Janusz Korczak w Krzywym zwierciadle translates to "Janusz Korczak in the distorting mirror"! In Polish, it means, shown in a funhouse mirror, a crooked mirror. By this, the author, Michal Wasserman Wróblewski, shows figuratively a false, skewed perspective that distorts the reality of Janusz Korczak´s life and work.
Janusz Korczak in a slanting light?
MICHAŁ WRÓBLEWSKI, Stockholm
Wuppertal Meeting 1987
Janusz Korczak's life and work fall into the final phase of the existence and development of Polish Jewry. Korczak came from a family that was part of the Jewish milieu, which thought Polish and identified as Polish. He was one of the co-creators of the culture of this ethically-social stratum of the population, but not only this one, and, moreover, not only exclusively the Polish one. He co-created the culture of all humanity.
The most diverse people, guided by different motives, strive to draw a picture of this modest yet extraordinary person and to show his work. As always in such cases, this is only possible by taking into account the history of the country in which he lived. Without this embedding in historical reality, many things remain incomprehensible to us contemporaries, and even more so to future generations.
Some authors have not resisted the temptation not only to reproduce facts but also to evaluate the person of Korczak, his activity as an educator, writer, and engaged advocate for the cause of the 'minor nation', to whom he remained loyal until the end. Others emphasize the ethical values he worshipped, which were a guideline for him.
In many cases, the writers have failed to refrain from a truly shocking subjective judgment. Works of the type "I and Korczak" were thus created. To a certain extent, this is natural. The only question is to what extent we may accept such an extremely subjective attitude and what, besides the author's own individuality, is the reason for such subjectivism. Specifically, the question is whether such an attitude can be reconciled with the true image of Korczak, his attitude, and his thinking. A natural consequence of a subjective attitude can, of course, lead to a divergent interpretation of the facts. However, a conscious cover-up of the truth, the bending of facts, and the invention of new, untrue, and improbable facts is unacceptable. Why, for what, for what purpose?
There are also clear, even if not immediately recognizable at first glance, manipulations, which are all the more damaging and dangerous.
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..are. I am for factual criticism. I am far from wanting to attribute malicious intent to all commentators and accuse them of bending their writing for current needs. Some of them I know or knew personally and value or valued them.
Some misunderstandings also result from an inflexible, static attitude towards Korczak. Times have changed, conditions have changed, life has erased a large part of our dreams—how could Korczak alone have remained unchanged amidst changing circumstances? I am by no means of the opinion that all thoughts and solution models of the 'Old Doctor', born in pain, can still be valid today without review and testing. I am clearly in favor of a factual analysis of Korczak's legacy. (Many things are still kept secret, e.g., his understanding of genetics, the right to life and the right to death, certain passages from his 'Diary' written under such anomalous conditions.)
I do not blame the authors of literary or dramatic works for drawing a picture of Korczak that deviates so far from reality that his former closest associates would not recognize the person so dear to them, because one must accept the undisputed right of writers to use facts as inspiration for their creative plans. Fiction does not destroy the literary work, even if it causes astonishment or even discomfort in some cases. However, I place much higher demands on the commentators of the biography and work of the 'Old Doctor'. We have a right to demand the greatest sense of responsibility from them—especially for the written word, in their reports and proofs that they pass on to us today, to the young generation, and to future generations. Littera scripta manet. The printed word will remain, even when we are no longer here, and people will adhere to these words, quote them as opinions and views of authors who legitimized themselves as Korczak's associates or comrades-in-arms.
I would like to raise awareness that even the reception of authentic facts can cause misunderstandings among people of our time, and even more so among those of another era and another cultural sphere. I would like to give a few examples: It was written truthfully that Henryk Goldszmit's mother was a née Gębicka. Already in the 60s, someone said, because of this: "So Korczak was actually..."
...just a half-Jew"... In Poland, I suspect this mechanical division of a person into two halves was intended as a kind of ennoblement. Is this the legacy of the crematorium era? Possibly, but probably not only that. Korczak indeed came from an assimilated family. But how differently the phenomenon of assimilation is viewed in different countries and different circles.
At the UNESCO Korczak symposium in Paris, a French journalist approached us after Igor Newerly's lecture and asked: "Why does one hear so often that antisemitism is greater in Poland than in other countries, when such a wonderful person as Janusz Korczak voluntarily went to his death with Jewish children?" And she further asked: "Who actually was this Henryk Goldszmit they were talking about? Was that a doctor who worked with Korczak?"
Dr. Hanna Kirchner, the well-known literary historian, was already actively involved in the Korczak Committee in the 1950s. It is incomprehensible to me how a sentence like this could be found in her interesting essay on the topic "Korczak's Position in Literature": "This unusual writer and thinker who came from a baptized Jewish family..."
And the motives?... Should the author of the book "Alone with God or Prayers of Those Who Do Not Pray" be brought closer to the Polish reader through baptism or by adopting another religion? (I would like to mention that this sentence was deleted when the essay was republished in the anthology "Janusz Korczak - Life and Work").
