In July 1942, the Nazis launched the “Grossaktion,” an operation of mass extermination of the Jews who lived in the Warsaw Ghetto, conducted from the ghetto’s Umschlagplatz (collection point) to the Treblinka extermination camp between Tisha Be’av (July 23) and Yom Kippur (September 21) of 1942. Henryk Goldszmit, known by the pen name Janusz Korczak (July 1879 – August 1942), was a Polish-Jewish educator, a children’s author and a well-known pediatrician. After having spent many years working as the director of an orphanage in Warsaw, he refused the sanctuary his recognition could have afforded him and decided to stay with the orphans when they were sent from the ghetto to Treblinka. This year marks the 70th anniversary of his murder. But the legacy of Korczak as an educator who put humanism above everything remains to this day, and he is still highly praised and serves as a model while at the same time a subject of academic research himself.Last month, Dr. Marc Silverman, a senior lecturer at the Hebrew University’s School of Education and Melton Center for Jewish Education, published The Child is a Person (in Hebrew), based on Korczak’s fundamental belief that “children are not the people of tomorrow; they are people today.” Silverman, 66, made aliya in 1961 from the US and is considered one of the top scholars on Korczak’s work and writings.“I chose the name of the book because Korczak was among the first to realize and say that children are people, just smaller – a fact that was not at all obvious until then,” Silverman says in a Skype interview from Toronto, where he is spending half a sabbatical year with his wife, poet Orna Silverman. “We have to understand that until not so long ago, children were considered not only the property of their parents, but as less than people standing for themselves.The fact that today, at least in Western society, children are recognized as people is a huge step, and that we have respect for a child as a person, as a full-fledged, ever-growing human being, is very largely due to Korczak.”In his book, Silverman mentions Korczak’s interest in the Zionist movement, his positive attitude toward the establishment of a Jewish homeland in mandatory Palestine and his thoughts of eventually moving here.“I don’t think he would have made aliya if he had survived the war,” says Silverman, “but if we are willing to play the game of ‘what would have happened if,’ I am sure that Korczak would have promoted humanistic education here which wouldn’t have differentiated between Jews and non-Jews; he would have probably joined the humanistic circles around philosophers like Martin Buber and J.L.Magnes [at the Hebrew University], perhaps even become a member of Brith Shalom [a movement that strove to establish a binational state in the Land of Israel]. In a way,” adds Silverman, “the establishment of the chain of schools for Jews and Arabs together is the most faithful implementation of his dream and ideology.” According to Silverman, Korczak’s view was based on the belief that Jewish nationalism would and should naturally pave the way for worldwide humanism.“I’m sure that Korczak would have striven to find expressions of Judaism and renewed Jewish nationalism that would fit with his humanistic credo, one that would not put non-Jews in some inferior position while the Jewish people were placed above the rest,” Silverman remarks. However, according to his research, it would be wrong to say that Korczak was above any nationalistic feelings – his Polish patriotism was well-known and he never hid it. “In this issue, he was different from the majority of Poles in those days,” Silverman says, “because he had his own approach which didn’t disregarded national feelings. But there is no doubt that in a conflict between Polish nationalism and anti-Semitism, he would not hesitate to stand by his [Jewish] people, because what he praised the most was first and foremost the humanistic and socialist way.”KORCZAK DECIDED to prepare the children of his orphanage for their deaths and refused to encourage them to flee, believing that considering the situation , the smaller children had no chance of surviving anyway.“He preferred to prepare them as serenely as possible, in dignity, for the inevitable fate that awaited them,” explains Silverman. In this case, Korczak made the decision for them, in opposition to the principles he promoted in his orphanage, since he was convinced that it was the best one in the context.” He did, however, enable the older orphans to leave before they were caught, hoping that they might find a way to survive.“It was clear to him that there was no way to escape death; the only question remaining in his eyes was how to die. Would it be possible to die with dignity, even serenely? He truly believed that by going all together, he would provide the children some kind of comfort.”Silverman compares Korczak’s actions to those of the partisans who launched the revolt in the Warsaw Ghetto – they didn’t believe they would defeat the Germans but nevertheless fought back for the sake of their dignity. He points out that in a world completely swept into barbarity and inhumanity, in the face of such bestiality, Korczak, who praised and taught humanism, probably couldn’t have acted differently. Under such conditions, when everything around them was so dark, to choose to die in dignity, surrounded by friends and teachers, was perhaps indeed the only human choice.“I believe that he also truly wanted to fight back the barbarity of the Nazis without falling into the trap of using force and violence.”After a short pause, Silverman adds, “it is a difficult and sensitive situation – how one can defend oneself without becoming inhuman like the attacker?” Silverman admits that Korczak’s decision does seem totally opposed to the traditional Jewish belief, which would seek to preserve life until the very last moment, no matter the situation. “Was it some tendency to martyrdom?” Silverman asks himself. “I am not sure about that, but one must admit that Korczak chose this way out a little bit too easily, and that is troubling at least. Not that there was any illusion he could save himself or the children, but nevertheless, it raises a question.”“Can we say that Korczak was too quick to chose a stoic and serene death as the only way to confront the Nazi evil? If his death and the death of his students was to be considered as some kind of martyrdom? Perhaps he hurried a little too much to do it.”Silverman concludes by suggesting that perhaps what Korczak lacked was the profound understanding of the Rambam (Maimonides) “which teaches us that there is a way in between.”“There is no question that Korczak loved life. But when faced with the terrible fate of the Jews during the Shoah, for him, the only question that remained was how to die.”
