Biography, Janusz Korczak, or Hersch Henryk Goldszmit (Henryk Goldszmit, July 22, 1878 – August 6, 1942) was a world-famous Polish educator, social activist, and writer who worked for a time as a doctor.

The real name of Janusz Korczak (1878-1942) was Ersz Henryk Goldszmit. He came from an intelligent Jewish family. He studied in a Russian grammar school in Warsaw. From the age of 15 he was a private tutor. In 1905 he graduated from the Warsaw Medical University and became a doctor. As a military doctor he participated in the Russo-Japanese War.

From 1907 he practiced in children’s hospitals in Berlin, France and England. After leaving his job as a doctor in 1911, Janusz founded the “Home for Orphans” for Jewish children. Here he introduces a system of children’s self-government that was innovative for its time.

In 1889, Henrik’s father showed signs of mental illness. Now his father had to be placed from time to time in special clinics. His maintenance in clinics was expensive, and over time the family was in dire financial straits. In fifth grade (15-16 years) Henryk began to moonlight as a tutor.

In 1898, Korczak entered the medical faculty of the University of Warsaw, while studying at the clandestine higher courses. In the summer of 1899, he went to Switzerland to learn more about the results of Pestalozzi’s pedagogical work. On his trip Korczak was particularly interested in schools and children’s hospitals.

From 1903-11, he worked at the Berson and Baumann 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.

On March 23, 1905, he received a diploma of doctor. As a military doctor he took part in the Russo-Japanese War.

In 1907, Korczak goes to Berlin for a year, where, for his own money, he listens to lectures and practices in children’s clinics and gets acquainted with various educational institutions. He also does an internship in France and visits an orphanage in England.

In 1911 Korczak left the medical profession and founded the “Home for Orphans” for Jewish children in 92 Krochmalna Street, which he headed (with a break in 1914-18) until the end of his life.

In 1914-18. Korczak was in Kiev, where, in addition to his work as a military doctor, he was involved in setting up an orphanage for Polish children and also wrote the book How to Love a Child.

Korczak returned to Warsaw in 1918, where he ran orphanages, taught, cooperated with magazines, appeared on the radio, and lectured at the Free Polish University and the Higher Jewish Pedagogical Courses.

In 1919-36 he participated in the boarding school “Our House” (in Bielany) – an orphanage for Polish children – where he also used innovative pedagogical methods.

In 1926-32. Korczak edited the weekly newspaper “Mały Przegląd” (Little Review, a supplement for children to the Zionist newspaper “Nasz Przegląd” “Our Review”), in which his pupils actively participated.

With Hitler’s rise to power in Germany and the rise of anti-Semitism in Poland, Korczak awakened his Jewish identity. He became the Polish non-Zionist representative to the Jewish Agency. In 1934 and 1936, he visited Mandatory Palestine, where he met many of his former pupils.

In 1940, together with the children of the Orphanage, he was transferred to the Warsaw Ghetto. He rejected all offers by 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 provocateur A. Ganzweich who wanted to earn prestige among the Jews this way.

In the ghetto, Korczak devoted all his energy to taking care of children, heroically obtaining food and medicine for them. When in August 1942, orders came to deport the Orphanage, Korczak, his assistant and friend Stefania Wilczynska (1886-1942), other caretakers and about 200 children, went with them to the station where they were taken in freight cars to Treblinka. He refused the last-minute freedom he was offered and chose to stay with the children, accepting death with them in the gas chamber.

The year 1978 was declared the Year of Korczak by UNESCO.

Every year on March 23, in Poland and Belarus, a kite is flown into the air in memory of Janusz Korczak and the children murdered in the ghetto.

Я. Korczak wrote more than 20 books on education.