In contrast, the Catholic clergyman and lyric poet Jan Twardowski took a very beautiful and open stance on this subject in a sermon in the Church of the Order of the Visitation Sisters in Warsaw, held on December 29, 1971. He said: "Janusz Korczak was formally not connected to Jesus through baptism, but how much we Christians can learn from his life and his death!"
Here is an example from another area: The London weekly newspaper "Wiadomości" (News), published in Polish, published an article by Edward Poznański, otherwise an irreproachable man, on November 18, 1973, under the title "I worked with Janusz Korczak". A copy of this article was...
¹ The term 'Halbjude' (half-Jew) was consciously not used in this translation because of its Nazi connotation.
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...I received from the now sadly deceased General Secretary of the society, Les Amis du Docteur Janusz Korczak, Dr. Adam Nowomiński. Curious and incredulous, he wanted to know from me, Korczak's long-time associate at the orphanage on Krochmalna Street, whether it was true, as E. Poznański suggested, that Korczak had been a proponent of physical punishment, i.e., 'spanking' (cf. Poznański 1973). During my time at the orphanage, I never experienced a single case of a child being hit by an adult. Korczak himself clarified his stance on this as follows: "I am an absolute and implacable opponent of physical punishment... Anyone who hits a child is an executioner..." (Korczak 1978 a, p. 239)
Perhaps one should also mention the book "Janusz Korczak" by Marek Jaworski, a cleverly compiled compilation published in a hurry in Poland by Interpress in several languages in 1973, when it became known that Korczak had been 'resurrected' in Paris. The author described, among other things, how on the day before Christmas Eve, a truck transporting garbage brought small Christmas presents and... a pine-scented Christmas tree to the Jewish children in the (Warsaw) Ghetto. It is not impossible that people of goodwill, out of Christian charity, not only came up with such an idea but also realized it. Against this, however, I rule out the possibility that the Doctor could have written on a piece of paper, touched: "The Jewish people will never forget this act dictated by humanism and solidarity towards their Polish brothers." (Jaworski 1973) Korczak never used such high-flown language, nor did he ever speak on behalf of the people.
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| Typical "Fiction" about Janusz Korczak´s Orphanage. Here are notes by Pan Misza (Michal Wasserman Wróblewski in the book by K. Dębnicki. Pan Misza wrote "Wymysł" - an invention, a fabrication, and below it "Nie widziałem go ani razu" - Never seen him (in the orphanage during that time). Pan Misza describes false "After March-1968" information in the following books: Niewiadomski Teodor "Z pomocą dla warszawskiego getta" Kultura, no. 161, 21 kwietnia, 1968. Niewiadomski Teodor: Kulisy , nr 52, 1971., Jaworski Marek: Janusz Korczak. Warszawa, Interpress, 1977., Dębnicki Kazimierz: Korczak z bliska. Warszawa, LSW, 1985. |
I have known Kazik Dębnicki for many years, and I have always liked him. All the more was I astonished, indeed filled with bitterness, by reading his latest book "Korczak from Close Up". It is not easy for me to talk about it. But it must be done. In his inventions, he tells unashamedly: "The Catholic Christmas festival was celebrated in the orphanage, and people played under the bright lights of the Christmas tree." (Dębnicki 1985, p. 158) Is this supposed to be a sign of tolerance, an expression of a merger of two cultures? I worked in the orphanage for so many years—I never saw a Christmas tree there. Dębnicki evidently relied on (mis-)information originating from Jaworski, spread it further, and considered it part of the orphanage's tradition. Beware—that's how the once printed word works!
If these 10 sheets in Korczak's literary convention after
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...had been written according to the pattern of "When I am small again", one could be just as lenient as one is towards all imaginative writers. But the author suggests facts, and that supposedly 'first-hand'. This makes the pill all the more damaging. It is not to be swallowed. Despite all the goodwill they have for Kazik Dębnicki, even his friends do not hide their displeasure about this book. In 'Polityka' K. Koźniewski wrote: "The fragments of conversations between Korczak and the young Dębnicki cited after more than half a century... sound little credible." (Koźniewski 1985) And Leon Harari, Dębnicki's colleague from the time of 'Mały Przegląd', made the apt remark: "After so many years of silence, this sudden enlightenment! The reproduction for posterity of conversations that never happened..." Unfortunately, that is how it looks. I would much rather have preserved the memory of another Kazik, an honest, solid person, and not one suffering from mythomania. It is a great shame that he 'perpetrated' this book shortly before his untimely death. I do not know what drove him to do it. Did he want to set himself a monument during his lifetime by portraying himself without any truthfulness as a confidant of the 'Old Doctor' and as an envoy of the Poles fighting in the underground? I ask myself why, in view of the obvious falsifications that discredit the entire book "Korczak from Close Up", none of those who once worked in the orphanage publicly raised their voices against these gross untruths during Dębnicki's lifetime. Ida Merżan knew the house on Krochmalna Street since the 1920s, Lucyna Gold worked in the boarding school of the orphanage and was later active there as an educator. Aleksander Lewin also worked in the boarding school from 1937 to 1939, where he proved himself to be a solid colleague, a talented director, and at least a courageous student of pedagogy. Tempora mutantur...
