Korczak orphanage

Korczak orphanage, Warsaw - darkometer rating : 4 - The original building of the Jewish orphanage set up by the famous pedagogue and writer Janusz Korczak in the west of Warsaw . When the Nazis sent the children of his orphanage to Treblinka he heroically declined the opportunity to escape and rather chose to stay with "his" children who he thus accompanied into the gas chambers where he was murdered alongside them. Today, the building still functions as an orphanage. In front of it is one of the many Korczak memorial monuments. > More background info > What there is to see > Location > Access and costs > Time required > Combinations with other dark destinations > Combinations with non-dark destinations > Photos More background info: Janusz Korczak is actually an adopted pen name, his real name was Henryk Goldszmit. He was born in 1878, studied medicine and became a paediatrician. His fame, however, derived from his writings. He published several children's stories and academic works. In these he propagated a new view on educating children that was revolutionary at the time, namely in that it was based on equality and respect rather than the authoritarian attitudes towards 'minors' that was otherwise the unchallenged norm at the time. Later, in 1911, he became the director of an orphanage, in which he put his pedagogical theory into practice. The children virtually ran their own mini-republic, with their own parliament, court and newspaper. In many ways, this was a precursor to A.S. Neill's similarly reform-oriented boarding school Summerhill in Great Britain (founded in 1921). While Korczak concentrated his work more on his orphanage, he still wrote and even had his own radio programme. The latter, however, was cancelled in the course of increasing anti-Semitism. Korczak was himself a Jew and had travelled repeatedly to Palestine.