Heart of Comfort

Story of: Janusz Korczak

“Sometimes the best way to help someone is just to be near them.”

Veronica Roth

??????????? When Haley was eight years old she woke up with a terrible fever and a temperature hovering around 102 degrees. I called in to work and took off for the day to take her to the doctor. The doctor diagnosed her with strep-throat prescribed her some medication and sent her home to rest for a couple of days. I went to the grocery store and got her some soup, comfort food, and juice, and picked up a couple of movies from the video store, two words you don’t hear much anymore.

When we got home she changed into some comfortable clothes. We put a movie in and she laid her head in my lap and quickly fell asleep. I rubbed her head and before I knew it I fell asleep myself. We were both suddenly awakened when Haley started gagging. She threw up all over me and, having a weak stomach, I immediately threw up as well.

Vomit was everywhere! I got Haley and myself cleaned up as quick as I could before I threw up again.? Once the excitement was over, Haley and I comforted one other and even laughed about the situation.? Years later, Haley and I still laugh about that day. More than anything we are reminded that we provided comfort for each other and we took care of each other from the heart.

As a father, my job was to provide comfort and love when needed. When our family, friends, or colleagues are in pain or are suffering, we should take the time to provide them with comfort. To console them in their time of need.

??????????? When I first started teaching, my principal, Connie Jo, provided me with comfort when I needed it the most.? I was a non-tenured, first-year teacher in the school district. But my personal life was in turmoil.? My wife had left me and I was in the middle of a divorce. I also had custody of Haley. I was nervous sharing this personal information with Connie Jo but I knew it might affect me and my focus as a teacher and I wanted her to know what was going on.

Connie Jo could have used this information as an excuse to get rid of me. Instead, she looked at me from behind her desk, got up and hugged me. Then she said, “We are going to get through this together.”? I will never forget those words and how much they meant to me in that moment. Connie Jo, who hardly knew me, made a promise to help me get through my divorce. She demonstrated a true heart of comfort in one of the most trying times of my life.

??????????? Providing comfort isn’t always easy, but you must do it from the heart above all else. Henryk Goldszmit, who was better known by his pseudonym Janusz Korczak, provided comfort in the most dire situations. Janusz was a Polish children’s author, pediatrician, and child advocate who designed systems and programs for children.

At an early age, he was forced to work to take care of his family after his father had died, while attending school to become a pediatrician.? He served as a doctor during the Russo/Japanese war in the early 1900’s. During this time, his devotion to children grew. He once bought a stick from a Chinese teacher who was using it to beat children just to keep them from being abused. The stick was later used by the children to jump rope with. Janusz studied practices from orphanages in Britain and Berlin and developed his own style which contrasted with the many harsh Polish orphanages of the day.

??????????? Janusz submitted his literary work for children and began to get published. His children’s books were popular and in later years German soldiers offered to help him escape from the Warsaw Ghetto because his books were so beloved by their own children.?

??????????? Janusz became director of Dom Seirot in 1911, an orphanage he designed for Jewish children in Warsaw.? Using his tremendous insight into the hearts and minds of children, he developed and created a new way of running orphanages. He encouraged dialogue with children, empowered them to participate in their own care and designed systems that promoted democratic participation by the children. These programs were extremely novel for the day.

??????????? The Germans attacked Poland in 1939. Janusz volunteered for the Polish Army but, at 61, he was considered too old to serve.? The Germans quickly routed Poland and within a month the country surrendered to the Germans. By 1940 the Germans established the Warsaw ghetto, a place for Jews to be housed until they could be transported to the concentration camps. Those that lived in the small confines of the ghetto were given meager rations, as little as 150 calories a day. This amounts to a small bag of peanuts or a Coke.

At the time, Janusz served as director for two orphanages; one which housed Catholic children and the other Jewish children. After the establishment of the Ghetto, German soldiers paid a visit and informed him the Jewish orphanage would have to move there, but he could continue to serve as the director of the Catholic orphanage. Janusz refused the offer and chose to go into the Ghetto, along with 12 staff members and 196 Jewish children.

Starvation, typhus, and many other diseases were rampant in the ghetto. Janusz again was offered sanctuary. In addition to the offer from the German soldiers, a Red Cross delegation tasked with checking for human rights violations offered to get Janusz out of the Ghetto. But he refused to leave the children to whom he provided care and comfort and spurned the offer, which would have provided his escape from the terrible conditions of the ghetto and an uncertain future.

??????????? Janusz, his staff and the children would endure this burden together. The adults did their best to provide comfort to the children, giving up their rations and making sure they had clean clothing.? They would sing songs and help the children continue their education as best they could. Janusz and his staff tried to provide as much comfort and normalcy as possible for the two years they lived in the ghetto, as conditions worsened and atrocities grew.??

??????????? In 1942, the Germans came to Janusz and told him to prepare the orphans to be shipped off in the trains. While the German soldiers often told those in the Ghetto they were being transported to safer place with better housing and a higher level of subsistence, Janusz knew better.? He knew their destination was most likely the extermination camp known as Treblinka.? Unlike concentration camps, these camps had one sole purpose, to kill those sent there.

Knowing Janusz’s life was in peril, a friend and colleague entered the ghetto with papers that would have allowed his release. Janusz was incensed by the suggestion that he abandon the children and berated his friend and sent him on his way.??

??????????? On the day of their departure, Janusz gathered his staff and made sure the children were prepared to go to the extermination camp. He had the children dress in their best clothes and each carried a blue knapsack and their favorite toy on their way to the deportation point. He told the orphans they were going out into the country, so they ought to be cheerful. At last they would be able to exchange the horrible suffocating city walls for meadows of flowers, streams where they could bathe, woods full of berries and mushrooms.

They came out into the yard, two by two, nicely dressed and in a happy mood. Survivors of the Ghetto tell stories of the orphans marching through the ghetto to the trains singing and joyously holding hands. As they arrived at the trains to be deported, legend has it that an SS soldier recognized Janusz and offered to help him escape. He gently refused and stated that he must provide his children with comfort until the end. The children, staff and Janusz boarded the trains never to be heard from again.??

Janusz lived and died providing a heart of comfort.? Though he had many opportunities to save his own life, he instead sacrificed his life for those in his care.? His sacrifice and life are celebrated in Jewish lore.

My principal provided the comfort I needed at a time of great personal distress. I was worried about losing my job and not being strong enough to take care of Haley. Connie Jo, or Boss Lady as I later called her, gave me a simple hug and some encouraging words. Her act of comfort gave me peace when I needed most.??

Questions:?

1.???? When was the last time you provided comfort to someone in need?

2.???? Janusz was a leader.? Do you feel having a heart of comfort is necessary to be a good leader??

3.???? If you were in Janusz’s shoes, would have taken one of his many opportunities to escape?? Why or why not?