— K. Dębnicki's book "Korczak from Close Up" was met with almost total silence, similar to how, in 1953, there was no public discussion about A. Lewin's book "Problems of Collective Education". Under the influence of the currents from the East and the fascination with Makarenko, the then young author wrote about Korczak, I quote: "Korczak's system awakens the illusion of a supposedly existing separate world of the child... Korczak's protection of the child from the world of adults... resulted from his false assessment of social conditions... Contrary to any appearance of radicalism in the developmental stage of youth, Korczak clearly represented the ideological currents
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...of the petty bourgeoisie... Korczak... sounded out the peculiarities of individual individuals or certain child types. We must rise up to their feelings, rise up, pull ourselves up, stand on tiptoe, reach them.« And it was precisely this that gave his system a pedagogical character. Thus, Korczak essentially ceased to be a pedagogue." (Lewin 1953, pp. 269 ff.)
And what happened later? When the name Korczak fell, it was always a matter of the petty-bourgeois pedagogue. His books were withdrawn from bookshops, removed from libraries, and it was even recommended that they be destroyed. That is now history. That was during the Stalin era, in the time of mistakes and shortcomings, as people tend to call it in Poland. We must only keep history awake so that it does not repeat itself. So that, for example, unfounded assertions are not multiplied, as K. Dębnicki and T. Karren have done. So that we do not return to A. Lewin's old Korczak-'résumé', where the 'Old Doctor' was discredited as a pedagogue and his life and work were devalued.
A footnote in the introduction to the first edition of Korczak's Selected Writings from Lewin's pen is intended to clarify what the late Lewin thought in 1978 of the early Lewin, the author of the "Problems of Collective Education". I quote: "At this point I can refer to my own views, which I held at the time." (Lewin, in Korczak 1978a, p. 10) See Lewin 1953. This somewhat enigmatic and all too modestly formulated footnote could entice one to study the highly problematic "Problems...". The fact that the past tense is used here speaks clearly language. I am pleased that Lewin's views on the life and work of the 'Old Doctor' have undergone a re-evaluation, that Lewin has made a reorientation in his understanding of Korczak's considerations and experiences. I am convinced that Prof. Aleksander Lewin could afford to articulate his current views precisely, and even comment on the mistakes of others.
I take the liberty of returning once more to the work by K. Dębnicki already mentioned. The author claims that "Korczak was a Socialist" indeed, even a "pioneer in the development of the revolutionary idea". He refers to Ida Merżan and writes: "In her memoirs, Ida came very close to such answers intuitively when asked where his striving was going, answers that confirmed the socialist character of his striving. Only the author of the memoirs overlooked that she was standing on the threshold of these answers; something held her back." (Dębnicki 1985, p. 169) Right, something held her back, unlike Dębnicki.
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Aharon Jadlin declared in the foreword to Josef Arnon's interesting brochure "Who Was Janusz Korczak" no more and no less than that Korczak was a Zionist, just like Herzl... etc. One must know that Jadlin, when he wrote this, was the Minister of Education and Culture of the State of Israel. (Cf. Arnon 1978)
Korczak described himself as a person of a solitary path. From all the 'research results' and labels like: no educator, advocate of the beautiful idea of how to love a child, secret advisor on how to beat children, Zionist, Socialist, pioneer of the development of the revolutionary idea, a confused jumble, a chaos, a shrill dissonance arises.
May the pure tone of Prof. Maria Grzegorzewska, the co-creator of social pedagogy on the international stage, the meritorious scholar who worked closely with Korczak for many years, resonate. I take the liberty of quoting her, slightly abbreviated: "One can only speak about him very biasedly; his greatness in straightforwardness and the truth of life was overwhelming. And although I worked with him for many years, I write about him with a pronounced feeling of helplessness... How deeply he researched the child... how he taught parents to raise their children, and how he got teachers to see the children through his eyes, and later help them in their development and when entering the world of adults. He was a modest person who went through life straightforwardly on the path of truth and a deep sense of responsibility, in quiet, selfless service to society." (P. 58) "Korczak provoked the truth with his mere presence. Everyone found themselves when dealing with him and became themselves. One felt the whole inferiority of phrases and trivial forms... Korczak enriched our pedagogical life and the foundations of educational theories with precious treasures... He served his goal with action, word, and writing as an educational practitioner, as a fighter for the rights of the child, as a psychologist and discoverer of these rights, as a doctor, as a writer, and as a teacher. He was not only a guide for those searching in the labyrinth and mysteries of child life, but out of free choice and love also a loyal friend, and sometimes he was a strict guardian of the child's rights in deep concern for their future destiny and thus for our own future." (Grzegorzewska 1958, pp. 53, 58 ff.)
