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King Matt the First

(Król Maciuś #1)

Janusz Korczak,

Richard Lourie (Translator),

Yanuş Korçak

3.73 · Rating details · 1,516 ratings · 88 reviews

Janusz Korczak was a Polish physician and educator who wrote over twenty books--his fiction was in his time as well known as Peter Pan, and his nonfiction works bore passionate messages of child advocacy. During World War II, the Jewish orphanage he directed was relocated to the Warsaw ghetto. Although Korczak's celebrity afforded him many chances to escape, he refused to ...more

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Paperback, 344 pages

Published October 15th 2004 by Algonquin Books (first published 1923)

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Dec 27, 2009 Lorenzo Berardi rated it really liked it

Shelves: a-my-english-library, 2009, polish

As far as I know, King Matt the First is a novel for children like no one other around. I was particularly glad to get this book as a present from my girlfriend.
Being rather fond of Polish literature lately, I have to confess how I had never heard before about this book as well as its author.
This ignorance of mine made the surprise even greater.

And yet King Matt is apparently a milestone in children books in Poland, while Janusz Korczak himself was a famous pedagogist with an interesting pers As far as I know, King Matt the First is a novel for children like no one other around. I was particularly glad to get this book as a present from my girlfriend.
Being rather fond of Polish literature lately, I have to confess how I had never heard before about this book as well as its author.
This ignorance of mine made the surprise even greater.

And yet King Matt is apparently a milestone in children books in Poland, while Janusz Korczak himself was a famous pedagogist with an interesting personal story and brave ideas on how to educate the young generations.

What I appreciated of this book is the way it treats its young readers. There is no need to hide unpleasant things of life like war, death or even bad-mouth speaking behind a marzipan made curtain. Korczak explains many things in a patient and peculiar way skilfully managing to don't be didactical or paternalist.
Of course there is a moral also behind "King Matt the First" but children are required to get it by themselves, page after page.
At the same time boys (this book may bore girls, I guess) grew up somehow with Matt who's not the succesful young hero he could have been, but as a child makes mistakes and sometimes behaves irrationally and with impulsiveness.

Another thing I liked is Korczak ability in being modern. He wrote this book in the 1920s and set up war descriptions based partly on WWI put also anticipating some aspects of WWII. There are automobiles, planes, strategic seaports to get and a key-role played by the mass media.
And I was almost falling off from my chair when I read about "red flags" punctuating a strike parade and being explained has "the flag of workers worldwide". Finding those lines in a children book without any socialist message hidden somewhere was a pleasant thrill.

As a reader of the English version, I had the impression of a very good and careful translation with just a few forgetfulnesses while leaving some things in original Polish and others not. I mean, I don't think many people out of Poland knows that the "kielbasa" is a kind of sausage, while choosing to change the name of the protagonist from Maciuś to Matt, I don't get why other typical names such as Tomek, Felek, etc. were left the same.

But, hey! This is just pedantry of mine: on the whole I highly enjoyed this book. And if I had a 5-6 years old son/daughter I would probably try to read him/her the adventures of King Matt the Reformer. There would surely be many questions to answer in order to explain how many grown-up things work, but whys are the salt of childhood. ...more

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Nov 13, 2009 Sarah Sammis rated it it was amazing

Shelves: borrowed, read-in-2009

King Matt the First by Janusz Korczak is one of those gems picked at random from the library. The title caught my eye and although the cover art and blurb made it sound hokey, I decided to give it a try. I'm glad I did even though it brought me to tears in a couple places.

Although my library puts the book in the children's section, I'd call it an adult book that happens to have a child protagonist. The book was first published in 1923 and was one of twenty novels by child advocate Henryk Golds

...more

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Jan 06, 2012 Hazel Lee rated it did not like it

Shelves: chase, fiction-juvenile, fiction-adventure

I do not understand the love for this book.

