Janusz Korczak
| Janusz Korczak | |
|---|---|
Janusz Korczak, photographed c. 1930
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| Born |
Henryk Goldszmit 22 July 1878 (or 1879) Warsaw, Congress Poland, Russian Empire |
| Died |
7 August 1942 (aged 64 or 63) Treblinka extermination camp, German-occupied Poland |
| Occupation | Children's author, humanitarian, pediatrician, child pedagogue and defender of children's rights |
Janusz Korczak, the pen name of Henryk Goldszmit (22 July 1878 or 1879 – 7 August 1942), was a Polish-Jewish educator, children's author, and pediatrician known as Pan Doktor ("Mr. Doctor") or Stary Doktor ("Old Doctor"). After spending many years working as director of an orphanage in Warsaw, he refused sanctuary repeatedly and stayed with his orphans when the entire population of the institution was sent from the Ghetto to the Treblinka extermination camp, during the Grossaktion Warsaw of 1942.
Korczak was born in Warsaw in 1878 or 1879 (sources vary) into the family of Józef Goldszmit, a respected lawyer from a family of proponents of the haskalah, and Cecylia née Gębicka, daughter of a prominent Kalisz family. Born to a Jewish family, he was an agnostic in later life who did not believe in forcing religion on children. His father fell ill around 1890 and was admitted to a mental hospital where he died six years later on 25 April 1896. Spacious apartments were given up on Miodowa street, then Świętojerska. As his family financial situation worsened, Henryk, still while attending the gymnasium (the current 8th Lyccee in Warsaw), begun to work as a tutor for other pupils. In 1896 he debuted on the literary scene with a satirical text on raising children, Węzeł gordyjski.
In 1898 he used Janusz Korczak as a writing pseudonym in the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Literary Contest. The name originated from the book Janasz Korczak and the Pretty Swordsweeperlady (O Janaszu Korczaku i pięknej Miecznikównie) by Józef Ignacy Kraszewski. In the 1890s he studied in the Flying University. During the years 1898–1904 Korczak studied medicine at the University of Warsaw and also wrote for several Polish language newspapers. After graduation he became a pediatrician. In 1905−1912 Korczak worked at Bersohns and Baumans Children's Hospital in Warsaw. During the Russo-Japanese War in 1905–1906 he served as a military doctor. Meanwhile, his book Child of the Drawing Room (Dziecko salonu) gained him some literary recognition.
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