A portrait of the famously heroic doctor, writer, and director of an
orphanage who left a powerful legacy of creating a forum for and
respecting the dignity of children's lives.
In 1942 Janusz Korczak accompanied children of the Warsaw ghetto to the
Treblinka concentration camp. That brave act became a lasting symbol of
respect for the dignity of children. Korczak was the pen name of Polish
doctor, Henry Goldszmit, an author of books for and about children
including King Matt the First, and, most famously, the director of a
Warsaw orphanage, which he called a "republic of children," where their
rights, their voices, fairness and respect were paramount. Though some
were very young, the children had a parliament, a newspaper, and a court
with which to learn participation in citizenry and communal
responsibility and care. When the Nazis invaded Poland, Korczak was
given the opportunity by the authorities to escape before his charges
were sent to the camps. After surviving the deprivations of the Warsaw
ghetto together, he accompanied the children to Treblinka where it is
assumed they all perished.
Janusz Korczak: No to Denying the Rights of Children shows the
dedication of a humanist whose philosophy for empowering children
inspired the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, and will compel
readers to reconsider the status and welfare and agency of every child.