King Matt the First is a story about a prince who becomes king at a young age. Obviously he has no idea what a king is supposed to do, so he starts off doing wacky things like making a huge doll for a random girl he meets, then runs off to war to play soldier. Later he creates a children's parliament, where children can govern themselves however they see fit, which of course leads to all sorts of trouble. Somewhere in the middle he befriends an African ...more

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Dec 10, 2011 Angie rated it really liked it

Shelves: children, classic, group-read

One of the most fascinating things about this book is that it was written by a Polish paediatric doctor and educator who introduced many orphanages into Poland. The sad and courageous thing is that during WWII, he refused to leave his orphans as they were being sent to their deaths in a gas chamber. The book has great aspects and interesting characters, but it ends in a very strange way for a children's book. I love the characters of the African Cannibal King Bum-Drum and his daughter Klu-Klu. ...more

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Feb 01, 2011 Megan rated it it was amazing

This book is AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!! This book is about a little boy Matt and his father is sick. His mother is dead and his father dies. Matt becomes king at a young age. He has to go to a lot of meeting with his ministers and he secretly goes to war with his friend Felek, and he wins the war. And later on two more wars. Everyone loves King Matt. He goes on lots of adventures but later on he comes to an unexpected surprise that no one would ever want to encounter.

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Mar 18, 2007 Yi-Sheng rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Adults who'd like to revisit children's literature

Shelves: childrensliterature

Beautiful and sad; a portrait of a child monarch attempting to found a utopia on a world too politically similar too our own. An amazing and neglected work of fiction.

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Nov 24, 2019 Abigail rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: (With Caveat) Young Readers Who Enjoy Adventure Stories & More Philosophical Fiction

Shelves: childrens-fiction, childrens-translations, polish-children

When Matt's father dies, the young boy - so young that he cannot yet write - finds himself crowned king, and embarking upon a journey that will take him from the battle-field to the state room, from the glittering capital cities of his neighbor kings, to the African jungle domain of the cannibal King Bum Drum. With many false starts - having his annoying ministers arrested, for instance, and then realizing he can't govern without them - Matt sets out to reform his country, establishing a constit When Matt's father dies, the young boy - so young that he cannot yet write - finds himself crowned king, and embarking upon a journey that will take him from the battle-field to the state room, from the glittering capital cities of his neighbor kings, to the African jungle domain of the cannibal King Bum Drum. With many false starts - having his annoying ministers arrested, for instance, and then realizing he can't govern without them - Matt sets out to reform his country, establishing a constitutional monarchy, and (most revolutionary of all) attempting to ensure that children's rights are protected, by creating a Children's Parliament alongside the adult one, in order to give young people a voice. But despite all of his sincere efforts, Matt discovers too late that reforming (as the "Sad King" had warned him) is a dangerous business, and that envy, fear and discontent are powerful forces in the world...

Originally published in 1923, as Król Maciuś Pierwszy ("King Macius the First"), this classic of Polish children's literature is notable, not just for the story it contains - a story which incorporates its creator's ideas about pedagogical reform - but for the identity of its author. Janusz Korczak was the pen-name of Polish-Jewish pediatrician, author, and educational theorist Henryk Goldszmit, who, in the years prior to WWII, ran both a Catholic and a Jewish orphanage, and who, when offered a chance to escape the ghetto, and the Nazi Final Solution, refused to abandon the young Jewish orphans in his care, going to his death, with them, at the Treblinka death camp. Korczak's own story has been retold for children in such books as The Champion of Children: The Story of Janusz Korczak , and his immensely influential ideas about child development can be found in such works as When I Am Little Again and The Child's Right to Respect .

That said, this is a deeply flawed book, ethically speaking, and I am rather surprised to see how infrequently any of the online reviews I have been reading, see fit to challenge (or even mention) the overt racism to be found in its pages. Bruno Bettelheim, who wrote the introduction to my edition, at least acknowledges that some might find the content problematic, although he goes on the offer the standard defense/apologia, claiming that King Matt the First was simply the product of its own time, and that people back then, in 1920s Poland (and elsewhere in Europe, one presumes) simply didn't know any better, when it came to the peoples of Africa, and (to a lesser extent) the 'Orient.' Ignorance as an excuse for... well, ignorance. And prejudice. I'm a little less blithe about the issue, however, and couldn't read any of the passages about the 'savage' 'cannibals' of Africa, without wincing. It isn't that they are depicted as terrible people - as Bettelheim correctly points out, King Bum Drum, and his daughter Klu Klu, are the only royals who don't betray Matt, and are depicted as genuinely moral - but the constant sense of patronizing condescension, the way in which Matt sets out to 'educate' them, and correct their cultural mistakes, is intensely grating, and constantly threw me out of the story. The preoccupation with cannibalism that can be seen in Korczak's work, even if tempered with a kinder depiction of the cannibals than is usually seen, is itself a marker of a colonialist mindset - yes, there were cannibals in Africa, but I'm not sure how widespread the practice was, and certainly do not believe that every culture and kingdom on the continent (as depicted here) was involved, until shown the error of their ways by the more civilized Europeans - and seems to surface rather frequently in the children's literature written before a certain point.