In 1986, the world of science celebrated the 100th birthday of Professor Tadeusz Kotarbiński, who had already been called the Warsaw Socrates half a century earlier. He was a great authority not only in the field of intellect but also in matters of conscience. Regarding Dr. Janusz Korczak, Kotarbiński elaborated in a "conversation" on the subject of independent ethics: "The point is to empathize with the essence of ethical judgment, whereby we must place before our eyes the starkest examples of both the basest and the noblest behavior. An example of the basest behavior, the prime example: the Judas silver pieces. Here we have a person who betrays another, one who had every reason to trust him—he betrayed him, he delivered him to suffering for the sake of a miserable material advantage. And here the peak of noble behavior: the well-known deed of Dr. Korczak, a man who consciously refused his own relative protection and went the way of his own suffering to care for those who trusted him until the end—in this case: children. It could have been others besides children. If we empathize with these facts, we arrive together at certain convictions... The essence of a base deed is behavior that is exactly contrary to the behavior of a protector on whom one can rely in difficult circumstances. That must be a good person... a courageous one, because it is precisely then that it shows that he is a good and manly shepherd of his charges, when he is willing to put himself in danger in his protector role. And he must be honest, able to keep his word, so that those who trust him can be sure that he will not disappoint them. Exactly, this is the essence of honesty." (Kotarbiński 1972)
Korczak described himself as a person of a solitary path. From all the 'research results' and labels like: no educator, advocate of the beautiful idea of how to love a child, secret advisor on how to beat children, Zionist, Socialist, pioneer of the development of the revolutionary idea, a confused jumble, a chaos, a shrill dissonance arises.
May the pure tone of Prof. Maria Grzegorzewska, the co-creator of social pedagogy on the international stage, the meritorious scholar who worked closely with Korczak for many years, resonate. I take the liberty of quoting her, slightly abbreviated: "One can only speak about him very biasedly; his greatness in straightforwardness and the truth of life was overwhelming. And although I worked with him for many years, I write about him with a pronounced feeling of helplessness... How deeply he researched the child... how he taught parents to raise their children, and how he got teachers to see the children through his eyes, and later help them in their development and when entering the world of adults. He was a modest person who went through life straightforwardly on the path of truth and a deep sense of responsibility, in quiet, selfless service to society." (P. 58) "Korczak provoked the truth with his mere presence. Everyone found themselves when dealing with him and became themselves. One felt the whole inferiority of phrases and trivial forms... Korczak enriched our pedagogical life and the foundations of educational theories with precious treasures... He served his goal with action, word, and writing as an educational practitioner, as a fighter for the rights of the child, as a psychologist and discoverer of these rights, as a doctor, as a writer, and as a teacher. He was not only a guide for those searching in the labyrinth and mysteries of child life, but out of free choice and love also a loyal friend, and sometimes he was a strict guardian of the child's rights in deep concern for their future destiny and thus for our own future." (Grzegorzewska 1958, pp. 53, 58 ff.)
In 1986, the world of science celebrated the 100th birthday of Professor Tadeusz Kotarbiński, who had already been called the Warsaw Socrates half a century earlier. He was a great authority not only in the field of intellect but also in matters of conscience. Regarding Dr. Janusz Korczak, Kotarbiński elaborated in a "conversation" on the subject of independent ethics: "The point is to empathize with the essence of ethical judgment, whereby we must place before our eyes the starkest examples of both the basest and the noblest behavior. An example of the basest behavior, the prime example: the Judas silver pieces. Here we have a person who betrays another, one who had every reason to trust him—he betrayed him, he delivered him to suffering for the sake of a miserable material advantage. And here the peak of noble behavior: the well-known deed of Dr. Korczak, a man who consciously refused his own relative protection and went the way of his own suffering to care for those who trusted him until the end—in this case: children. It could have been others besides children. If we empathize with these facts, we arrive together at certain convictions... The essence of a base deed is behavior that is exactly contrary to the behavior of a protector on whom one can rely in difficult circumstances. That must be a good person... a courageous one, because it is precisely then that it shows that he is a good and manly shepherd of his charges, when he is willing to put himself in danger in his protector role. And he must be honest, able to keep his word, so that those who trust him can be sure that he will not disappoint them. Exactly, this is the essence of honesty." (Kotarbiński 1972)
I would like to be convinced that we, today's Korczak followers, also belong to those one can rely on, that we belong to the reliable, the courageous, the honest, to those who prove themselves when someone consciously or unconsciously tries to present the 'Old Doctor' in a slanted light. For this reason, I decided to bring this up in the circle of representatives of science in your country. I'm unsure if I can elicit the intended reaction. But at least the feeling that one has tried can be reassuring. Everything I have tried to address fragmentarily will be understood as a whole, as an appeal to the research centers that deal with the entire complex of Korczak. It is finally time to separate the wheat from the chaff. I am now 75. On Krochmalna Street, I worked with shorter interruptions for more than ten years. I was in the orphanage, also still in the Ghetto. The work at Korczak's side represents the most beautiful chapter in my life, the work with the noblest person I was given to know. That is why I sound the alarm. In "Herszek and his three Excursions," Korczak writes: "It was war, and Titus set the temple on fire. The books of God burned. But only the paper burned. The letters fled, and they live on." (Korczak 1939)
Let us endeavor to form the words of truth from these letters! Igor Newerly used the apt metaphor in the introduction to the selection of Korczak's writings in 1957, that Korczak haunts us somewhere between Saint Francis of Assisi and... the chocolate Santa Claus on the Christmas tree. High time to ensure that he stops "haunting" us. For everyone!
