 Ida Merżan, 1st from the right, Basia Szejnbaum (Abramow-Newrly), 2nd from the left.  |
| Ida Merżan, 3rd from the left, Rywka Boszes, 1st from the left. Goclawek - Summer Camp. |
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| "Not radicalized" Bursa students in front of the 92 Krochmalna. |
Slogans vs. Reality: How Moscow-Leaning Wards Distorted the Legacy of Korczak´s Dom Sierot.
In debates surrounding Janusz Korczak—particularly among contemporary educators—certain accusations tend to resurface like a boomerang. Written down once, they are now mindlessly repeated as definitive proof of the alleged flaws in his educational system.
Ida Merżan, a former ward and later an educator at the Orphans' Home (Dom Sierot), described the Old Doctor’s interactions with older alumni and student wards (bursiści) in her memoirs. From her account, as well as from the personal recollections of my father, "Pan Misza" (Michał Wróblewski / Waserman), a dramatic picture emerges of their meetings at the orphanage on Krochmalna Street. It was there, in the late 1930s, that incredibly harsh accusations were leveled against Korczak. They targeted the methods used during the so-called "seven good years"—the stable period that most children spent inside the orphanage. These attacks were agonizing not only because of their substance, but also due to their delivery—they were violent, aggressive, and hostile. Korczak privately confided to Pan Misza that he wanted to stop attending these alumni meetings altogether, as they led to nothing but shouting and bitter arguments.
The older wards who had become radicalized and joined the communist movement in the late 1930s did more than just spread propaganda about "how wonderful life was in Soviet Russia"—they turned on Korczak himself. They accused him of neglecting the children's practical welfare, treating them as "guinea pigs," and using the Orphans' Home merely as a "scientific laboratory." They asked with deep resentment: "What was the point of all the constant weighing, measuring, spilling of salt, and embroidered napkins, when afterward—at the age of fourteen—nothing but hunger, cold, and poverty awaits us past the orphanage threshold? Children leave here too early, unprepared for life, without work, thrown into a brutal world." This is how Ida Merżan recorded their confrontational questions in her book, Wspomnienia o Januszu Korczaku (Memoirs of Janusz Korczak, Warsaw, Nasza Księgarnia, 2nd ed., 1989).
However, it must be fiercely emphasized that Merżan only described a handful of rebellious, vocal wards. Their aggressive stance in no way reflected the views of the many other non-communist alumni and educators. Yet, this single description of a Moscow-aligned group spread rapidly. Worse still, it survived the decades and became deeply entrenched in the minds of post-war critics.
This heavily cited quote about children leaving "too early and unprepared for life" is a profound distortion of reality. Ironically, even those "Moscow-leaning wards" knew this to be false. The truth about the extensive practical training and life skills the children actually received is well documented in other personal memoirs by alumni, as well as in the concrete, empirical data preserved in the official Reports of the "Aid for Orphans" Society (Towarzystwo „Pomoc dla Sierot”).
Granted, organizations existed in pre-war Poland that attempted to merge Zionism with leftist or communist ideologies, though they remained a minority and were often distinct from the mainstream Zionist movement. The most notable among them were Histadrut, Poalej Syjon, and the leftist youth movement Hashomer Hatzair. It was precisely these radical political currents of the era that fueled that unjust, Marxist assault on the painful yet heroic work of the Old Doctor.
