DR. JANUSZ KORCZAK

Dr. Janusz Korczak (1879-1942) was a Polish/Jewish pediatrician, author, educator, researcher, orphanage director, children’s human rights advocate and humanitarian who advanced innovative and progressive teachings about children’s value and equality informed by his direct practices with children from 1912-1942.    

Dr. Korczak is highly regarded throughout the world for his work, which included the caring and education of vulnerable Polish/Jewish children living in his Warsaw ghetto orphanages during WWII. On August 5, 1942, Dr. Korczak, his children and his staff were forcefully taken by Nazis to the Treblinka death camp, where they tragically died.  

After WWII, Dr. Korczak’s legacy as a children’s advocate grew in Poland and throughout the international community. His teachings and pioneering progressive approaches to children’s human rights informed early international children’s human rights instruments,  leading to the present-day UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989).  Dr. Korczak is recognized worldwide as the ‘father of children’s rights.’

Dr. Korczak’s legacy and his advocacy for seeing children as equal members of society to be cherished continues to inform present-day approaches to working with and for children in all areas of their lives, such as health, education, justice and child welfare. 

JKAC began by bringing attention to Dr. Korczak’s dedication to children.  In 1942, under Nazi command, Dr. Korczak had walked with his 192 children from the Warsaw ghetto orphanage to Umschlagplatz, Poland. Once there they were forced to board a cattle train to the Treblinka concentration camp where they died.  Since Dr. Korczak was well known in the Warsaw ghetto, survivors witnessed and described the orphanageevacuation.

1996 – 2002

In 1996, Alexander Dimant’s personal story about his life in the Warsaw ghetto during WWII and his escape and survival inspired the Association’s establishment.  Dimant had escaped the ghetto as a teenager, surviving the Holocaust but never seeing his family again.  It is possible Dimant’s family, who remained in the ghetto after his escape, witnessed Dr. Korczak’s last journey with his children. 

Dimant’s story inspired discussions about the importance of highlighting Dr. Korczak’s life and his international contributions to improving children’s lives.  These discussions occurred at a Vancouver, British Columbia event sponsored by the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre and the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland to commemorate the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.  Dimant was the lead organizer.

After Dimant’s untimely death in 1998, his wife Gina continued with his efforts. In November 1999 she organized a screening of Andrzej Wajda’s film Korczak at the Vancouver Jewish Community Centre. Many people expressed their interest in continuing to learn about Dr. Korczak’s life and work, which encouraged the Association’s formal establishment in 2002.

2002 – 2011: The First 10 Years

Throughout these years, the Association actively engaged in compiling, publishing and disseminating publications available on its website.  Other activities include:

2002 – The Association began by assisting the Holocaust Education Centre with its travelling exhibit Janusz Korczak and the Children of the Warsaw Ghetto[NS1] , opening on October 2002.  Lilian Boraks-Nemetz, a child survivor of Warsaw Ghetto and an Association board member, gave a lecture entitled A Child in the Warsaw Ghetto.

2003 – Olga Medvedeva-Nathoo delivered a lecture, followed by a discussion, on Korczak’s pedagogy at the Perez Centre for Secular Jewish Culture.  That same year, programs about Korczak’s life and legacy, featuring Olga Medvedeva-Nathoo, were broadcast on Co-op Radio and the Multicultural Broadcast Station.  

2005 – Olga Medvedeva-Nathoo delivered a lecture on Janusz Korczak: Bridging the Nations at the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre accompanied by Ambassador of the Republic of Poland in Canada, Piotr Ogrodzinski, who gave an address to the Friends of Korczak. That same year, the Association presented an international exhibition of children’s art My World and I at the Moat Gallery in Vancouver, where 100 children’s drawings and paintings from Canada, United Kingdom, Poland, Israel, Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Japan were displayed. The Association produced a brochure, accompanying the exhibition, that featured the drawings and paintings.

