Mister Doctor: Janusz Korczak and the Orphans of the Warsaw Ghetto by I. Cohen-Janka

Abstract

Cohen-Janka, Irène. Mister Doctor: Janusz Korczak and the Orphans of the Warsaw Ghetto. Illus. Maurizio A.C. Quarello. Trans. Paula Ayer. Toronto: Annic Press, 2015.When the human order descends into madness, the heroes are those who remain humane. One such hero was a Polish national, the “Mister Doctor” of this story. Born into a Jewish family as Henryk Goldzsmit, he became better known by his nom de plume, Janusz Korczak, under which he wrote popular books for children. A trained physician, he served his country as a military doctor in World War I. When peace came, he turned his attention to pediatrics. He shared, through radio broadcasts, his enlightened ideas for child rearing. These ideas he put into practice in Warsaw as the head of an orphanage for Jewish children. Mister Doctor provides an account of his last years as he struggled to bring hope and comfort to the orphans following the Nazi occupation of Poland in World War II.The narrative voice of Mister Doctor is haunting, for it is a voice from the grave. Simon, the child narrator, relates events as the Nazis repeatedly relocate Korczak and his young charges, first, from the security of their orphanage into the nightmare of the Warsaw Ghetto and, from there, into the death bound trains that would transport them to the extermination camp at Treblinka. We see through Simon’s eyes how Korczak, defying the climate of deprivation, attempts to retain at least some of those things that are vital to childhood: a sense of play, the assurance of love, the comforting presence of an attentive adult.Cohen-Janka has created in Simon a youthful and unadorned voice that will speak to children in upper elementary and junior high school. Maurizio Quarello’s somber, realistic, charcoal drawings, are masterful works that would speak to any age. Excellent end notes give further details of Janusz Korczak’s life.Korczak, like other men of conscience, Oskar Schindler, Mahatma Ghandi, Martin Luther King, and Canadians of our own era—Ambassador Kenneth Taylor, Roméo Dallaire, retained, under extreme duress, the courage of his convictions. In today’s world, beset as it is with sectarian violence, terrorism, and the murder and displacement of innocent people, children need to know that it is possible to be steadfastly life affirming. Parents, teachers and librarians might well share and discuss with them this story of Mister Doctor.Highly Recommended: 4 out of 4 starsReviewer: Leslie AitkenLeslie Aitken’s long career in librarianship involved selection of children’s literature for school, public, special and academic libraries. She was formerly Curriculum Librarian for the University of Alberta.