MICHAŁ WRÓBLEWSKI, Stockholm
Janusz Korczak in a slanting light?
Janusz Korczak in a slanting light?
Janusz Korczak's life and work fall into the final phase of the existence and development of Polish Jewry. Korczak came from a family that was part of the Jewish milieu, which thought Polish and identified as Polishness. He was one of the co-creators of the culture of this ethically-social stratum of the population, but not only this one and, moreover, not only exclusively the Polish one. We can say that he co-created the culture of all humanity.
The most diverse people, guided by different motives, strive to draw a picture of this modest yet extraordinary person and to show his work. As always in such cases, this is only possible by taking into account the history of the country in which he lived. Without this embedding in historical reality, many things remain incomprehensible to us contemporaries, and even more so to future generations.
Some authors have not resisted the temptation not only to reproduce facts but also to evaluate the person of Korczak, his activity as an educator, writer, and engaged advocate for the cause of the 'minor nation', to whom he remained loyal until the end. Others emphasize the ethical values he worshipped and which were a guideline for him.
In many cases, the writers have failed to refrain from a truly shocking subjective judgment. Works of the type "I and Korczak" were thus created. To a certain extent, this is natural. The only question is to what extent we may accept such an extremely subjective attitude and what, besides the author's own individuality, is the reason for such subjectivism. Specifically, the question is whether such an attitude can be reconciled with the true image of Korczak, his attitude, and his thinking. A natural consequence of a subjective attitude can, of course, lead to a divergent interpretation of the facts. However, a conscious cover-up of the truth, the bending of facts, the invention of new, untrue, and improbable facts is unacceptable. Why, for what, for what purpose?
There are also clear, even if not immediately recognizable at first glance, manipulations, which are all the more damaging and dangerous.
...are. I am for factual criticism. I am far from wanting to attribute malicious intent to all commentators and accuse them of bending their writing for current needs. Some of them I know or knew personally and value or valued them.
Some misunderstandings also result from an inflexible, static attitude towards Korczak. Times have changed, conditions have changed, life has erased a large part of our dreams—how could Korczak alone have remained unchanged amidst changing circumstances? I am by no means of the opinion that all thoughts and solution models of the 'Old Doctor', born in pain, can still be valid today without review and testing. I am clearly in favor of a factual analysis of Korczak's legacy. (Many things are still kept secret, e.g., his understanding of genetics, the right to life and the right to death, certain passages from his 'Diary' written under such anomalous conditions.)
I do not blame the authors of literary or dramatic works for drawing a picture of Korczak that deviates so far from reality that his former closest associates would not recognize the person so dear to them, because one must accept the undisputed right of writers to use facts as inspiration for their creative plans. Fiction does not destroy the literary work, even if it causes astonishment or even discomfort in some cases. However, I place much higher demands on the commentators of the biography and work of the 'Old Doctor'. We have a right to demand the greatest sense of responsibility from them—especially for the written word, in their reports and proofs that they pass on to us today, to the young generation and to future generations. Littera scripta manet. The printed word will remain, even when we are no longer here, and people will adhere to these words, quote them as opinions and views of authors who legitimized themselves as Korczak's associates or comrades-in-arms.
I would like to raise the awareness that even the reception of authentic facts can cause misunderstandings among people of our time, and even more so among those of another era and another cultural sphere. I would like to give a few examples: It was written truthfully that Henryk Goldszmit's mother was a née Gębicka. Already in the 60s someone said because of this: "So Korczak was actually..."
...just a half-Jew"... In Poland, I suspect this mechanical division of a person into two halves was intended as a kind of ennoblement. Is this the legacy of the crematorium era? Possibly, but probably not only that. It is true that Korczak came from an assimilated family. But how differently the phenomenon of assimilation is viewed in different countries and different circles.
At the UNESCO Korczak symposium in Paris, a French journalist approached us after Igor Newerly's lecture and asked: "Why does one hear so often that antisemitism is greater in Poland than in other countries, when such a wonderful person as Janusz Korczak voluntarily went to his death with Jewish children?" And she further asked: "Who actually was this Henryk Goldszmit they were talking about? Was that a doctor who worked with Korczak?"
Dr. Hanna Kirchner, the well-known literary historian, was already actively involved in the Korczak Committee in the 1950s. It is incomprehensible to me how a sentence like this could be found in her interesting essay on the topic "Korczak's Position in Literature": "This unusual writer and thinker who came from a baptized Jewish family..."
And the motives?... Should the author of the book "Alone with God or Prayers of Those Who Do Not Pray" be brought closer to the Polish reader through baptism or by adopting another religion? (I would like to mention that this sentence was deleted when the essay was republished in the anthology "Janusz Korczak - Life and Work").
