 The Last Walk of Janusz Korczak on Zamenhof Street. My mother, Lunia Rozental, who knew Korczak, the staff, and the children from the Orphans' Home very well, saw this escorted group through the window of her apartment at 5 Zamenhofa Street (the first house on the right side, corner with Dzielna Street 1). In the background of the right photograph is Nowolipki Street 7-9. That's where the editorial office of the magazine "Nasz Przegląd" (Our Review) was located, as well as "Mały Przegląd" (Little Review), edited by Janusz Korczak as a Friday supplement to "Nasz Przegląd". In the outbuildings of the tenements at Nowolipki 7 and Nowolipki 9 were the printing houses for these magazines. Zamenhof Street (Polish: ulica Zamenhofa) in Warsaw started at Nowolipki Street and was one of the streets that led directly to Umschlagplatz. Umschlagplatz was the place from which the Nazis deported hundreds of thousands of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to concentration and extermination camps, primarily Treblinka in 1942 and 1943. The street is named after Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof, the creator of the Esperanto language. Zamenhof lived for many years, specifically at the address of Dzika 9, which in 1930 became Zamenhof 5 after the renaming and renumbering.  The Last Walk of Janusz Korczak. My mother, Lunia Rozental, who knew Korczak, the staff, and the children from the Orphans' Home very well, saw this escorted group through the window of her apartment at 5 Zamenhofa Street (the second house on the right side, corner with Dzielna Street 1). In the background is Nowolipki Street 7-9. That's where the editorial office of the magazine "Nasz Przegląd" (Our Review) was located, as well as "Mały Przegląd" (Little Review), edited by Janusz Korczak as a Friday supplement to "Nasz Przegląd," the largest Polish-language Jewish newspaper in the interwar period. The first issue of "Mały Przegląd" appeared on October 9, 1926, and the last one on September 1, 1939. In the outbuildings of the tenements at Nowolipki 7 and Nowolipki 9 were the printing houses for these magazines.   |
| My mother, Lunia Rozental, wrote: I am temporarily living with my brother-in-law (Lutek Wójcikiewicz) and nephew (Marianek Wójcikiewicz, aged 3) at 5 Zamenhofa 5 Street. Through the window, I see Dr. Korczak with children from the orphanage being led to the Umschlagplatz. A thought matures: I must save a child. I agreed on the idea with my brother-in-law. |
Janusz Korczak and the Orphanage on the way to Umschlagplatz
Lucyna Perła Rozental, witness (see letter above):
I am temporarily living with my brother-in-law (Lutek Wójcikiewicz) and nephew (Marianek Wójcikiewicz, aged 3) at 5 Zamenhofa 5 Street. Through the window, I see Dr. Korczak with children from the orphanage being led to the Umschlagplatz. A thought matures: I must save a child. I agreed on that idea with my brother-in-law.
Lunia Rozental recalls:
August 5th, my birthday (24 years old), 10-11 in the morning, it was a hot summer day. I looked out the window because I heard voices and sounds. I saw a crowd of people walking from the southern part of the ghetto. They were led down the middle of the street by soldiers in German uniforms. I don't know if the soldiers were Germans, Estonians, or Ukrainians. Suddenly, in the crowd of adults, I saw children and Dr. Janusz Korczak. Janusz Korczak was walking first, with heavy steps, the children behind him. No one spoke. No one sang. A few people stood along the sidewalks. My first thought: "Where is my Misha" (Pan Misha - Michał Wasserman Wróblewski), who worked as an educator in Korczak's orphanage. I immediately determined he was not there. Misha was very tall, over 1.83 cm in height, and always towered over the crowd of children in the orphanage yard. Misha was sometimes called 'Giraffe' by the children because of his height. Now, however, he was not among them. I didn't look at the other teachers whom I knew. I saw Korczak, and then automatically searched only for Misha. After a few seconds, the children moved away.
Lunia Rozental recalls:
August 5th, my birthday (24 years old), 10-11 in the morning, it was a hot summer day. I looked out the window because I heard voices and sounds. I saw a crowd of people walking from the southern part of the ghetto. They were led down the middle of the street by soldiers in German uniforms. I don't know if the soldiers were Germans, Estonians, or Ukrainians. Suddenly, in the crowd of adults, I saw children and Dr. Janusz Korczak. Janusz Korczak was walking first, with heavy steps, the children behind him. No one spoke. No one sang. A few people stood along the sidewalks. My first thought: "Where is my Misha" (Pan Misha - Michał Wasserman Wróblewski), who worked as an educator in Korczak's orphanage. I immediately determined he was not there. Misha was very tall, over 1.83 cm in height, and always towered over the crowd of children in the orphanage yard. Misha was sometimes called 'Giraffe' by the children because of his height. Now, however, he was not among them. I didn't look at the other teachers whom I knew. I saw Korczak, and then automatically searched only for Misha. After a few seconds, the children moved away.
From Umschlagplatz to Treblinka
How did the last journey of Korczak and the children look from the Umschlagplatz to Treblinka? We will never know that. Knowing the facts, the stories of eyewitnesses, and the accounts of escapees from other deportations to Treblinka, we can only try to imagine what happened in the wagons and what it was really like.
How did the last journey of Korczak and the children look from the Umschlagplatz to Treblinka? We will never know that. Knowing the facts, the stories of eyewitnesses, and the accounts of escapees from other deportations to Treblinka, we can only try to imagine what happened in the wagons and what it was really like.
It is known that August 5th was a sweltering hot day. It is also known that the transport that day consisted of 6,623 people crammed into 60 wagons.
The cattle cars had window slits sewn shut with barbed wire. A little light and air entered through these slits. Inside the wagons, there was a vapor of chlorine that stung the eyes and throat. The floor of the wagon was, for hygienic purposes, covered with diluted lime and chlorine solution. Probably 239 children, along with Korczak and Wilczyńska, and other staff from the Orphans' Home, were packed into two wagons.
