The Doctor from the Ghetto: Images of Janusz Korczak in Children’s Books Cover Image

Pan Doktor z getta. Wizerunki Janusza Korczaka w książkach dla dzieci
The Doctor from the Ghetto: Images of Janusz Korczak in Children’s Books

Author(s): Agnieszka Witkowska-Krych
Subject(s): History, Language and Literature Studies, Jewish studies, Studies of Literature, Local History / Microhistory, Recent History (1900 till today), Polish Literature, Philology
Published by: Wydział Polonistyki Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Adam Jaromir; Anna Czerwińska-Rydel; Beata Ostrowicka; Gabriela Cichowska; Warsaw Ghetto; Iwona Chmielewska; Janusz Korczak; Jim Shepard; Polish children’s literature; war; Holocaust; Jews

Summary/Abstract: Henryk Goldszmit – a writer, doctor, and educator, publicly known as Janusz Korczak, and in the 1930s also as the ‘Old Doctor’ speaking to children on the radio – for the sake of his rich professional life, his work to protect children’s rights, as well as his death in the Treblinka death camp, became an unquestionable symbol of the faithful orphan caretaker, determined to accompany his charges to the end despite the possibility of personal rescue. The paper, on one hand, is an attempt to present this tragic story and, on the other, to critically discuss Korczak’s images emerging from children’s books. Publications analysed here are books released in Poland in the last decade: Po drugiej stronie okna. Opowieść o Januszu Korczaku [The Other Side of the Window: A Tale about Janusz Korczak] by Anna Czerwińska-Rydel (2012), Jest taka historia. Opowieść o Januszu Korczaku [There is This Story: A Tale of Janusz Korczak] by Beata Ostrowicka (2012), Pamiętnik Blumki [Blumka’s Diary] by Iwona Chmielewska (2011), Ostatnie przedstawienie panny Esterki. Opowieść z getta warszawskiego [Miss Esterka’s Last Show: A Tale from the Warsaw Ghetto] by Adam Jaromir and Gabriela Cichowska (2014), and a work for older children, The Book of Aron by Jim Shepard, recently translated into Polish.

  • Issue Year: 3/2021
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 85-96
  • Page Count: 12
  • Language: Polish