In contrast, the Catholic clergyman and lyric poet Jan Twardowski took a very beautiful and open stance on this subject in a sermon in the Church of the Order of the Visitation Sisters in Warsaw, held on December 29, 1971. He said: "Janusz Korczak was formally not connected to Jesus through baptism, but how much we Christians can learn from his life and his death!"
Here is an example from another area: The London weekly newspaper "Wiadomości" (News), published in Polish, published an article by Edward Poznański, otherwise an irreproachable man, on November 18, 1973, under the title "I worked with Janusz Korczak". A copy of this article was...
¹ The term 'Halbjude' (half-Jew) was consciously not used in this translation because of its Nazi connotation.
...I received from the now sadly deceased General Secretary of the society 'Les Amis du Docteur Janusz Korczak', Dr. Adam Nowomiński. Curious and incredulous, he wanted to know from me, Korczak's long-time associate at the orphanage on Krochmalna Street, whether it was true, as E. Poznański suggested, that Korczak had been a proponent of physical punishment, i.e., 'spanking' (cf. Poznański 1973). During my time at the orphanage, I never experienced a single case of a child being hit by an adult. Korczak himself clarified his stance on this as follows: "I am an absolute and implacable opponent of physical punishment... Anyone who hits a child is an executioner..." (Korczak 1978 a, p. 239)
Perhaps one should also mention the book "Janusz Korczak" by Marek Jaworski, a cleverly compiled compilation published in a hurry in Poland by Interpress in several languages in 1973, when it became known that Korczak had been 'resurrected' in Paris. The author described, among other things, how on the day before Christmas Eve, a truck transporting garbage brought small Christmas presents and... a pine-scented Christmas tree to the Jewish children in the (Warsaw) Ghetto. It is not impossible that people of good will, out of Christian charity, not only came up with such an idea but also realized it. Against this, however, I rule out the possibility that the Doctor could have written on a piece of paper, touched: "The Jewish people will never forget this act dictated by humanism and solidarity towards their Polish brothers." (Jaworski 1973) Korczak never used such high-flown language, nor did he ever speak on behalf of the people.
I have known Kazik Dębnicki for many years, and I always liked him. All the more was I astonished, indeed filled with bitterness, by reading his latest book "Korczak from Close Up". It is not easy for me to talk about it. But it must be done. In his inventions, he tells unashamedly: "The Catholic Christmas festival was celebrated in the orphanage, and people played under the bright lights of the Christmas tree." (Dębnicki 1985, p. 158) Is this supposed to be a sign of tolerance, an expression of a merger of two cultures? I worked in the orphanage for so many years—I never saw a Christmas tree there. Dębnicki evidently relied on (mis-)information originating from Jaworski, spread it further, and considered it part of the orphanage's tradition. Beware—that's how the once printed word works!
If these 10 sheets in Korczak's literary convention after...
...had been written according to the pattern of "When I am small again", one could be just as lenient as one is towards all imaginative writers. But the author suggests facts and that supposedly 'first-hand'. This makes the pill all the more damaging. It is not to be swallowed. Despite all the goodwill they have for Kazik Dębnicki, even his friends do not hide their displeasure about this book. In 'Polityka' K. Koźniewski wrote: "The fragments of conversations between Korczak and the young Dębnicki cited after more than half a century... sound little credible." (Koźniewski 1985) And Leon Harari, Dębnicki's colleague from the time of 'Mały Przegląd', made the apt remark: "After so many years of silence, this sudden enlightenment! The reproduction for posterity of conversations that never happened..." Unfortunately, that is how it looks. I would much rather have preserved the memory of another Kazik, an honest, solid person and not one suffering from mythomania. It is a great shame that he 'perpetrated' this book shortly before his untimely death. I do not know what drove him to do it. Did he want to set himself a monument during his lifetime by portraying himself without any truthfulness as a confidant of the 'Old Doctor' and as an envoy of the Poles fighting in the underground? I ask myself why, in view of the obvious falsifications that discredit the entire book "Korczak from Close Up", none of those who once worked in the orphanage publicly raised their voices against these gross untruths during Dębnicki's lifetime. Ida Merżan knew the house on Krochmalna Street since the 1920s, Lucyna Gold worked in the boarding school of the orphanage and was later active there as an educator. Aleksander Lewin also worked in the boarding school from 1937 to 1939, where he proved himself to be a solid colleague, a talented director, and at least a courageous student of pedagogy. Tempora mutantur...
— K. Dębnicki's book "Korczak from Close Up" was met with almost total silence, similar to how in 1953 there was no public discussion about A. Lewin's book "Problems of Collective Education". Under the influence of the currents from the East and the fascination with Makarenko, the then young author wrote about Korczak, I quote: "Korczak's system awakens the illusion of an supposedly existing separate world of the child... Korczak's protection of the child from the world of adults... resulted from his false assessment of social conditions... Contrary to any appearance of radicalism in the developmental stage of youth, Korczak clearly represented the ideological currents...
