Essential Question
What does it mean to sacrifice for others?
Materials
Video Option 1 Janusz Korczak | Historical Figures of the Holocaust | Yad Vashem (4:25 min)
Video Option 2 The Last Korczak Boy (25 min)
Activity
Introduction (5 minutes):
- Pose a question to the class: What does it mean to sacrifice for others?
Video Presentation Two video options (5-30 minutes):
Show a video detailing Korczak’s life, focusing on his work with orphans and his decision to stay with them during the Holocaust.
- Ask students to take notes on key points and emotional responses during the video.
- Add additional information about the conditions in the Warsaw Ghetto and Janusz Korczak and his historical context from the reading.
Class Discussion (15 minutes):
Facilitate a discussion on the concept of sacrifice. Questions to consider:
- What motivates someone to put others before themselves?
- Why is Korczak’s story inspiring?
Exploring Sacrifice (20 minutes):
- Divide students into small groups and have them brainstorm examples of sacrifice in everyday life and throughout history. (You may want to provide a webquest/links to make efficient use of student time for historical examples.)
- Each group will present one example and discuss its impact on society.
Reflection and Closure (15 minutes:)
- Have students write a brief reflection on what they learned about moral ethics of sacrifice.
- Encourage students to share their thoughts on how Korczak’s story personally resonated with them.
Assessment:
- Participation in discussions and activities.
- Group presentations on examples of sacrifice.
- Reflection pieces on the significance of commemoration.
Extension Activty
Read and discuss the poem 5.8.1942 with the subtitle, 'In Memory of Janusz Korczak.' Written by the Polish poet, Jerzy Ficowski, the poem describes the last hours of the lives of Korczak and the children of the orphanage he accompanied to their deaths in Treblinka extermination camp: (N.B. The date is written day/month/year)
5.8.1942
In Memory of Janusz Korczak
Jerzy Ficowski (1924-2006)
(Translated by Keith Bosley)
What did the Old Doctor do
in the cattle wagon
bound for Treblinka on the fifth of August
over the few hours of the bloodstream
over the dirty river of time
I do not know
what did Charon* of his own free will
the ferryman without an oar do
did he give out to the children
what remained of gasping breath
and leave for himself
only frost down the spine
I do not know
did he lie to them for instance
in small
numbing doses
groom the sweaty little heads
for the scurrying lice of fear
I do not know
yet for all that yet later yet there
in Treblinka
all their terror all the tears
were against him
oh it was only now
just so many minutes say a lifetime
whether a little or a lot
I was not there I do not know
suddenly the Old Doctor saw
the children had grown
as old as he was
older and older
that was how fast they had to go grey as ash
then when he was hit
by an Askar or SS man
they saw how the Doctor
became a child like them
smaller and smaller
until he was not born
since then together with the Old Doctor
there are plenty of them nowhere I know.
*Note: The figure from Greek mythology, Charon was responsible for ferrying the dead souls across the river
Styx into the netherworld.
