King of Children: A Biography of Janusz Korczak

Based on his own writings as well as interviews conducted with the orphans he raised and teachers he trained, this biography captures the remarkable life and tragic death of the Polish-Jewish doctor who spent a lifetime helping children. Janusz Korczak was known throughout Europe as a Pied Piper of destitute children even before the onslaught of World War II. But Korczak stepped into legend. Refusing offers for his own safety, and with defiant dignity, he led the orphans under his care in the Warsaw Ghetto to the trains that would take them to Treblinka. An educator and pediatrician, Korczak, a Polish Jew, introduced progressive orphanages for both the Jewish and Catholic children in Warsaw. Determined to shield his children from the injustices of the adult world, he built these orphanages into "just communities" with their own parliaments and children's courts. Korczak also founded the first national children's newspaper, testified on behalf of children in juvenile courts, and trained teachers and parents in "moral education," with his books How to Love a Child and How to Respect a Child.