and sister; While continuing to study at the gymnasium, he earns money by tutoring.
In 1898, Henryk graduated from the Russian gymnasium and entered the medical faculty of the University of Warsaw. Since his first year, under the pseudonym Janusz Korczak (named after one of the heroes of the Polish writer Ignacy Kraszewski), he has been active as a journalist. As Korczak himself repeatedly emphasized, his literary style was shaped by Russian literature of the 19th century, especially the work of Chekhov.
In 1904, the young man graduated from the university and began working as a pediatrician in a children's hospital. As a field hospital doctor, he participated in the Russo-Japanese War, and then again worked in one of the children's clinics until 1910.
In 1905, Korczak’s first story, “The Living Room Child,” was published, which brought him success and fame. Korczak embarks on the path of reforming an unsettled world not only as a pediatrician, but also as a writer, journalist, and public figure. He proclaims: “To reform the world means to reform education.”
In 1907 and 1908 he works as a teacher in children's summer colonies, where the main contingent are orphans and children from low-income Jewish families. It was then that Korczak determined his main profession - teacher. The best confirmation of this were his books “Pugs, Yoski and Sruli” (1910), “Yuzki, Yaski and Franks” (1911). In 1912, Korczak became director of the reorganized Orphan House.
During the First World War, Korczak was a resident at a field hospital in the Russian army. He spent four years wandering along the roads of war. In the spring of 1917, he was seconded to work as a doctor in Polish and Ukrainian orphanages, and lived in Kyiv for a year.
During the war years, one of Korczak’s main pedagogical books was born, “How to Love a Child” (1918), which became the author’s life credo. And although Korczak formally leaves the practice of medicine, he remains a doctor until the end of his life, since his students always needed a doctor.
In 1918, Korczak returned to Warsaw and became the brains and soul of two orphanages: “Our Home” and “House of Orphans,” where he created a kind of children’s republic, a tiny cell of equality and justice. In the "House of Orphans" there was an elected children's diet, a comrades' court and a judicial council. The comrades' court in ninety-five cases out of a hundred handed down acquittals; understand and forgive - this was his leitmotif.
Korczak described and analyzed his experience of practical work with children in books. The best of them “Educational Moments” (1919), “About the School Newspaper” (1921), “The Child’s Right to Respect” (1929), “Rules of Life” (1930), “Joking Pedagogy” (1939), “Bankruptcy of a Little Jack" (1924), "When I Become Little Again" (1925), "King the Wizard" (1935), "Stubborn Boy. The Life of Louis Pasteur" (1938). He also collaborates with magazines, works as the editor of the children's newspaper he created (the first in the world), and gives educational talks on the radio under the pseudonym Old Doctor.
A special place among Korczak’s books is occupied by the duology “King Matt the First” and “Matt on the Desert Island” (1923). This masterpiece brought Korczak worldwide fame and took its rightful place among the best philosophical tales. The parable about the noble boy-king Matt I has won millions of hearts, both children and adults. The little persistent hero, somewhat similar to both Hamlet and Don Quixote, has forever entered world literature.
In 1934 and 1936 At the invitation of his former students, Korczak visits Mandatory Palestine. But he refuses the offer to move there.
When Hitler invaded Poland and Warsaw was occupied, Korczak remained with his charges. In 1940, the Germans arrested him. Korczak spent several months in prison, from where his former students bought him out. The world famous writer had the opportunity to leave Poland. But Korczak returned to the “House of Orphans,” which was already located on the territory of the Warsaw Ghetto.
Many people tried in vain to persuade Korczak to leave the ghetto, knowing that the authorities allowed him to leave and return. But Korczak refused.
On August 5, 1942, the children of the “House of Orphans” were sent to the concentration camp in Treblinka. A few days later, Korczak entered the gas chamber with his children.
There is a large stone at the site of Korczak's death in Treblinka. There is a short inscription on it: “Janusz Korczak and children.”
