Diary

Diary is a book written by Janusz Korczak, published in 2020 by Siedmioróg Publishing House and available only in polish.

“I am not to be loved and admired, but to act and love “*.

Janusz Korczak is known to everyone. For those who work with children on a daily basis, he became a model and benchmark of devotion and empathy. His respectful and accepting approach to children became the basis of today’s pedagogy. He treated children as independent, full-fledged beings, worthy and deserving of love.

He began writing his memoir in May 1942, in the ghetto. He finished it in August of the same year. Or rather, he did not finish, simply the diary ends on the date of August 4, 1942.

It is a very difficult read, as the author writes in an extremely chaotic manner, he breaks off threads, does not elaborate, or starts the story from the middle. It resembles a free flowing stream of consciousness rather than linear memoirs. Why did he start writing it? To sum up his own life? To find some meaning, significance in it? Or to distract his thoughts from the nightmare of war?

In the “Diary” Korczak engages in a dialogue with his own death. It is for her that he writes, for her that he sums up his life, for her that he creates his curriculum vitae. It is for her that he accounts for his achievements and failures. He thinks about her and views the world only from her perspective. But he does not go out to meet her, he waits patiently for her to come to him. Although he misses her so much.

*J.Korczak, “Pamiętnik”, wyd. Siedmioróg, Wrocław 2020, pg.61.

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