Essay Reviews: A Saga of Janusz Korczak, The King of Children

Abstract

He has been called a twentieth-century Pestalozzi, Karl Marx of children, and the world's leading advocate of the rights of children. Lawrence Kohlberg metaphorically assigned him to stage seven of his six stages of moral develop­ ment, and Martin Wolins described him simply as great one. He is revered in his native Poland as if he were a saint, and the Israelis consider him to be one of Thirty-Six Just Men who, according to tradition, will make possible the world's salvation. His contributions are widely recognized in Europe, South America, and Israel, yet North Americans are largely ignorant of his life and writings. The pub­ lication of Betty Jean Lifton's compelling biography provides an occasion for re­ flecting on the life and thought of Janusz Korczak. Janusz Korczak is the pen name of Henryk Goldszmit, born in 1878 to a Jewish family that was assimilated into Polish society. On August 6, 1942, Janusz Korczak became a legend, as he and his two hundred Jewish orphans disappeared into the gas chambers of Tre­ blinka. Korczak was a children's physician and educator on a thirty-year intern­ ship with society's most devalued young people; he was murdered by the Nazis while still on duty. At age five, Korczak told his grandmother about his plans to reform the world. In his 1942 Ghetto Diary he wrote that Grannie was the only one who believed