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| Fotografia lotnicza z 30 listopada 1943 roku. |
Janusz Korczak’s heroic march through the streets of Warsaw to the Umschlagplatz
The history of the Holocaust has fixed in our memory, among others, the image of Janusz Korczak’s heroic march through the streets of Warsaw to the Umschlagplatz—head held high, flag flying, and children walking in rows of four as if on a stroll. This scene has been described in hundreds of accounts, including my mother, Lunia Rozental's.
The cultural legend, sustained by films like Andrzej Wajda’s, feeds on the myth of the "last chance"—the story of a German officer who supposedly recognized Korczak at the last moment as the author of King Matt the First and offered to save him. Korczak reportedly refused, choosing to die with the children. While this refusal is consistent with his character, the offer of salvation itself is almost certainly a myth. In the machinery of death logistics that was the Umschlagplatz, there was no room for literary sentiment, and the physical condition of the Doctor—mentioned by my father, Pan Misza (Wasserman Wróblewski)—made such a scene practically impossible.
The true "final journey" was not a proud march, but a brutal technological process that many were afraid to write about. What happened inside the locked wagons was described to me personally by Halinka Birenbaum; I will return to that one day. Her deportation from the Umschlagplatz took place on a sweltering day, much like Korczak’s.
I will attempt to describe the procedure after the cattle cars were opened in Treblinka, where the railway tracks end in the Treblinka death camp, historical and journalistic silence begins.
The Tearing Apart on the Ramp (The Deception of Ober-Majdan Station)*
After the wagon bolts were thrown open, the stench of burning and chlorine hit the nostrils. On the ramp, disguised as an ordinary station with fake clocks and a station name, the first act of the drama unfolded: the brutal separation of the Orphanage. According to camp procedure, 239 children were immediately divided by gender. The girls, under the care of Stefania Wilczyńska and other female educators, were driven toward the undressing barracks. The boys went with the male educators to the men's undressing area. This was the moment when Korczak—if he was still breathing—lost sight of his closest collaborator and half of his pupils. A lifelong bond with Mrs. Stefa, dating back to their meeting at the orphanage on Franciszkańska Street, was torn apart in a split second.
After the wagon bolts were thrown open, the stench of burning and chlorine hit the nostrils. On the ramp, disguised as an ordinary station with fake clocks and a station name, the first act of the drama unfolded: the brutal separation of the Orphanage. According to camp procedure, 239 children were immediately divided by gender. The girls, under the care of Stefania Wilczyńska and other female educators, were driven toward the undressing barracks. The boys went with the male educators to the men's undressing area. This was the moment when Korczak—if he was still breathing—lost sight of his closest collaborator and half of his pupils. A lifelong bond with Mrs. Stefa, dating back to their meeting at the orphanage on Franciszkańska Street, was torn apart in a split second.
The Lazaretto Hypothesis: The Doctor’s Lonely Death
My father’s account regarding Korczak’s health provides the most likely, and yet most tragic, scenario. Korczak, extremely weakened by illness and the hardships of transport in the killing heat, may have been unable to walk to the undressing rooms and gas chambers on his own. In such cases, the Germans applied the "Lazaretto" procedure. Under the pretext of medical care and the flag of the Red Cross, the Old Doctor might have been separated from the boys. There, over a dug pit, an execution by a shot to the back of the head took place. If this happened, Korczak died in total solitude, losing the chance to hold his children’s hands in their final minutes, giving his sacrifice an even darker dimension.
My father’s account regarding Korczak’s health provides the most likely, and yet most tragic, scenario. Korczak, extremely weakened by illness and the hardships of transport in the killing heat, may have been unable to walk to the undressing rooms and gas chambers on his own. In such cases, the Germans applied the "Lazaretto" procedure. Under the pretext of medical care and the flag of the Red Cross, the Old Doctor might have been separated from the boys. There, over a dug pit, an execution by a shot to the back of the head took place. If this happened, Korczak died in total solitude, losing the chance to hold his children’s hands in their final minutes, giving his sacrifice an even darker dimension.
"Himmelstrasse": The Children’s Last March
While Korczak may have been ending his life in the Lazaretto, 239 children entered the "Road to Heaven" (Himmelstrasse). This is where the "order" known from Warsaw ended. The girls and female teachers, naked and terrified, were driven into the gas chambers with shouts of "Schnell, schnell!" and blows from the guards' whips. The boys and male teachers followed, disappearing behind the doors of a building marked with the mocking sign "Baths." On August 5, 1942, the children from the Orphanage were crowded into three small rooms of the gas chamber building. A combustion engine pumped gas through pipes in the ceiling. After 20 minutes, everything went silent. The children's bodies were dragged out by Sonderkommando prisoners and thrown into mass graves.
While Korczak may have been ending his life in the Lazaretto, 239 children entered the "Road to Heaven" (Himmelstrasse). This is where the "order" known from Warsaw ended. The girls and female teachers, naked and terrified, were driven into the gas chambers with shouts of "Schnell, schnell!" and blows from the guards' whips. The boys and male teachers followed, disappearing behind the doors of a building marked with the mocking sign "Baths." On August 5, 1942, the children from the Orphanage were crowded into three small rooms of the gas chamber building. A combustion engine pumped gas through pipes in the ceiling. After 20 minutes, everything went silent. The children's bodies were dragged out by Sonderkommando prisoners and thrown into mass graves.
Korczak’s transit in a cattle car to Treblinka was merely the brutal, silent end of a great pedagogical work that we must remember without embellishment.
Remember - Treblinka was a center of immediate extermination.
Children accounted for approximately 20–30% of all victims of the Treblinka death camp, which would mean a figure in the range of 200,000 to 300,000 murdered children. During the so-called Great Action in the Warsaw Ghetto (summer 1942) alone, tens of thousands of children were deported from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka. Unlike concentration camps (such as Auschwitz-Birkenau), Treblinka was a center of immediate extermination. Children were not selected for work—all were sent directly from the railway ramp to the gas chambers.
