Janusz Korczak dedicated his life to children. Gloria Spielman's book, Janusz Korczak's Children, introduces young readers to this uniquely caring, giving and heroic doctor.
Roman Wroblewski's father Misha was a teacher in Korczak's orphanage. When he began working at the orphanage, Misha was an engineering student. Misha was so impressed by Korczak that he gave up his engineering studies and began to study psychology and education instead. There were several other teachers working with Korczak in the ghetto orphanage but Misha Wroblewski was the only one to escape the August 5 deportation to Treblinka. His son Roman spoke to me by telephone from his home in Sweden.
How did your father avoid deportation?
Korczak had arranged for construction work outside the ghetto for my father and a few orphanage graduates. There were three boys: Monius Genadenhofer, Jankiel Bojme and a boy called Dawid whose surname my father could not recall. My father always called them 'The Boys' even though they were in their late teens and early twenties. Every morning the Nazis marched them out of the ghetto, and marched them back again every night. The work was physically very demanding but it allowed them to smuggle food into the orphanage. My father and The Boys received salaries which they all shared with Korczak to help him look after the children in the orphanage.
On the morning of August 5, 1942, my father and The Boys left for work as usual. When he arrived he found the orphanage empty. There was still unfinished tea and coffee on the table. My father went up to Korczak's room. Korczak's spectacles were still on his desk. My father gathered Korczak's papers and threw them into a suitcase together with his spectacles..
The Nazis had split the ghetto into two areas, the "small ghetto", generally inhabited by richer Jews, and the "large ghetto", where conditions were more difficult; the two ghettos were linked by a single footbridge. In August 1942 the Nazis had been trying to liquidate the small ghetto and my father knew it would be too dangerous to remain there. He went with The Boys and the suitcase into the large ghetto. It was dangerous to remain in one apartment for too long so they moved from apartment to apartment, generally staying with graduates of Korczak's orphanage. At some point they were unable to return to one of the apartments where he'd been staying and became separated from the suitcase with Korczak's papers.
How did your father survive the rest of the war?
My father tried to persuade The Boys to try and escape but they refused. Eventually he decided to escape alone. On one of the work marches he removed his armband with the Star of David and managed to get away. He had been spotted by a Polish man who threatened that if he didn't hand over all his money he would report my father to the Nazis. My father handed him all the money he had on him, which was all the money he had in the world. The man wished him good luck and my father got away.
Korczak remained with my father for the rest of his life. As a child I used to think he was my grandfather.
Misha Wroblewsi and children from the orphanage. Taken in front of the Krochmalna Orphanage.
Photo courtesy of Roman Wroblewski
Mischa Wroblewski father in front of the monument at Treblinka that shows Korczak's last march from the orphanage to the Umschlagsplatz.
Photo courtesy of Roman Wroblewski
"How hard could it be to write a children's book? Short, simple words – a piece of cake." Not so. It may look easy but it takes time and effort to craft a story – any story. Writing itself is a process. When you start writing it is important to remember that your first draft is just that, a first draft. It is enough to simply spill out the words. Here are the first two paragraphs of Janusz Korczak's Children:
"From his window, Henryk Goldszmidt watched the janitor's son playing with his friends. Their games seemed to be such fun. How he wished he could play too. But Henry's family was wealthy, and his mother wouldn't let him play in the street with the poor, ragged children.
Henryk didn't understand grown-ups. They were supposed to look after children, but so often they treated them badly. How could teachers beat their pupils? Why did adults push children aside on the tramcars?"
But in the beginning the first three paragraphs read very differently. Here they are (You'll soon see why I included the third paragraph too):
"Henryk Goldszmidt was born in Warsaw, Poland on July 22 1878 or 1879. He would never know exactly how old he was because his father forgot to register his birth. Jozef Goldszmidt was a well-known lawyer and the family was wealthy. Their home was beautiful and servants looked after him.
But Henryk was often unhappy. His father's behaviour was sometimes peculiar. Jozef loved his son yet he also had a terrible temper. Once he twisted his ears so hard his mother feared her son would become deaf.
Children from wealthy families were not supposed to run around outside. Henry spent many hours at his bedroom window watching the janitor's son and his ragged friends. He wanted to play with them but the grownups said such bad things about them. They called the children dirty, little criminals. Henryk's mother said he mustn't play with children like them."
What was wrong? Let's look at it again:
"Henryk Goldszmidt was born in Warsaw, Poland on July 22 1878 or 1879.
[B-o-r-i-n-g! So what if he was born? Wasn't everyone?] He would never know exactly how old he was because his father didn't register his birth. [Well, that's kind of interesting but it isn't relevant to the story and it's never mentioned again so why mention it here? After all, I've only got 1,500 words to tell the tale.] Jozef Goldszmidt was a well-known lawyer and the family was wealthy. Their home was beautiful and servants looked after him. [Well, that's nice, but it is just passive description. Nothing has happened and something needs to happen if the reader is going to care about the character. So far, there is nothing here to make the reader care about the character.]
But Henryk was often unhappy. His father's behaviour was sometimes peculiar. Jozef loved his son, yet he also had a terrible temper. Once he twisted his ears so hard his mother feared her son would become deaf. [Mmm, well this is a little more interesting but still the reader has no reason to care about these facts.]
Children from wealthy families were not supposed to run around outside. Henry spent many hours at his bedroom window watching the janitor's son and his ragged friends. He wanted to play with them but the grownups said such bad things about them. They called the children dirty, little criminals. Henryk's mother said he mustn't play with children like them." [Getting better. This could interest a child. Mmm, maybe it would be better to focus in on Henryk and what he thought as he watched those poor kids playing in the street. Yes, scrap the information that he was born and start with Henryk looking out of the window.]
This is what I came up with next. The second draft:
"Henryk Goldszmidt often watched the janitor's son and his dirty, ragged friends from his window. How he wished he could play with them. Their games seemed such fun. But Henryk's mother wouldn't let him play in the street with the poor children." Henryk's didn't understand grownups. They called poor children 'dirty little criminals.' Teachers often beat pupils. He even heard some grownups threaten children. "I'll give you to a wicked old man' or you'll be put in a bag."
"Henryk Goldszmidt often (What does the word 'often' add here? Not much. If we take it out the reader can go directly into Henryk's experience) watched the janitor's son and his dirty, ragged friends from his window. How he wished he could play with them. Their games seemed such fun. But Henryk's mother wouldn't let him play in the street with the poor children." Dirty? Ragged? Those are negative adjectives that his parents probably used. But Henryk was probably just looking at the kids thinking they were having a whale of a time. Perhaps it would be better having him simply dreaming of playing with his friends instead.
Henryk's didn't understand grownups. They called poor children 'dirty little criminals.' Teachers often beat pupils. He even heard some grownups threaten children. "I'll give you to a wicked old man' or you'll be put in a bag."
A later draft:
"Henryk Goldszmidt watched the janitor's son and his friends from his window. Their games seemed such fun. How he wished he could play too. But Henryk's family was wealthy and his mother wouldn't let him play in the street with poor ragged children. [Ah, here we have it, the first paragraph of the final version!]
Now isn't that a more engaging beginning than just telling the reader that Henryk was born?
I hope that gave you a little taste of how a piece of writing evolves.
