Janusz Korczak

Janusz Korczak was an outstanding Polish educator, writer, physician, and public figure.

He was born in Warsaw on 22 July 1878 into an educated assimilated Jewish family. Korczak’s grandfather, the physician Hirsch Goldszmit, contributed to the newspaper Ha-Maggid; his father, Józef Goldszmit (1846–1896), was a lawyer and the author of the monograph Lectures on Divorce Law According to the Provisions of the Law of Moses and the Talmud (1871). In his Memoirs, Korczak writes: “I was named after my grandfather, whose name was Gershem”; this is the name entered in his birth certificate. In the assimilated Jewish family in which he was born and raised, he was called Heniek, in the Polish manner.

His school years were spent in Warsaw, in a Russian gymnasium. There strict discipline prevailed; going to the theater or traveling home during the holidays was possible only with written permission from the administration. Instruction was conducted in Russian. Latin was taught already in the first grade (for children aged 10–11), French and German in the second, and Greek in the third.

In 1889 signs of mental illness appeared in Heniek’s father. From then on, the father had to be placed from time to time in special clinics. His care there was expensive, and over time the family found itself in a difficult financial situation. From the fifth grade (age 15–16), Heniek began earning extra money as a tutor.

In 1898 Korczak entered the medical faculty of Warsaw University. In the summer of 1899 he traveled to Switzerland to become better acquainted with the results of Pestalozzi’s educational work. On this trip, Korczak was especially interested in schools and children’s hospitals. In 1903 he received his medical degree.

In 1903–11 he worked at the Berson and Bauman Jewish Children’s Hospital and as an educator in summer children’s camps. He was a member of the Jewish charitable Society for the Aid of Orphans.

In 1904–1905 Korczak took part in the Russo-Japanese War as a military physician.

In 1907 Korczak