Dr Korczak’s Example

Written by David Grieg and produced by Ria Parry, the play tells the story of Dr Korczak’s struggle to keep Jewish children safe. Its action takes place shortly before the liquidation of the Ghetto.

The production, which is addressed to children in the 11-14 age bracket, has received favourable reviews.

The Stage, for instance, describes Dr Korczak’s Example as ‘a dark, but determinedly optimistic piece’, in which Ben Caplan as Korczak gives a fine performance that ‘blends warmth, dignity, integrity and courage with an unusual sense of stillness’ while ‘the hundreds of children in the orphanage are movingly represented by six faceless but very evocative cloth puppets’. […] ‘The final moments when the puppets are symbolically and lovingly laid in a box which is then gently closed… are intensely powerful’.

2012 is celebrated in Poland as the Korczak Year to mark the 70th anniversary of the death of Janusz Korczak, the Polish educator, doctor and writer who devoted his life to establishing the rights of the child, regardless of nationality or religion.

He founded an orphanage in Warsaw as early as 1911 and when the Germans liquidated the Warsaw Ghetto he chose to accompany his children to the gas chambers of Treblinka, to comfort them to the last. (mk)