Korczak, Janos

(1879-1942)

   Polish author, educator and communal leader. He was born in Warsaw, where he worked as a physician and became concerned with the plight of the poor; his early writings depict the condition of homeless orphans in the cities. In 1911 he became head of a Jewish orphanage in Warsaw. He published theoretical studies about pedagogical method, as well as children's books. With the rise of Hitler, he became Poland's non-Zionist representative on the Jewish Agency. In 1942 he was deported to a concentration camp, where he was killed.