Ghetto Diary [Paperback]

Janusz Korczak (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 11, 2003

Janusz Korczak (1879-1942) is one of the legendary figures to emerge from the Holocaust. A successful paediatrician and well-known author in his native Warsaw, he gave up a brilliant medical career to devote himself to the care of orphans. Like so many other Jews, Korczak was sent into the Warsaw Ghetto after the Nazi occupation of Poland. He immediately set up an orphanage for more than 200 children. Many of his admirers, Jewish and Gentile, offered to rescue him from the ghetto, but Korczak refused to leave his small charges. When the Nazis ordered the children to board a train that was to carry them to the Treblinka death camp, Korczak went with them, despite the Nazis' offer of special treatment. His selfless behaviour in caring for these children's lives and deaths has made him beloved throughout the world; he has been honoured by UNESCO and commemorated on postage stamps in both Poland and Israel. This volume constitutes Korczak's grimly inspiring ghetto diary, accompanied by a new introduction by Betty Jean Lifton, the author of the biography of Korczak.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Korczak's diary is a moving piece of literature and an indispensable insight into life inside the ghetto. The quality of his testimony, contemporaneous with the events he lived, is powerful, poignant, and moving." Michael Berenbaum

About the Author

Some of Janusz Korczak’s writings on children are still available: A Voice for the Child, and When I Am Little Again and "The Child’s Right to Respect." Betty Jean Lifton’s biography of Korczak, The King of Children: The Life and Death of Janusz Korczak, was a recent New York Times Notable Book of the Year.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (May 11, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300097425
• ISBN-13: 978-0300097429
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #484,144 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The indispensable first-hand account of Korczak's last days., August 5, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Ghetto Diary (Paperback)

Janusz Korczak was a radical educator and early advocate of the rights of children. He was a Polish Jew (Korczak was a gentile pseudonym for Henryk Goldschmidt) and pediatrician whose work was well-known in Europe before WWII. Though little translated in English, his exceptionally original and poetic style and ideas puts him in the same league as Pestalozzi, Dewey and Montessori. In prewar Warsaw he organized two outstanding institutions: orphanages which were run as self-governing children's republics. But Korczak is legendary not for his life of intense work and ideas, but for his death. When The Warsaw Ghetto was liquidated, he prepared his 200 children to defy death in a unique way. Eye-witness accounts testify to the shattering spectacle of 200 cheerful, orderly children marching in foursomes through the hell of the Ghetto singing. They entered the trains singing, and they died at Treblinka. Every teacher and Korczak himself died with them. Korczak was twice of! fered by the Nazis to survive, once at the trains, once in Treblinka itself -- to be sent to Germany and educate German youth. But he refused. The Ghetto Diary is the only English translation of Korczak's own account of the last year in the Ghetto. It is invaluable. Those of us interested in children, in education and in Remembrance, should put this book into Samizdat, copying it and sharing it. It is the duty of the publisher to keep such a document available. This edition has a superb introduction by a former student of Korczak's. It is written as a novella, but perhaps comes as close to capturing the state of Korczak's mind in those days as anything could. It is quite surrealistic -- as is Korczak's own work. It combines in tribute to Korczak, Korczak's own unique synthesis of imagination, dream and the harshest, most unsparingly observed reality.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love for the Children, November 22, 2006

By 

Daniel Waisberg (Israel) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ghetto Diary (Paperback)

I am a great admirer of Janusz Korczak not because of his wonderful books, but because he was firm to his beliefs until the end. He had principles and he was not ready to give up, and he paid with his life for it.

Korczak was the director of a big orphanage in Warsaw and he was very well know throughout the world for his writings in education. As the Holocaust started and life got very hard on the ghetto, Korczak worked even harder to keep on with cultural activities and day-to-day life. He was offered to escape to US, as most famous Jewish, but he believed that his children were his life and that he would rather die with them than live in a world that exterminates children cold-bloodedly. BUT, as William Blake puts it: "He who respects the Infant's faith triumph's over Hell & Death."

This book is very interesting; it provides many of the memories that Korczak wrote in the difficult days of the Second World War. It shows how desperating reality was, and how Korczak gave his soul into his fight to keep his children safe and healthy; a sad historical document with pictures of this noble man and the orphanage that made him so proud.

I have his whole collection; unfortunately for English speakers, I have found around 15 books in Hebrew while in English I found just 5. I warmly recommend this book, together with two other books that are found at Amazon: 'King Matt the First' and 'When I am little again' (see my reviews about them).

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Attempting to Live a Normal Life in the German-Established Warsaw Ghetto, September 5, 2007

By 

Jan Peczkis "Scholar and Thinker" (Chicago IL, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Ghetto Diary (Paperback)

Owing to the fact that Korczak cared for children, it is not surprising that much of his diary is devoted to this subject. He mentions such challenges as child-care tips, discipline, and attempting to heal sick children. He also noted the pains of ageing that he experienced.

Korczak makes many interesting comments on various subjects. He often discusses what kind of God he believes in. He also writes: "The world knows nothing of many great Poles." (p. 86). Also: "Nietzsche was also of Polish origin--Nitzki, you know." (p. 28). Korczak mentions Jewish virtues such as talent and hard work (p. 179), but also comments: "The Jews are conceited and that is why they are despised. I believe this will change, perhaps soon." (p. 182).

Unlike other diarists, Korczak devotes little direct attention to German Nazi actions in the Warsaw Ghetto. The consequences, however, are obvious: "The body of a dead boy lies in the sidewalk. Nearby, three boys are playing horses and drivers. At one point, they notice the body, move a few steps to the side, and go on playing." (p. 121). Korczak, an obvious intellectual, invites others to discussions in his flat about such topics as Napoleon, Leonardo da Vinci, freedom, destiny and free will, etc. (p. 155). These Jewish behaviors shed light on comparable Polish ones. Holocaust materials have commonly featured the Poles engaged in normal activities (riding a carousel, attending Easter Mass, etc.) while the ghetto was burning--all insinuating the cold indifference of Poles to Jewish suffering. They were no such thing. We see that both Poles and Jews simply attempted to live lives as close to normal as possible in the face of all the horrors surrounding them.

Korczak was offered to be saved by his Polish friends (p. 39), who had already made forged identification papers for him. He refused, and went to the gas chambers of Treblinka with the children in his care.