“The Old Doctor from the Radio” was the name given to another learned man, Janusz Korczak (real name: Henryk Goldszmit), a Polish writer, teacher-reformer, and doctor.
His distinctive feature was that he loved children very much.
He was an extraordinary person who, at the age of 11, first experienced the bankruptcy of his beloved father, with whom the boy had an internal spiritual connection (he was a successful lawyer in Warsaw), and then his serious illness and death.
After this, the boy Janusz continues to study at the gymnasium, and in order to get money for his studies, he becomes a tutor in rich houses. Henryk knew several languages: Polish, Jewish and Russian - he spoke them fluently, read German and French.
In 1898, the young man graduated from the Russian gymnasium and entered the University of Warsaw, the Faculty of Medicine. In the same year he began active journalistic activity under the pseudonym Janusz Korczak.
Subsequently, he repeatedly noted that his love for Russian literature of the 19th century helped him become a writer; Korczak especially singled out Anton Pavlovich Chekhov among the constellation of talented writers. In 1905, Korczak’s first story, “The Drawing Room Child,” was published, which was immediately noted by the reading public. At this time, he works as a doctor in a children's clinic and for seven years he has been treating not only children's bodies, but also their souls. He does everything possible to protect them from pain, loneliness and despair.
Janusz Korczak tried to put himself in the place of the child and show adults how much they did not understand the little man. In 1907-1908 he worked as a teacher in children's summer colonies, where the main contingent were children from low-income Jewish families. In 1912, he became the director of the Orphanage, which he would lead for the rest of his life and die on the same day as his pupils. But more on that later.
During World War I, Janusz Korczak serves as a resident at a field hospital in the Russian army. In the spring of 1917, he was sent to work as a doctor in Polish and Ukrainian orphanages. He lived in Kyiv for a year and there he met the Polish enthusiast Maria Falskaya, with whom after the war they organized the Warsaw orphanage “Our Home”.
In the photo: on the cover of the book about Janusz Korczak, there is a documentary shot that captures the tragic episode of how the Nazis herded children into a freight car...
Korczak embarks on the path of reforming an unsettled world; he believes that “to reform the world means to reform education.”
In 1918, one of his best pedagogical books, “How to Love a Child,” was born. This work is often called the author’s life credo, in particular, he wrote in it: “There are no children - there are people, but with a different scale of concepts, a different stock of experience, different drives, a different play of feelings.”
The teacher strongly advocated a revision of the methodology of education. Janusz Korczak wrote: “One of the gravest mistakes is to consider what is considered a science about the child, and not about man... In the field of feelings, the child surpasses adults in strength, because inhibition has not been worked out... In the field of intelligence, at least, he is equal to them “The only thing missing is experience.”
In 1918, the doctor and teacher returned to Warsaw. He teaches at the Institute of Special Education and at the Free Polish University. In the same year, he began working on Polish radio and became an adviser in raising children for tens of thousands of radio listeners. At first he was simply called “The Radio Doctor.”
While working at the Orphanage, Janusz Korczak created his own system of education, which was based on a long process of awakening and developing in the child the need for self-awareness, self-control and the will to self-improvement.
In the photo: The orphanage, which from 1911 until the end of Janusz Korczak’s life was his own home
Where did the Radio Doctor get his material from? Where did you get the strength to love every - it is emphasized - every child, even the one who did not yet know how to love anyone and was angry with the whole world? “From the prayer book and from the Tips for Taming Wild Animals,” Korczak answered.
In the “House of Orphans”, this extraordinary man created a system of self-government, which was led by an elected children's diet, a comradely and judicial council, which passed acquittals in 90 out of 100 cases. To understand and forgive is the main leitmotif of the children's court. Children had to be taught this, having gone through a lot of humiliation and refraction.
In the “House of Orphans” there should have been no violence, tyranny, unlimited power - no one, not even educators. “There is nothing worse when a lot depends on one,” writes “School Newspaper” (“Maly Pshegland” - “Little Review”), “when someone knows that he is irreplaceable, he begins to allow himself too much... »
"There is a thousand times more good than evil.
