Only a child can change the world. “Janusz Korczak – The King of Children”

There was a grand opening of an exhibition “Janusz Korczak – The King of Children” at the House of Polish Culture in Vilnius. The exhibition is about an extraordinary man who devoted his life to helping children.

“The exposition depicts a moving life story of a Polish doctor of Jewish origins; children literature’s author who wrote ‘King Matt the First’, famous worldwide; the cofounder and director of the House of the Orphans; and a person who together with his pupils died in a Nazi concentration camp in Treblinka” – inaugurated Maria Slebioda, Chargé d’Affaires of the Polish Embassy in Vilnius.

Korczak’s philosophy saying that every single child has the right to love, respect, education and care inspires people in the whole world to this day.

“Sometimes the meaning of life of just one person is more valuable than numbers or statistics. I hope that the exhibition will help you in finding your ‘me’” – said Vaidas Bacys, Deputy Minister of Education of Lithuania.

 “Janusz Korczak was a citizen of the world. He said about himself: ‘I am a Polish Jew, born under Russian rule’. He was closely connected to Polish, Jewish and Russian culture. This is a man who devoted all his life to fighting for children’s rights. All his life he emanated love towards children and he died with them, without being guilty or tried by court. We should remember his message that the revival of the world will be caused by a child and by the right upbringing” – emphasized Jaroslaw Kaminski, vice mayor of Vilnius.

The exhibition, which targets mostly young viewers, is available to view from 21^st of November to the 4^th of December 2012 at the House of Polish Culture.

The organizers of the exhibition are the Polish Embassy in Vilnius and Janusz Korczak’s Centre.

On the 21^st of November at 3pm a screening of a movie “Korczak” by Andrzej Wajda took place. The movie depicts the most tragic years of Doctor Janusz Korczak’s life.

Janusz Korczak (actually Henryk Goldszmit) is a multidimensional person, who experiments with action and thought breaking clichés. Korczak is a Polish doctor of Jewish origins; an intellectual fighting for children’s rights, sometimes called the first Polish spokesman of children’s rights; a social activist propagating the idea of children’s independence; an author of literature for the youngest; a feature writer and playwright. He was a pioneer in the field of resocialization of the minor and difficult children care. He thought that a child is a human of full value and has the right to be respected. He was the cofounder and director of an orphanage for Jewish children, from where he was transferred to a ghetto.

He was also a Polish Army officer. The last three months of his life he spent in the Warsaw Ghetto where he wrote his diary whenever he could. He had one chance of escaping to the Aryan side, but he did not take it as he did not want to leave his pupils. He died together with his pupils in a gas chamber in Treblinka in 1942.

Source: http://pl.delfi.lt/kultura/kultura/tylko-dziecko-odmieni-swiat.d?id=60037469

Tłumaczenie Katarzyna Rakalska w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Katarzyna Rakalska the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.