Still, I'm not one of these people who believes that ethically imperfect works of literature should be abandoned, if they have something to offer, artistically or intellectually, and despite the issue of the Africans' depiction here, I did find much of interest in King Matt the First, and am not sorry to have read it. The idea of giving children a say in their own governance, as enacted in the story, mirrors Korczak's methods in running his orphanages, which had parliaments as well. The notion that 'civilization,' as embodied by European monarchy, leads to a less moral people than the 'barbarism' of Africa - an argument that I think the author is making, and which might stand as an anti-racist counter-point to the unfortunate nature of his depiction of non-Europeans - is ground-breaking, for its time. I cannot say that I rushed through the book - sometimes I found it something of a struggle to stay involved - but then, I imagine that young readers might relish a tale in which the young are in charge (even if the results prove disastrous!), and the adults must obey. All in all, a book worth reading, if one bears in mind that it has problematic aspects. I would recommend it - with the caveat that adults should be available to discuss the outdated aspects of the tale - to young readers who enjoy adventure stories, and to anyone who appreciates more philosophical children's books. ...more

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Jan 31, 2012 Kathleen Dixon rated it did not like it

Shelves: children-s

I find it quite interesting that there seems to be more made of the author of this book than of the book itself. The description of the book here in GoodReads begins with a paragraph about the author, and while it can be interesting to know the author's background, and it can explain a little as to why s/he should write about a particular topic, I believe that any blurb about a book should first and foremost be about the book.

Then, the introduction to the book (written by a person I personally h ...more

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Apr 07, 2010 DixieJo rated it really liked it

Shelves: juv-fiction

I am about two-thirds finished with this book. I love it and would give it five stars - but need to warn my peers out there. There are a few swear words worth editing if reading aloud but it doesn't go on through the book (one chapter that I have read needed editing.)

As I read I imagine a kindly aging man reading this story aloud to the orphans as the Author is said to have done. I am touched at how well he weaved the trial of times into the story without actually talking about it. (the Holocaus ...more

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Sep 19, 2017 Pete rated it it was ok

came to janusz korczak via something graeme wood tweeted and while korczak's bio is awesome: this book has not aged well. there are some cool things here: the slow maturation of matt from naive orphan king to increasingly tragic young adult, sort of like _the little prince_ but actually about you know, about being a ruler. but the antique racism/stereotyping that keeps coming up makes this hard to appreciate. there is something here but i'm not going to do the work of excavating it and washing a ...more

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May 01, 2009 Nate D added it

Shelves: school, poland, past-favorites

File under: books I loved in grade school and then forgot about. I vaguely recall that this tale of 9-year-old king surprised me at the time for actually conveying real insight into politics, power, and war, in a very non fairy-tale-like manner. But on the other hand, this would have been as compared to Redwall, so who knows.

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Jul 06, 2018 Delanie rated it liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Aug 01, 2011 Jenny rated it it was amazing

Shelves: children-young-adult

Wow - this book is poingant and beautiful. It is much a coming of age story as Matt discovers the challenges of being a true leader and tries to navigate the precarious balances of doing it justly and compassionately. It is easy to sympathize with a character who is not a capable, evenhanded rules, but a brave, honest child making many mistakes as he faces the great unknown.

The characters are rich and complex - there are few in this book that you can either place on a pedestal or wholeheartedly ...more

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Jun 05, 2009 Samantha97 Stowell rated it it was ok

This was a book made for kids. Yet by the time they could read this large book they would have outgrown it. I think it would make a great read aloud book to second graders. It had no grown up appeal to it and my older kids would be bored by page 5. I did think the most interesting part of the book was about the author and how he would not leave his kids from a Warsaw orphanage to save his life and was killed in a camp during WWII.

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Jan 18, 2011 Dasha rated it it was amazing

Shelves: great-kid-s-books

I wish they had the Russian edition on here, which is what I read [and am too lazy to update right now.]
This book was one of my favorites when I was little, although I remember it being really sad. I was very affected by melancholy when I was small.

