Korczak´s editorial plans in his Ghetto Diary - A two-volume novel. It takes place in Palestine. The first night of a newly-married Halutz couple at the foot of Mount Gilboa, in a spot where a spring bubbles up; a reference to that mountain and that spring is made in the Book of Moses.

Janusz Korczak visited Erec Israel twice – in 1934 and 1936, staying with friends in Kibbutz Ein Harod. The photo shows Korczak (in the white cap) at Ein Harod kibbitz. Lilian Bashewicz wrote after Korczak returned to Poland: Now the teachers at Ein Harod look differently at raising the children so Korczak's education will make them better teachers.

Ein Harod, Gilboa mountains in the background.

The truth is that after lengthy deliberations, Korczak decided in 1939, not to stay in Poland but with the support of the Jewish Agency (Sochnut) and using an invitation from kibbutz Ein Harod that guaranteed him to work as a teacher in that kibbutz, go to Erec Israel in October 1939. His plans, however, crashed as WWII started on September 1st, 1939. To support children at Dom Sierot he moved from his flat at 8 Zlota Street and settled again at 92 Krochmalna Street - the Orphanage Dom Sierot.

Before that, Janusz Korczak visited Erec Israel twice—in 1934 and 1936—staying with friends in Kibbutz Ein-Harod. The photo at the top shows Korczak at Ein Harod kibbutz. Lilian Bashewicz wrote after Korczak returned to Poland (in 1936 ?): Now the teachers at Ein Harod look differently at raising the children, so Korczak's education will make them better teachers.

In May 1942, Korczak wrote about Kibbutz Ein-Harod and the Gilboa mountains surrounding it in his "Ghetto Diary."

I plan to write: 

1. A thick volume about the night in an orphanage and about sleeping children in general. 

2. A two-volume novel. It takes place in Palestine. The first night of a newly-married Halutz couple at the foot of Mount Gilboa, in a spot where a spring bubbles up; a reference to that mountain and that spring is made in the Book of Moses. (That well of mine will be a deep one if I have the time.) 

3. 4, 5, 6. Some years ago I wrote a piece for children on the life of Pasteur. And now a continuation of that series: Pestalozzi, da Vinci, Kropotkin, Pilsudski, and a few dozen more, including Fabre, Multatuli, Ruskin and Gregor Mendel, Nalkowski, Szczepanowski, Dygasinski, Dawid.

He wrote the note above just after he described the surroundings of his bed that night:

I am in bed. The bed is in the middle of the room. My subtenants are: Monius, the younger (we have four of them), then Albert and Jerzyk. On the other side, against the wall, Felunia, Gienia, and Haneczka. The door to the boys’ dormitory is open. There are sixty of them. A bit farther east are sixty girls, peacefully asleep. The rest are on the top floor. It is May, and although it has been cold the older boys can, in a pinch, sleep in the top-floor hall. It is night. I have my notes about the night and about the sleeping children. Thirty-four small pads filled with notes. That is why it took me so long to make up my mind to write

my memoirs.

Janusz Korczak visited Erec Israel twice – in 1934 and 1936, staying with friends in Kibbutz Ein Harod. The photo shows Korczak at Ein Harod kibbitz. Lilian Bashewicz wrote after Korczak returned to Poland: Now the teachers at Ein Harod look differently at raising the children so Korczak's education will make them better teachers.

Kibbutz Ein Harod 2022. The same area as in the photo above. Palm trees are higher but houses and Gilboa Mountain in the background are just the same.

Kibbutz Ein Harod 2022.  The same area as in the photo above. Palm trees are higher but houses and Gilboa Mountain in the background are just the same.

Korczak´s wartime writings, the diary, and spectacles were saved by my father Pan Misza (Michal Wasserman Wroblewski).