Famous Jew in History: Janusz Korczak (1878–1942)

Janusz Korczak was a Polish-Jewish doctor, writer, and educator who devoted his life to children. In Warsaw, he founded and ran an orphanage that taught responsibility, kindness, and dignity.

His books How to Love a Child and The Child’s Right to Respect set out a radical idea for the time: that every child deserves respect and a voice in their own life. These writings still shape how educators around the world think about children’s dignity.

When the Nazis occupied Poland, Korczak was forced to move his orphanage into the Warsaw Ghetto. Even there, he kept lessons going, organised meals, and refused special treatment for himself. When the order came for deportation to Treblinka, he walked beside the children, holding their hands until the end. His belief in a child’s worth outlasted the war and became a moral guide for generations.

Learn more: Holocaust Encyclopedia – Janusz Korczak