Janusz Korczak was born Henryk Goldszmit in Warsaw Poland in 1878 or 1879).His father suffered from mental illness and in order to support his family, Henryk was forced to tutor the children of family friends. When only 18, he published the first of a number of pedagogical works.
As his first novel, Child of the Drawing Room, was being serialized in Voice magazine under
the byline of Janusz Korczak, Goldszmit began a residency at the Jewish Children´s Hospital. But no sooner had he received his medical diploma in March 1905, than he was conscripted as a doctor into the Imperial Army to serve in the Russo-Japanese War. His experiences in war helped crystallize his primary philosophy for life: no cause, no war, was worth depriving children of their natural right to happiness. Children should come before politics of any kind. Continue reading