...of the petty bourgeoisie... Korczak... sounded out the peculiarities of individual individuals or certain child types. We must rise up to their feelings, rise up, pull ourselves up, stand on tiptoe, reach them.« And it was precisely this that gave his system a pedagogical character. Thus, Korczak essentially ceased to be a pedagogue." (Lewin 1953, pp. 269 ff.)
And what happened later? When the name Korczak fell, it was always a matter of the petty-bourgeois pedagogue. His books were withdrawn from bookshops, removed from libraries, and it was even recommended that they be destroyed. That is now history. That was during the Stalin era, in the time of mistakes and shortcomings, as people tend to call it in Poland. We must only keep history awake so that it does not repeat itself. So that, for example, unfounded assertions are not multiplied, as K. Dębnicki and T. Karren have done. So that we do not return to A. Lewin's old Korczak-'résumé', where the 'Old Doctor' was discredited as a pedagogue and his life and work were devalued.
A footnote in the introduction to the first edition of Korczak's Selected Writings from Lewin's pen is intended to clarify what the late Lewin thought in 1978 of the early Lewin, the author of the "Problems of Collective Education". I quote: "At this point I can refer to my own views, which I held at the time." (Lewin, in Korczak 1978 a, p. 10) See Lewin 1953. This somewhat enigmatic and all too modestly formulated footnote could entice one to study the highly problematic "Problems...". The fact that the past tense is used here speaks a clear language. I am pleased that Lewin's views on the life and work of the 'Old Doctor' have undergone a re-evaluation, that Lewin has made a reorientation in his understanding of Korczak's considerations and experiences. I am convinced that Prof. Aleksander Lewin could afford to articulate his current views precisely, and even comment on the mistakes of others.
I take the liberty of returning once more to the work by K. Dębnicki already mentioned. The author claims there that "Korczak was a Socialist", indeed even a "pioneer in the development of the revolutionary idea". He refers to Ida Merżan and writes: "In her memoirs, Ida came very close to such answers intuitively when asked where his striving was going, answers that confirmed the socialist character of his striving. Only the author of the memoirs overlooked that she was standing on the threshold of these answers; something held her back." (Dębnicki 1985, p. 169) Right, something held her back, unlike Dębnicki.
Aharon Jadlin declared in the foreword to Josef Arnon's interesting brochure "Who Was Janusz Korczak" no more and no less than that Korczak was a Zionist, just like Herzl... etc. One must know that Jadlin, when he wrote this, was the Minister of Education and Culture of the State of Israel. (Cf. Arnon 1978)
Korczak described himself as a person of a solitary path. From all the 'research results' and labels like: no educator, advocate of the beautiful idea of how to love a child, secret advisor on how to beat children, Zionist, Socialist, pioneer of the development of the revolutionary idea, a confused jumble, a chaos, a shrill dissonance arises.
May therefore the pure tone of Prof. Maria Grzegorzewska, the co-creator of social pedagogy on the international stage, the meritorious scholar who worked closely with Korczak for many years, resonate. I take the liberty of quoting her, slightly abbreviated: "One can only speak about him very biasedly; his greatness in straightforwardness and the truth of life was overwhelming. And although I worked with him for many years, I write about him with a pronounced feeling of helplessness... How deeply he researched the child... how he taught parents to raise their children, and how he got teachers to see the children through his eyes and later help them in their development and when entering the world of adults. He was a modest person who went through life straightforwardly on the path of truth and a deep sense of responsibility, in quiet, selfless service to society." (P. 58) "Korczak provoked the truth with his mere presence. Everyone found themselves when dealing with him, became themselves. One felt the whole inferiority of phrases and trivial forms... Korczak enriched our pedagogical life and the foundations of educational theories with precious treasures... He served his goal with action, word, and writing as an educational practitioner, as a fighter for the rights of the child, as a psychologist and discoverer of these rights, as a doctor, as a writer, and as a teacher. He was not only a guide for those searching in the labyrinth and mysteries of child life, but out of free choice and love also a loyal friend, and sometimes he was a strict guardian of the child's rights in deep concern for their future destiny and thus for our own future." (Grzegorzewska 1958, pp. 53, 58 ff.)
In 1986, the world of science celebrated the 100th birthday of Professor Tadeusz Kotarbiński, who had already been called the Warsaw Socrates half a century earlier. He was a great authority...
Korczak described himself as a person of a solitary path. From all the 'research results' and labels like: no educator, advocate of the beautiful idea of how to love a child, secret advisor on how to beat children, Zionist, Socialist, pioneer of the development of the revolutionary idea, a confused jumble, a chaos, a shrill dissonance arises.
