Death to Win Freedom: A Poetic Connection with Janusz Korczak

One can find vivid descriptions of the Nazi ethnic cleansing programme written in different parts of Europe. Those who survived the holocaust and those who could not penned down their horrific experiences in diaries, notes, memoirs etc. All talked about their ill fate, all expressed their desire to move to a free world, all wanted an end to the destruction. The German Führer Adolf Hitler gifted his enemies, mostly Jews, a massive violation of human rights. A part of the human civilization remained under the question: did they have right to live like humans? Among the victims there were millions of men, women and of course children.

The famous diary entries of the little girl Anna Frank (1929−1945) who lived in the Netherlands during the World War II let us know how she faced the days of relentless cruelty. She wrote in her diary on 7 March 1944: “I’ve found that there is always some beauty left in nature, sunshine, freedom, in yourself; these can all help you. Look at these things, then you find yourself again, and God, and then you regain your balance.” Her inimitable style of writing sketched the picture of how she looked at the war. Children suffered the great pain of war and they were killed brutally in concentration camps. But what happened to those who survived without any family members or parents? The aftermath of World War II saw a large number of orphans, struck by poverty, disease and malnutrition. Who were to look after them? The General Assembly of the United Nations came forward in 1946 to establish the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) to provide relief and support to children living in places devastated by the war. The Geneva Declaration adopted by the League of Nations in 1924 is the first international Human Rights document to specifically address children’s rights. It was based on the work of the Polish physician Janusz Korczak (1878–1942). But who was this Janusz Korczak? We will discuss that in this article. This brilliant child rights activist also made an important connection with India at a critical juncture in his life, although perhaps unknowingly.

Born to a Jewish family in Warsaw in 1878, his real name was Henryk Goldszmit. But he was more popular with his pen name Janusz Korczak. This was also a name that later made him immortal in this history of children’s rights and protection. At the age of 20, Korczak enrolled at the University of Warsaw to study medicine and he chose to be pediatrician after graduation. He also devoted his life to the cause for children – through his writing and action.

Korczak’s profession as a medical doctor took an important turn in 1911 when he founded an orphanage called Dom Sierot for Jewish children in Warsaw. He was assisted by Stefania Wilczyńska to run the orphanage. This small boarding school made for the children of the war victims became a unique place of learning. It was an experiment to find the potential of children who were the victims of destiny. Under the guidance of Dr Korczak, the children of Dom Sierot formed a small parliament and a court like a mini-republic. They were encouraged to bring out their own newspaper Maly Przeglad (or ‘The Little Review’) which became a supplementary to a popular Polish-Jewish newspaper Nasz Przeglad. Both Janusz Korczak and Stefania Wilczyńska noticed a satisfactory progress of their children’s education. Dr Korczak was also an extraordinary children’s author of Poland. He continued writing for children and what should be their place in the world. More than 20 of his books were focused on children’s rights and their experience of life in an adult world.

But the situation at the orphanage changed suddenly in September 1939 when the German army led by Adolf Hitler invaded Poland. It triggered the start of World War II. The orphanage suddenly found a large number of children who had lost their parents in bombing. In 1940 the Jews in Poland were ordered to move into a separate location of the city called a Ghetto. Korczak being a Jew and the head of his school meant for Jew children had to shift his school too. He was a respected man in the Polish literary circle. The police of Hitler’s army might not have hurt him. And, he was offered a better place of living outside the ghetto by some underground Polish resistance groups. But Korczak said he could not go out without the company of his students who he considered his children. Hence the school remained in the Warsaw Ghetto where men were treated like animals by the German police. Life was unbearable and totally unfit for children. But despite all that fell on him Korczak continued working for his children in the ghetto for about two years. He tried to keep them in high spirit although he knew that the end was not far. The children organized plays and music concerts and they invited people sharing their same fate to watch them. After all a touch of art and music can rejuvenate a dying man.

In July 1942 Korczak decided that his children were to act in a play The Post Office (the Polish translation is Poczta) written by the Indian Poet and philosopher Rabindranath Tagore (1861−1941). Perhaps he did not get an opportunity to know Tagore who visited many countries of Europe but not Poland. It is also possible that he did not know that Tagore was an educator and founded a special kind of school in India. But the message of the play surely had a great impact on him. The play, originally written in Bangla in 1912, is the story of a little boy Amal who had an incurable disease. The physician who was involved in his treatment wanted him to be confined to a single room without the touch of environment. But that made the boy extremely unhappy. He had a dream to see the world like a bird. He wanted to learn the simple calling tune of the man who sold curd to his village. Everything that was simple and serene attracted him. Among his many dreams he also wanted to be a postman who could go anywhere and to anyone with his load of letters. Someone told Amal that the King would build a new post office in his village and he would be given the task of distributing letters. Amal thought that his dreams would come true. When Amal seriously fell ill and was half-conscious, the royal physician came to see him. He instructed others to throw open the closed windows. With the happiness of getting the touch of fresh air which was a kiss of nature, Amal went to deep sleep and passed away. In his deathbed Amal believed that the King came to make him free. Albert Marrin, in his 2019 book A Light in the Darkness: Janusz Korczak, His Orphans, and the Holocaust, writes,

the audience watched The Post Office with rapt attention. The children saw themselves in little Amal, for they, too, were in a dark room ─ the ghetto ─ longing for freedom and beauty. Sobs filled the room. The Old Doctor sat in a corner in the rear, listening, his eyes “bottomless wells of sadness,” a woman who saw him recalled.

     Afterward, a guest asked why he’d chosen such a sad play. “Korczak replied that he wanted his children to learn how to welcome the Angel of Death calmly,” just as little Amal welcomed the angel that took him in his sleep. The play was the Old Doctor’s “way of imparting to the little helpless ones the calm wisdom in the moment of tragedy which in his faith did not mean the end.”

All of Tagore’s plays are rooted in Indian culture and context, but at the same time they all have a universal appeal. Death, to Tagore, is not a state to be frightened, but to be embraced. He believed that death did not lead to gloom and despondency, but it led everyone to another state which although not visible was a world of light. The play is a journey of little Amal towards that land of death. His wish to become the postman of the King is an allegory of one’s surrender to the eternal time. He loved simple things of nature like the hills and rivulets and found wonder in the daily work of common people like bringing water from the river or selling curd to villages. This uncanny love for everything simple made him ready to accept death like a simple task. Janusz Korczak wanted to impart that wisdom to his children. A few days after, on 5 August, Hitler’s police ordered the orphanage to be emptied. Korczak was given an offer to live in a secure place, but he refused it politely again. He wanted to be with his children forever. They were taken by the Nazis to Treblinka concentration camp and their mortal bodies were murdered in a gas chamber on the same day.

Reference

1. Albert Marrin, A Light in the Darkness: Janusz Korczak, His Orphans, and the Holocaust, Knopf Books for Young Readers, 380 pp, 2019.
2. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/290310380_Rabindranath_Tagore's_post_ofice_in_Poland
3. http://theatrebengal.blogspot.com/2011/10/tagores-dakghar-play-in-ghetto.html
4. https://www.holocaustmatters.org/janusz-korczak
5. https://www.humanium.org/en/childrens-rights-history/

Picture: Monument to Janusz Korczak in the Jewish Cemetery on Okopowa Street, Warsaw, Poland.

Source: www.geographicallyyours.blogspot.com