Anyway, often think about this book and am about to re-read it for inspiration for something - that's got to be worth something, no?
I'll update the review once I am done with the book. ...more

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Aug 31, 2016 Gokhan Dirioz rated it it was amazing

I've read this book decades ago and only knew by its Turkish name: "Çocuk Kral"(Child King). I'm glad I found it. It tells the story of a child prince who becomes king at a very early age.The now king does many absurd and funny reforms such as banning girls from the parliament and sending the grown-ups back to school.Even if the book doesn't make you laugh out loud,it will put a grin on your face. ...more

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Jan 21, 2012 Jenny rated it liked it

Shelves: children-s-books

This is the story of a young boy who becomes king and wants to reform his country. He wants to make it a better place for children to live (a worthy goal, in my opinion), but he does not have the wisdom to know how to go about this. He makes some good laws but also some foolish ones. He is brave and he tries hard. I found the author's background quite interesting and heroic. ...more

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Mar 17, 2008 Molly rated it really liked it

This is a fun book about a nine year old (I think) that becomes king and makes life better for kids, but also learns about all the duties of a king. He also joins the army at some point...there's a lot of cool stuff in there. ...more

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Jul 21, 2008 Jenny rated it really liked it

I just found this book at the salvation army and was so surprised I hadn't heard of it before. A great homage to childhood and the crazy world of adults. ...more

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Jun 26, 2011 Srinidhi.R Srinidhi.R rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: teen-and-children-s-books

I liked the book..I will read the sequel--'King Matt on a deserted island' if it gets translated in English, which I believe will happen very soon.. ...more

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Aug 11, 2011 Ludmirska rated it it was amazing

I would recommend this story to anyone, child and grown up alike.

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Oct 27, 2019 Joyreader rated it it was ok

I’m not even sure how to begin reviewing this book. King Matt the First is translated from Polish and published first in 1923. Obviously there are some cultural differences in time and place and maybe exactly how a novel should unfold by today’s standards.

The story follows young Matt, who’s orphaned and heir to the throne of his kingdom. I could never even be sure if I liked him or not, but he did seem to be doing his best to defend his people and to become king of the children. The novel involv I’m not even sure how to begin reviewing this book. King Matt the First is translated from Polish and published first in 1923. Obviously there are some cultural differences in time and place and maybe exactly how a novel should unfold by today’s standards.

The story follows young Matt, who’s orphaned and heir to the throne of his kingdom. I could never even be sure if I liked him or not, but he did seem to be doing his best to defend his people and to become king of the children. The novel involves his adventures fighting in a WWI style trench war, traveling to Africa, and doing his best to rule his kingdom in peace.

I appreciated the foreword giving some context on the author, a Polish doctor who ran orphanages by a children’s parliament and set up the first national children’s newspaper. From the book, I can glean he cared very much for the rights of children, at a time when that perhaps wasn’t a concept the world concerned itself with. It also seemed a little revolutionary that he was championing gender equality (King Matt says the girls “of course” would be allowed to have delegates in the children’s parliament) And though the colonial, racist ideas were hard to read in regards to Matt and the “savage” and “ignorant” Africans, I could still tell the author felt everyone in the world deserved fair treatment. I was moved to tears by the true story of the author, in 1942, marching with the green children’s flag, like the one King Matt created in the book, with two hundred children to board the train to Treblinka where he and those children would die in a gas chamber, refusing to abandon his charges.

But the poignancy of the author’s real life bravery and care of children isn’t enough to make up for the book. I could forgive the offensive references to Africans, the children drinking vodka and smoking, and the inappropriate violence in a children’s book. (Ex: Matt killing someone with a shot that shattered their skull) But for this review, what’s hard to forgive is the boring way the story unspooled from one event to the next in a jerky and abrupt fashion.

Speaking of abrupt, the ending.

Wut?

I read this as a school librarian because it’s been assigned as a Battle of the Books choice. For the life of me, I can’t understand why. It’s no longer a book for children, but does offer moments of fascinating reading in trying to decipher the views of children’s rights in another time. Who knows, maybe it takes time to process some of the messages in this book. And I did find the consequences of attacks on truth and use of propaganda as relevant as ever!