May therefore the pure tone of Prof. Maria Grzegorzewska, the co-creator of social pedagogy on the international stage, the meritorious scholar who worked closely with Korczak for many years, resonate. I take the liberty of quoting her, slightly abbreviated: "One can only speak about him very biasedly; his greatness in straightforwardness and the truth of life was overwhelming. And although I worked with him for many years, I write about him with a pronounced feeling of helplessness... How deeply he researched the child... how he taught parents to raise their children, and how he got teachers to see the children through his eyes and later help them in their development and when entering the world of adults. He was a modest person who went through life straightforwardly on the path of truth and a deep sense of responsibility, in quiet, selfless service to society." (P. 58) "Korczak provoked the truth with his mere presence. Everyone found themselves when dealing with him, became themselves. One felt the whole inferiority of phrases and trivial forms... Korczak enriched our pedagogical life and the foundations of educational theories with precious treasures... He served his goal with action, word, and writing as an educational practitioner, as a fighter for the rights of the child, as a psychologist and discoverer of these rights, as a doctor, as a writer, and as a teacher. He was not only a guide for those searching in the labyrinth and mysteries of child life, but out of free choice and love also a loyal friend, and sometimes he was a strict guardian of the child's rights in deep concern for their future destiny and thus for our own future." (Grzegorzewska 1958, pp. 53, 58 ff.)
In 1986, the world of science celebrated the 100th birthday of Professor Tadeusz Kotarbiński, who had already been called the Warsaw Socrates half a century earlier. He was a great authority...
...authority not only in the field of intellect but also in matters of conscience. Regarding Dr. Janusz Korczak, Kotarbiński elaborated in a "conversation" on the subject of independent ethics: "The point is to empathize with the essence of ethical judgment, whereby we must place before our eyes the starkest examples of both the basest and the noblest behavior. An example of the basest behavior, the prime example: the Judas silver pieces. Here we have a person who betrays another, one who had every reason to trust him—he betrayed him, he delivered him to suffering for the sake of a miserable material advantage. And here the peak of noble behavior: the well-known deed of Dr. Korczak, a man who consciously refused his own relative protection and went the way of his own suffering to care for those who trusted him until the end—in this case: children. It could have been others besides children. If we empathize with these facts, we arrive together at certain convictions... The essence of a base deed is behavior that is exactly contrary to the behavior of a protector on whom one can rely in difficult circumstances. That must be a good person... a courageous one, because it is precisely then that it shows that he is a good and manly shepherd of his charges, when he is willing to put himself in danger in his protector role. And he must be honest, able to keep his word, so that those who trust him can be sure that he will not disappoint them. Exactly, this is the essence of honesty." (Kotarbiński 1972)
I would like to be convinced that we, today's Korczak followers, also belong to those one can rely on, that we belong to the reliable, the courageous, the honest, to those who prove themselves when someone consciously or unconsciously tries to present the 'Old Doctor' in a slanted light. For this reason, I decided to bring this up in the circle of representatives of science in your country. I'm unsure if I can elicit the intended reaction. But at least the feeling that one has tried can be reassuring. Everything I have tried to address fragmentarily will be understood as a whole, as an appeal to the research centers that deal with the entire complex of Korczak. It is finally time to separate the wheat from the chaff. I am now 75. On Krochmalna Street, I worked with shorter interruptions for more than ten years. I was in the orphanage, and also still in the Ghetto. The work at Korczak's side represents the most beautiful chapter in my life, the work with the noblest person I was given to know. That is why I sound the alarm. In "Herszek and his three Excursions," Korczak writes: "It was war, and Titus set the temple on fire. The books of God burned. But only the paper burned. The letters fled, and they live on." (Korczak 1939)
Let us endeavor to form the words of truth from these letters! Igor Newerly used the apt metaphor in the introduction to the selection of Korczak's writings in 1957, that Korczak haunts us somewhere between Saint Francis of Assisi and... the chocolate Santa Claus on the Christmas tree. High time to ensure that he stops "haunting" us. For everyone!
Michał (Misza) Wasserman-Wróblewski (1911–1993), affectionately known as Pan Misza, was a Polish educator, soldier, and social activist primarily known for his work with Janusz Korczak.
Key Facts and Life History of Pan Misza - Wasserman Wróblewski
- Work with Janusz Korczak: From 1931 until August 1942, he worked as a tutor and educator at Korczak’s Dom Sierot (Orphans’ Home) in Warsaw.
- Holocaust Survivor: He was the only teacher from the orphanage to survive the deportation of Korczak and the children to Treblinka on August 5, 1942. He survived because he and three former pupils had left early that morning for work outside the ghetto; when they returned, the orphanage was empty.
- Military Service: After escaping the ghetto, he eventually joined the Polish First Army (part of the Soviet Army) in 1944. He became a colonel and fought in major battles, including those in Berlin.
- Post-War Legacy:
- He served as the chairman of the Korczak Committee in Poland until 1968, when it was closed.
- In 1969, after moving to Sweden, he founded the Korczak Heritage Association (Föreningen för Janusz Korczaks levande arv) in Stockholm to preserve and spread Korczak’s pedagogical ideas.
- Death: He died in Stockholm in 1993.
- CommemorationA memorial stone and a 1,000-tree plantation in his memory were established in the Korczak Forest on the outskirts of Jerusalem by his family and the surviving "orphanage children". His son, Dr Roman Wasserman Wróblewski, continues to promote his father’s and Korczak’s legacy through lectures and digital archives.