2006 – Dr. Ludwik Mirabel delivered a talk The Promise Land of Maly Przeglad at the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre. Dr. Mirabel, a medical doctor, knew Dr. Korczak. Before World War II, Dr. MIrabel was a young contributor to Maly Przeglad, a unique newspaper established by Dr. Korczak and written by children for children. During the same meeting Prof. Krzysztof Szafnicki gave the lecture Discovering Korczak in Canada. The Association, together with the Episode Group, hosted Irene Tomaszewski, a Quebec author, translator, and founder of the Canadian Foundation for Polish Studies in Montreal. She presented two of her books called Inside a Gestapo Prison: The Letters of Krystyna Wituska, 1942-44 and Zegota: The Council for Aid to Jews in Occupied Poland 1942-45

2007 – The Association, together with the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland and the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre organized a concert featuring the famous Polish singer Slawa Przybylska. Ms. Przybylska is an artist who has made a tremendous contribution to the promotion of Polish-Jewish culture and is devoted to performing songs in Hebrew and Yiddish.  Olga Medvedeva-Nathoo also delivered the lecture Janusz Korczak: His Life and Legacy to members of the Most-Bridge Society of Greater Vancouver. Gina Dimant presented a history of the Janusz Korczak Association of Canada and its most recent activities at the same meeting.

The Association also presented the Severin Szperling collection of Holocaust medals and coins – part of Szperling’s 300-item collection that spans 30 years and 14 countries. The Dr. Korczak portion of the collection is represented by 29 medals and coins from Poland and Israel. At the opening of the exhibition Severin Szperling delivered an intriguing talk entitled I am a son of four parents.

2008 – The Association hosted Holocaust survivor Miriam Akavia, an author and person active in the international Dr. Korczak movement. She gave a lecture at the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre about the founding of the State of Israel on its 60 anniversary.

2009 – The Association hosted Dr. Bozena Karwowska, a Professor of Slavic Studies at the University of British Columbia with the lecture The Body in Auchwitz: the Polish Writers’ Experience at the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre.

2010 – The Association hosted Prof. Jadwiga Binczycka, a distinguished Korczakian from Poland, who delivered a lecture Janusz Korczak – Champion of Children’s Rights.

2010- 2022: 20 Year Anniversary

Throughout this period, the Association continued with compiling, publishing and disseminating publications available on its website.  This work also involved arranging for publication translations and archival initiatives.

2011 – David Smith, writer and child activist, presented a lecture entitled This Child, Every Child. Janusz Korczak and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

2012 – The Association published the book Janusz Korczak: May their lives be easier by Olga Medvedeva-Nathoo. It is a biography of Dr. Korczak’s pupil Leon Gluzman. This Polish and English book, which involved a partnership with Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland, was launched at the Janusz Korczak – an Outstanding Man and Pedagogue conference held at the same university. Olga Medvedeva-Nathoo and Jerry Nussbaum, the Association’s president, were invited guests.

The Association, in partnership with the University of British Columbia (UBC), Faculty of Education, also organized a conference entitled Janusz Korczak. His Legacy and Children’s Rights at the University of British Columbia (UBC) to celebrate 2012 as the Year of Janusz Korczak, falling on the 70th anniversary of his death. Speakers and panelists included K. Czapla, Consul General of Republic of Poland, Association Board Members (L. Boraks-Nemets, J. Nussbaum, O. Medvedeva-Nathoo); Prof. J. Anglin, University of Victoria; Prof. A. Kindler, UBC; Prof. M. Chapman, UBC; Dr. T. Rogers, UBC; Dr. J. Duncan, U of Canterbury, New Zealand; and others. At the conference, the Faculty of Education unveiled a bronze relief, commissioned by the Association and created by the renown Polish artist Marek Rona. The Association donated the relief to the Faculty of Education to honour Dr. Korczak’s legacy. 

During this year, the BC Pediatric Association granted an honorary membership to Dr. Korczak thanks to Dr. Joanna Rotecka and Dr. Zenon Cieslak, Association members.

2013 – The Association published Janusz Korczak: A Bibliography – English Sources, 1939 – 2012 by Olga Medvedeva-Nathoo & Galina Sanaeva (Eds.).  The publication is based upon materials compiled by Edyta Januszewska (Poland) and Daniel Berek (USA).

2014 – The Association continued its long term plan to disseminate information about Dr. Korczak in Canada and provide Korczak-related resources and materials for English speaking audiences in North America and elsewhere in the world.