Korczak - Summer camp Gocławek - Children army and War games - Hersz Korcarz and Korczak were fighting in Michałówka.

Two armies. The kids were playing war for generations. It used to be done with sticks, wooden swords, rifles, or by throwing sand or just splashing water on each other. Here are Jewish children from Korczak's orphanage, Dom Sierot. There is a similar photo showing the kids with wooden toy rifles.

Two armies. The kids were playing war for generations. It used to be done with sticks, wooden rifles, or by throwing sand, or just splashing water on each other. Here are Jewish children from Korczak's orphanage, Dom Sierot. There is a similar photo showing the kids with wooden swords.

Korczak described children's wars very early on. Korczak’s very first experience in pedagogical practice was acquired when he was still a student at the Department of Medicine. He applied for work as a guardian (at that time called Dozorca) in a summer camp for children, and in 1904 and 1907 he participated in a camp for Jewish children at Michałówka, close to Małkinia.

In his book Mośki, Joski i Srule (1910), there is a straight narration of his experiences in Michałówka, the Jewish summer camp for children. Already at this early stage, he introduced some of his own ideas for organizing the life of a community of children. These included special duties, a system of self-control, and the goodwill plebiscite. He also described children's war games (Chapter 14). However, it is not known for sure if they really took place.

In the book Moski, Joski i Srule there is a straight narration of Korczak's experiences in Michalówka, the Jewish summer camp for children. Already at this early stage, he introduced some of his own ideas for organizing the life of a community of children. These included special duties, a system of self-control, and the goodwill plebiscite. He also described children's war games. The main general is Hersz Korcarz** and one of the soldiers is named Korczak.

In the book Moski, Joski i Srule, there is a straight narration of Korczak's experiences in Michalówka, the Jewish summer camp for children. Already at this early stage, he introduced some of his own ideas for organizing the life of a community of children. These included special duties, a system of self-control, and the goodwill plebiscite. He also described children's war games. Here is the drawing, map of the fortresses, and the names of responsible generals.

In the book Moski, Joski i Srule, there is a straight narration of Korczak's experiences in Michalówka, the Jewish summer camp for children. Already at this early stage, he introduced some of his own ideas for organizing the life of a community of children. These included special duties, a system of self-control, and the goodwill plebiscite. He also described children's war games.  The description of war games includes, besides the fight, sanitary units with doctors, the status of prisoners of war, the war court, and the ceasefire agreement.

After Michałówka, Korczak worked once more in children’s camps. Now for Christian children during the summers of 1907 and 1908. This gave him additional experience and an opportunity to test new ways of solving educational problems. It also resulted in another children's book, Józki, Jaśki i Franki, published in 1911.
In Józki, Jaśki i Franki, Korczak also describes Zofiówka, a summer camp for girls. Both books were first printed in parts in a children's journal called Promyk and shorter descriptions with numerous photos in the newspaper Świat.

Erwin Baum, a boy from Korczak's Orphanage who survived Auschwitz, describes the children's wars in Gocławek*:

The reaction was exciting because we didn't know about war. And in fact, the feeling of war existed prior to the start of the war, like being in the camp (referring to Korczak's summer camp at Gocławek); we had a big place where we played in the sand, building airplanes, building boats, building different things. That summer we told everybody not to play; we were going to play war, like we made the Polish Army and the German Army. Another boy and I had a Polish army, and there was another boy by the name Mojzesz who was in the German Army. I was called Froim in the orphanage; I was also called Maly Icek. Icek is my brother, so I'm the Small Icek. So there was the army of Moses and the Army of Ariel and Froim – Ariel was the second general. And we prepared bunkers and all these things. And for bullets, we would save chestnuts, and when the war broke out, we started throwing chestnuts. When we got hit three times, we had to be carried out, so that was the feeling that Poland naturally lost, and Germany won.

Jarek (Jaroslaw) Abramow. son of Igor Abramow Newerly spends part of his vacation in 1940 at Korczak's summer camp. In his book The lions of my courtyard, Abramow describes the war with sand between Jewish children from Korczak's camp and the local Polish children. Jarek Abramow was seven at that time. Yes, it was 1940. 

Jarek (Jaroslaw) Abramow, son of Igor Abramow Newerly, spends part of his vacation in 1940 at Korczak's summer camp. In his book The Lions of My Courtyard,  Abramow describes the war with sand between Jewish children from Korczak's camp and the local Polish children. Jarek Abramow was seven at that time. Yes, it was 1940. Poland had been occupied since September 1939. The area of the ghetto was not closed yet. It was marked by signs of a typhus epidemic. On the 12th of October 1940, Yom Kippur, Warsaw Jews were informed that the ghetto was being created. It was located in the northern part of the city.

* USHMM Archives RG-50.030*0016

** Hersz Korcarz - the name Hersz was in the Goldszmit family, Korczak's grandfather. Probably Korczak was named after him. There are no original registration papers of Korczak, and in later papers, he is mentioned as Henryk.