Joanna Olczak-Roniker. Korczak: A Biography

The name Janusz Korczak (1878 – 1942) is familiar to everyone. This man – short, thin, slightly stooped, with a reddish beard – is one of the key figures in the history of the 20th century. A writer, physician, educational reformer, and founder of communally-based orphanages, Korczak was, above all, a great personality: the significance of his actions is difficult to overestimate today. Beyond the books he wrote – remarkable children's stories, as well as unique, pioneering works on pedagogy – Janusz Korczak's legacy includes a vast collection of his deeds – those he performed "here and now," often despite danger and common sense, for the benefit of children. On August 6, 1942, having rejected an offer to escape from the Warsaw Ghetto, Korczak did not abandon his children from the Orphanage and was sent with them to Treblinka.
This book is the most recent biographie of Korczak written to date. Its author, Joanna Olczak-Roniker (b. 1934), a renowned Polish novelist and screenwriter, is the granddaughter of Jakub Mortkowicz, whose publishing house published all of Korczak's books. Her insight into the life of this man is so intimate that it brings to life the era that was Korczak's modern era—things, people, words, thoughts…