...more

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Aug 21, 2019 Diana Skelton rated it liked it

Shelves: kids-or-young-adults

I'm not sure I would read this to young children today, because even though one of the author's aims was to improve the way Europeans saw Africans, the context in 1923 was a very low bar indeed. (A very nice touch, however, is that Klu Klu, the African heroine, is stronger and more athletic than most boys, and pities European girls who are prevented from running and climbing trees by their ridiculously impractical fashions.)
Setting aside the weighty issue of colonisation, I do find the story tou ...more

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Jun 19, 2020 Combimagnetron rated it really liked it

I'd read this book as an example of what a more contemporary book about adult themes aimed at youths could be. I feel the racial stereotyping, whilst very progressive for the time, is just too grave to share with (most) children up to 10 in it's current form. Not because they are unexplainable, but because they might still leave unconscious traces of 'othering' and essentializing. Even if, superficially, children might be able to understand it's 'just a story' and it's supposed to 'make children ...more

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Jan 08, 2020 Heather rated it really liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Mar 23, 2013 Daniel L. rated it it was amazing

Shelves: life-s-journeys, pedagogy-extraordinary-teachers, books-by-janusz-korczak

King Matt - A Beloved Classic by the King of Children

Were one to associate a book and a fictional character with Janusz Korczak, it would certainly be Krol Macius, King Matthew. His likeness appeared on a series of Polish stamps commemorating his creator, along with a German post card. He saw himself as a leader, through the eyes of the child, King Matt. This is especially true of the often-related accounts of his final march through the Warsaw Ghetto, in silent protest providing comfort to the King Matt - A Beloved Classic by the King of Children

Were one to associate a book and a fictional character with Janusz Korczak, it would certainly be Krol Macius, King Matthew. His likeness appeared on a series of Polish stamps commemorating his creator, along with a German post card. He saw himself as a leader, through the eyes of the child, King Matt. This is especially true of the often-related accounts of his final march through the Warsaw Ghetto, in silent protest providing comfort to the orphans in his care to the very end, as they boarded the cattle cars that would take them to Treblinka.

To understand both the story and the character of King Matt, it helps to be familiar with the author himself. Janusz Korczak was the pen name of Henryk Goldszmit, born July 20, 1879, in Warsaw, Poland. He was a quiet, thoughtful, studious young boy. Though he grew up in a comfortable, middle-class apartment, he was interested in playing with the working-class children of the street. Two events should have shattered his ideals. First, a group of street urchins teased the young Henryk mercilessly when he went outside to bury his beloved pet canary, taunting him with vicious anti-Semitic slurs. Second, Henryk's father succumbed to a psychiatric illness and had to be institutionalized, leaving the once prosperous family nearly penniless. Ever resourceful, Henryk turned those tragic events into opportunities, mainly by putting his love for children to use as a tutor for the children of the rich and poor alike, charging only what their parents could afford, even though the responsibility of supporting the family was primarily his.

In a similar vein, "King Matt," Matthew's father dies, suddenly leaving the responsibility of ruling the kingdom to the young boy. Poor Matt quickly realizes what a hostile place the adult world is for a child - a major theme in nearly every one of Korczak's writings. His ministers fight among themselves and try various tricks to deceive the boy king. Indeed, they question his authority, quite a reversal from the viewpoint of most adults, who are more concerned with children questioning their authority. Although the royal palace is teeming with officials and servants, Matt finds himself feeling very lonely indeed. That is, at least, until he befriends a boy at the edge of the royal gardens. Matt is very curious to find out more, so he disguises himself as a child of the palace under the false name Tomek. The boy introduces himself as Felek. They become good friends, but must do so in secrecy, as the palace elders deem it undesirable that the king associate himself with local working-class riff-raff. More than ever, Matt is convinced that, as king, he must rule his kingdom in a way that would be a good place for children, where they would be respected and taken seriously as, in the words of Korczak, "not people tomorrow, but people today." His reforms include carousels in every town, summer camps in the country that poor children might enjoy nature, toys and candy for those children who deserve but cannot afford such things. Further, children should have autonomy, a say in how things are run. Send the adults back to school and have the children work for a living. Of course, the adults protest about the boring work they have to endure in the schools. The people of his kingdom are not happy. And things become even worse, when the rulers of neighboring kingdoms declare war on King Matt. Matt (disguised as Tomek) and Felek go and fight on the front lines. Matt even undertakes a perilous journey to Africa to elicit the help of the cannibal king and his daughter, Klu Klu. As a side note, Korczak does not shy away from prejudice, among both the white and the black characters. After all, such prejudice is rampant in real life, a fact that Korczak himself knew all too well. (Reviewers of this book who do not know about Korczak have accused him of bias, an unfair and untrue accusation.) Despite the mutual prejudices, Matt becomes close friends with Klu Klu and her royal father. Although King Matt wins the war against his neighboring aggressors, the adults in his kingdom rise in revolt and banish him to a desert island. Such a quick twist in plot - for the worse - is typical of Korczak's storytelling, but that does not make the author a cynic or pessimist. On the contrary, there is hope - only, we do not yet know what the future will bring.

