"Dr. Janusz Korczak’s children's home is empty now" wrote Mary Berg - What did she actually saw and described?

Saint Augustine's Church is at the bottom of the picture. 39 Dzielna Street and just across the street "Serbia" which was part of the Pawiak prisons Picture was taken prior the WWII. At 39 Dzielna Street was the Main Shelter Home for abandoned children where Korczak worked.

39 Dzielna. The photo from the yard was taken prior to WWII.

Two pages of Korczak's application to run Main Shelter Home for abandoned children at 39 Dzielna street. Korczak worked there since February 1942.

Warsaw Ghetto. Miriam Wattenberg - Mary Berg walks down a street arm in arm with her boyfriend Romek Kowalski.

Mary Berg's* first entry in her Diary was written on October 10, 1939, less than six weeks after the German invasion of Poland. The last entry was composed in March 1944 as the Swedish ship M/S Gripsholm brought her to New York harbor. Several entries concern the Warsaw Ghetto and Great Action in 1942. Her Diary was first published before WWII ended. Below is her description of the happenings at 39 Dzielna street** prior and during the Gross Action in the Warsaw Ghetto, year 1942.

Mary Berg Diary:

July 20, 1942

From the other window. which faces Dzielna Street.
see the policeman on guard walking back and forth. There are
no passers-by because Pawia and Dzielna Streets, which run
parallel on both sides of the prison buildings are closed to
traffic.
Close to our window we sometimes see a Jewish policeman
walking out of Numbers 27-31 Dzielna Street, which
Dr. Janusz Korczak's children's home. I can see many little
beds through the windows of this house. During moments of
quiet, I hear the sweet voices of the children who live there.
quite unaware of what is happening around them.


July 22, 1942

From our window, I can see that something unusual is going
on in Korczak's children's home. Every now and then some-
one walks in and, a few minutes later, comes out leading a
child. These must be the parents or families of the children,
who in this tragic moment want to be with their loved ones.
The children look clean and are dressed neatly though poorly.
When I bend out of the window I can see the corner of Smocza
Street.

August 1942

Dr. Janusz Korczak’s children's home is empty now. A few 

days ago we all stood at the window and watched the Germans 

surround the houses. Rows of children, holding each other by 

their little hands, began to walk out of the doorway. 

There were tiny tots of two or three among them, while the oldest

 ones were perhaps thirteen. … They walked in ranks of two, 

calm, and even smiling. They had not the slightest foreboding of their fate. 

At the end of the procession marched Dr. Korczak, who saw to 

it that the children did not walk on the sidewalk. Now and then, with 

fatherly solicitude, he stroked a child on the head or arm 

and straightened out the ranks.

It is clear that Mary Berg described the fate of the Main Shelter Home for abandoned children where at 39 Dzielna street Korczak worked since February 1942. This orphanage was turned into a kind of children’s rescue station: sick, abandoned children were collected by Jewish police on the streets and brought there. The number of deaths there gives an idea of the conditions and the situation: 10 to 15 deaths daily. Korczak tried to reform this “pre-funeral home,” as he called it. The depraved personnel did everything possible to fight him. So, what Mary Berg is describing is the deportation of the children from 39 Dzielna street, not from 16 Sienna street. It is for sure that the man she described "at the end of procession"  is not Korczak but someone else. Mary Berg knew Korczak and Korczaks Orphanage on 16 Sienna street as she took part in the competition run there and won also a prize for singing jazz songs.

Korczak mentioned Dzielna's Shelter Home several times in his Diary*** and also in his application to get a job there. In his Diary he wrote the following about the Shelter Home:

At the institution at Dzielna Street run by the City Council, they look at me with shock and disgust when I shake hands with the charwoman, even when she happens to be scrubbing the stairs and her hands are wet. But frequently I forget to shake hands with Dr. K., and I have not been responding to the bows of Drs. M. and B. I respect honest workers. To me their hands are clean and I hold their opinions in high esteem. The washerwoman and the janitor at Krochmalna Street used to be invited to join our meetings, not just to please them but to take their advice and benefit from their assistance as specialists in matters that would otherwise be left unresolved, i.e. be placed under paragraph 3. 

* Miriam Wattenberg - Mary Berg was the daughter of a Polish father Shaya (Sruel) Wattenberg and an American mother Lena Wattenberg. Mary was born October 10, 1924, in Lodz and had a younger sister Anna. The Wattenbergs enjoyed limited protection under Lena's American citizenship.  In 1942 the family learned that as foreign nationals they might be eligible for prisoner exchanges, and on July 16, they were taken to the Pawiak prison to be held for a future exchange. A few days later, the Germans began the Gross Action in Warsaw Getto with mass deportations to the death camp Treblinka.

** In Polish, description of 39 Dzielna pls. red: https://jimbaotoday.blogspot.com/2017/01/gowny-dom-schronienia-przy-ul-dzielnej.html.

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