Good is strong and indestructible.
It's not true that it's easier to mess up than to fix"
In the book “How to Love a Child,” Korczak talks about a teenage boy who did not like the “Doctor on the Radio” and showed it with all his appearance in front of other children; he often flaunted this, internally realizing his impunity. “And suddenly,” writes Janusz Korczak, “something happened to this obstinate little man - he began to curry favor with the teacher, look into his eyes, be the first to laugh at jokes...” The teacher did not say anything for two weeks, he did not show that sees how difficult such behavior is for a not-so-little person; he waited... And then 14 days passed, and this boy approached the teacher.
For the first time, Janusz Korczak heard his real, serious voice, which seemed ready to burst into tears at any moment, he heard a request to take his little brother to the “Orphanage”. The teacher cried and agreed. Afterwards they cried together. This adult had the right to say that “there is a thousand times more good in life than evil,” and that “good is strong and indestructible, and that it is not true, that it is easier to spoil than to correct.”
In fact, it is possible to fix it, you just have to wait a long time, because a person is, in the words of the “Doctor from the Radio,” “a long-growing plant that does not produce its fruit right away and does not show it to everyone.”
In his book “How to Love a Child,” Janusz Korczak talks about the different stages of a little person’s life, starting from the moment of conception. He confirms Kamensky’s idea that the ovary, the flower, and the ripened fruit are of equal value to God.
We can say that every book by Janusz Korczakas with such a telling title “How to Love a Child” is built on small educational pedagogical miniatures, which in our time not only have not aged and “have not lost their color and smell”, but on the contrary, like an old pattern on a carpet, the colors they changed and acquired a different sound.
The doctor and teacher describes one of his calls as a pediatrician to an infant. The mother complained about some symptoms that she allegedly noticed in the baby: he cried differently, took the breast differently, snored differently in his sleep. The doctor found the child absolutely healthy, but two days later the baby’s temperature really jumped and he fell ill. “What is this,” asks Korczak, “if not the inner maternal instinct, capable of seeing internally what is not accessible to the external gaze?”
In 1933, during the years of famine and war, the “Old Doctor from the Radio” addressed in an appeal “To the Jews!” asking for a donation for orphans. He warned: “Whoever runs from history will be caught up by history. We bear common responsibility not for the Orphanage, but for the tradition of helping children. We are scoundrels if we refuse, we are insignificant if we turn away, we are dirty if we spoil it - the tradition of years. Let us maintain nobility in adversity!”
The following appeal was made in February 1940: “I am happy to confirm that, with few exceptions, man is both a reasonable and kind creature. There are no longer one hundred, but one hundred and fifty children living in the “House of Orphans”.
Soon the children, along with their teachers, were moved to the territory of the Jewish ghetto and prepared for their fate in the gas chamber. Janusz Korczak knew about this. At night he put his papers in order and wrote a diary. The papers and the diary were priceless thirty years of observations of children...
It breaks your heart when you read the lines about how the “Old Doctor from the Radio” was offered to leave the ghetto territory due to his old age (he was over 60 by that time) and merits, and how he stayed and went at the head of one of the columns to his death. "What is this? - asks the thinking reader. “Is this heroism or pathos?”
Yes, it’s not one thing or another, it’s just that this man chose the “Orphanage” as his son at the age of 29 and died with “him”, without playing at all, he just lived like that, loving with all his heart those rejected by everyone. The Holy Scripture says: “We will die, and we will be like water poured on the ground, which cannot be gathered up; but God does not want to destroy the soul, and is thinking about how not to reject the rejected one from Himself.” (2 Samuel, 14th chapter, 14th century).
And Janusz Korczak lived and served people, relying on these Words, and tried to raise full-fledged individuals from the “outcast” kids, who would later take over the baton from them: “men in service to children (should be read - people).”