„ I am not to be loved and admired, but I am to act and love. People around me are not obliged to help me, but I am obliged to care about the world and people”.

Henryk Goldszmit (1878 or 1879 - 1942), performed under the pen name Janusz Korczak and the radio pseudonym Stary Doktor (Old Doctor). He was a doctor by education and profession, a writer by talent and a teacher and educationalist by vocation. Above all he was a significant forerunner of children rights. He created a new educational system based on child’s needs and aspirations. The new system would facilitate activeness and self-reliance of children through different forms of children’s self-government. He was the director of a Jewish orphanage (1911 - 1942), called Dom Sierot in Warsaw and the co-founder of another orphanage for Polish children called Nasz dom. He worked as a lecturer at Instytut Pedagogiki Specjalnej i Wolnej Wszechnicy Polskiej. He was the author of several pedagogical boooks, e.g. “ Jak kochac dziecko” („How to love a child”) (1920), „Prawo dziecka do szacunku” (“The child’s Wright to Respect”) (1928), „Momenty wychowawcze” (1919), „Prawidla zycia” (1930), „Pedagogika zartobliwa” (1939). He was however famous for his books for children: “Moski, Joski i Srule” (1909), “Jozki, Jaski i Franki” (1910), “Krol Macius Pierwszy” (“King Matt the First”) (1922), “Krol Macius na bezludnej wyspie” (“King Matt on a Deserted Island”) (1923), “Bankructwo Malego Dzeka” (“Bankruptcy of Little Jack”) (1924), “Kiedy znow bede maly” (“When I am little again”) (1925), naturalistic social novels: “Dzieci ulicy” (“The Street children”) (1901), “Dziecko salonu” (1906), satires “Koszalki opalki”(1905) and dramas, e.g. “Senat szalencow” (1931).His last work was “Diary” from the Warsaw Ghetto (1942).

He felt a member of Polish and Jewish communities and with his dual affiliation he took an active part in the lives of both groups, trying to facilitate closer relations between both communities. Even though Korczak was offered many chances to leave the Ghetto, he did not abandon his orphans. He was transported together with them to the Extermination Camp in Treblinka where he died.