A short biography of Janusz Korczak

A SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF JANUSZ KORCZAK

REAL NAME
Henryk Goldszmit

PARENTS

Józef Godszmit (lawyer); Cecylia nee Gębicka

BORN
in Warsaw 1878/79

DEATH
murdered in Treblinka extermination cam 5/6 August 1942

JOB
doctor, educator, writer, social worker, "guardian angel", humanitarian, pedagogue

STUDIES
Warsaw University

FAITH
jewish, later agnostic

WORK
Barson and BaumanChlidren's Hospital (1905-12)
managed orphanage for Jewish chlidren ( 1912- 1942)
took part in creation of Pruszków orphanage for Polish children
consuled by the courts as an expert on children
founded a children's newspaper " Little Review "
worked for radio as " Old Doctor "

HOW MUCH WE WROTE
20 books, 1 400 articles ( published in 100 magazines)

TOOK PART IN
Russo - Japanese war
the Russian Revolution 1905-1906
the First World War
the Polish - Bolshevik War 1920
the Second World War

TRAVELS
Switzerland, Germany, France, England, Palestine

Thursday, December 27, 2012

The Jews dectruction


The numer of Jews in Radom in 1940-42 didn't hestitate much and it was about 33 00 people.

From the first days of the occupation German approached to the realization of genocidal plan towards Jewish people. They were depreiving property, limiting, freedom, isolating from Polish society with the aim of slaughetring Jews, which was called in their secret plans the "Final Solution".

When the German army entered Radom, persecutions immediately sterted. In the beginning they were more individual impediments. There were some cases of beating, robbing, etc. However, they were slowly becoming more organised. First of all collected as the administrative - ordinal rules but clearly annoying, they became more and more strict, and finally they took a nature of a crime. During this time the most burdensome thing for the Jews was the ordinance about the compulsory work in the camps, created specially for this aim. 

In the arsenal of methods used by the occupation German authorities, tending to the mass liquidation of the Jewish people, the most important were the Ghettos. Radom Ghetto in the German nomenclature was called the "complex Ghetto" i.e. consisting of 2 Jewish districts situated in different parts of the city. About 25 000 Jews were placed in Śródmieście - big Ghetto, and in Glinice 0 small Ghetto - about 8 000 Jews settled down. In total, 33 000 people were closed in the walls of both Ghettos. 

From the beginning Ghetto was conceived and treated as an instrument of the physical extermination of the people who lived there. They had horrible housing and sanitary conditions. German authorities intentionally created conditions, in which explosions of infections disease were unavoidable. The first propitious element was a huge population density and connected with it sanitary conditions. The second reason of mortality was femine, which caused a lot of deaths. The food rations, which Jews were getting couldn't keep anyone alive. The punishment for leaving Ghetto and helping. Jewish people was death. In spite of all thousands of Poles risked their lives to hide and help tthe Jews. 

Janusz Korczak



Janusz Korczak is a legend. He became known worldwide because he trully wanted to shield the Jewish orphans from the atrocities in the Warsaw Ghetto. He refused to leave them even when in meant for him to die with his co-worker. I think it is the greatest proof that he really loved these children and was ready to sactifice everything for them.The fact that UNESCO declared 1978-79 as the Year of Korczak to mark the centenary of his birth and United Nations made it Year of the Child corroborated that Korczak is still remembered even after his death.I think Korczak is Also very important person for hist writings The have been translated into other languages and Janusz Korczak societies and child rights activists often refer to his teaching needs more attention, because it is still not fully understood.

Korczak published his novels when he was in his early twenties. At the same time he was becoming more and more comitted to the fate of destitute children, As he thought that "writing is only words, medicine is deeds" he started his medical studies.The thing which impresses and amazes me the most is that when Janusz Korczak was taking part in the Russo - Japanese war he didn't actually care about himself. He focused on children who were hungry, injured, ill treated, orphaned, or left without protection. Even during such a cruel time they were still the most important for him. When he was 34 he was asked to become a dircetor of a Jewish orphanage. It was a position that he would keep until his last day. As a doctor he had to care about all the medical doings. But he also saw the importance of child-friendly learning methods. Korczak made an experiment with a chilrden's republic and a system of justice. Although the ounishment was usually to ask for forgivness and be excused, in my opinion he proved a huge humanity by being charged himself a couple of times for mistakes. Korczak colleauges said that he could "talkwith children as if they were adults and with adults as if they were children". It is a great proof that he was an interpreter between the worlds of children and grown - ups. He was the most radical campaigner for children's rights - he wanted to prove that the declaration of the Rights of the Child was begging rather than insisting, he fought for the right to receive love love and the right to respect, he pleated for equality between children and adults and he wanted children to have the right to the right to learn from experience.

To sum up, the thing which impresses me the most in that Janush Korczak was putting such a big effort in his doings to teach at least some adults how to treat the child with respect and love.