Korczak's 'Kaytek the Wizard' reborn for English readers
PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge
07.10.2012 08:01
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The return of Janusz Korczak and Kaytek the Wizard. Report from Krakow, by Nick Hodge.
The first English edition of the classic tale by the fabled doctor and writer chimes in with Poland's official Year of Janusz Korczak.
Penlight Publications
"Korczak had this extraordinary empathy for children, and this is what makes him a very special writer," says translator Antonia Lloyd-Jones.
"He was able to step into children's shoes."
Our correspondent Nick Hodge found out more about the pre-war classic, as Poland continues its celebrations of Korczak Year.
The pioneering Polish-Jewish paediatrician and writer, whose Warsaw orphanage inspired him to pen some of the country's finest children's tales, endures as one of the country's best-loved writers.
This year marks both the 100th anniversary of the foundation of Korczak's orphanage, as well as the 70th anniversary of his tragic demise.
In August 1942, Korczak and his orphans were transported from Warsaw's wartime Jewish Ghetto to their deaths by the Nazi occupying authorities.
Historian Dr Edyta Gawron, from Krakow's Jagiellonian University, reflects on the wider role played by Polish-Jewish doctors in the years before the war.