Richard Lourie's translation in sympathetic and follows the style of Korczak faithfully. In the original hardcover edition, it was Bruno Bettelheim who introduced the book. Although Dr. Bettelheim was both a Holocaust survivor and an authority on children's literature (one should refer to his "The Uses of Enchantment"), many admirers of Korczak are deeply troubled by his questioning why Korczak led his charges to the trains to the Treblinka death camp like sheep to the slaughter and did not fight back. (He also posed the same question about Anne Frank in a 1990 article.) I feel this criticism is entirely justified; Korczak dared resist the Nazi oppressors in multiple ways; fighting them was not how he chose to do so. For paperback edition, there is a new introduction by Esme Raji Codell, a strong advocate of engaging children in quality literature. Her enthusiasm for this beloved children's classic, which has been translated into many languages and adapted to films, plays, and cartoons all over Europe and elsewhere, is infectious. Let me end by quoting from Ms. Codell: "This book is a portrait of a child's attempts to give his best gifts to the world. It teaches grown-ups not only what children's literature can be, but what children can be."
...more

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Feb 26, 2017 Allison rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Maciuś has taught me most of my Polish vocabulary. It's taken me so long to finish this book that I feel like I watched him grow up in real-time (Please be aware that I read it in Polish, my first language is English). But this is a book worth your time. Korczak understands not only children but high politics, colonialism, economy. His nuanced thinking shown through the eyes of precocious Maciuś will make you forget you're reading a book that was written pre-World War II. I can't recommend it hi ...more

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Mar 23, 2018 Elisabeth rated it liked it · review of another edition

A unique tale, sometimes funny, sometimes quite scary, in language conducive to reading aloud.

Parents might want to read the introduction for context.

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Jun 28, 2018 Diana Pettis rated it really liked it

Enjoyed the ups and downs of reading this story. Geared towards middle school or upper elementary depending on interest.

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Dec 25, 2018 R. rated it liked it

Shelves: children, classics, 2018

7/10. Worth reading, enjoyable, but I think I got my hopes up a little too high. I like the bravery and adventure and I think it does make a good story for kids.

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About Janusz Korczak

Janusz Korczak

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Janusz Korczak was a Polish-Jewish children's author, pediatrician, and child pedagogue, also known under the pseudonym "Stary Doktor".
He was born Henryk Goldszmit in Warsaw on July 22, 1878. During his youth, he played with children who were poor and lived in bad neighborhoods; his passion for helping disadvantaged youth continued into his adulthood. He studied medicine and also had a promising Janusz Korczak was a Polish-Jewish children's author, pediatrician, and child pedagogue, also known under the pseudonym "Stary Doktor".
He was born Henryk Goldszmit in Warsaw on July 22, 1878. During his youth, he played with children who were poor and lived in bad neighborhoods; his passion for helping disadvantaged youth continued into his adulthood. He studied medicine and also had a promising career in literature. When he gave up his career in literature and medicine, he changed his name to Janusz Korczak, a pseudonym derived from a 19th century novel, Janasz Korczak and the pretty Swordsweeperlady.
In 1912, Korczak established a Jewish orphanage, Dom Sierot, in a building which he designed to advance his progressive educational theories. He envisioned a world in which children structured their own world and became experts in their own matters. Jewish children between the ages of seven and fourteen were allowed to live there while attending Polish public school and government-sponsored Jewish schools, known as "Sabbath" schools. The orphanage opened a summer camp in 1921, which remained in operation until the summer of 1940.
Besides serving as principal of Dom Sierot and another orphanage, Nasz Dom, Korczak was also a doctor and author, worked at a Polish radio station, was a principal of an experimental school, published a children’s newspaper and was a docent at a Polish university. Korczak also served as an expert witness in a district court for minors. He became well-known in Polish societyand received many awards. The rise of anti-Semitism in the 1930's restricted only his activities with Jews.
In 1934 and 1936, Korczak visited Palestine and was influenced by the kibbutz movement. Following his trips, Korczak was convinced that all Jews should move to Palestine.
The Germans occupied Poland in September 1939, and the Warsaw ghetto was established in November 1940. The orphanage was moved inside the ghetto. Korczak received many offers to be smuggled out of the ghetto, but he refused because he did not want to abandon the children. On August 5, 1942, Korczak joined nearly 200 children and orphanage staff members were rounded up for deportation to Treblinka, where they were all put to death.

Source: Janusz Korczak Communication Center and U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum ...more