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Dr Janusz Korczak Print Page Print this page

Tribute 2: 25-September-2016
Tribute 2: 25-September-2016

Photographs supplied by Sandra Brown

Memorial Stone on the grave of Aron Borberg contains a tribute in memory of Dr Janusz Korczak who perished with his staff and 200 Jewish orphans in the gas chambers at Treblinka in August 1942. Dr Korczak was a friend of Aron Borberg and his wife Dora. 

Janusz Korczak, the pen name of Henryk Goldszmit, was a Polish- Jewish educator, children`s author and pediatrician , and known as Pan Doktor ("Mr. Doctor") or Stary Doktor ("Old Doctor"). After spending many years working as director of an orphanage in Warsaw, he refused freedom and stayed with his orphans when the institution was transported to the Treblinka extermination camp in 1942.

On 5 or 6 August 1942, German soldiers came to collect the orphans (there is some debate about the actual number but believed to be in the vicinity of 200), and about one dozen staff members, to transport them to Treblinka extermination camp. Korczak had been offered sanctuary on the “Aryan side” by Zegota (underground Polish Resistance)  but turned it down repeatedly, saying that he could not abandon his children. On 5 August he again refused offers of sanctuary, insisting that he would go with the children. He stayed with the children all the way until the end.

Location

Address:50 Browns Road, Melbourne Chevra Kadisha Springvale Cemetery , Noble Park North, 3174
State:VIC
Area:Foreign
GPS Coordinates:Lat: -37.945607
Long: 145.187837
Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate.
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Details

Monument Type:Monument
Monument Theme:People
Sub-Theme:Foreigners

Dedication

Front Inscription

IN LOVING MEMORY
          — OF —

Dr. JANUSZ KORCZAK
DEVOTED FRIEND OF
THE LATE ARON
AND OF DORA BORBERG
FAMOUS EDUCATOR
WHO PERISHED 5-8 -1942
IN THE GAS - CHAMBERS
OF
TREBLINKA
WITH HIS STAFF 
AND 200 JEWISH ORPHANS

      (Hebrew)

Dr. HENRYK GOLDSZMID
22-7- 1878 - 5 - 8- 1942. 


 

Source: MA
Monument details supplied by Monument Australia - www.monumentaustralia.org.au