UPDATE: The permanent exhibit is currently closed until further notice.

In a city that does not want for tragic, heroic stories, that of Janusz Korczak and the orphanage of which he became director in 1912 is one of those that warrants telling time and again. Warsaw-born Korczak - whose real name was Henryk Goldszmit - was a pioneering Polish-Jewish children’s author, paediatrician and pedagogue of some renown, whose approach to raising orphans (he believed in offering children as much freedom and autonomy to express themselves as possible) was at odds with the prevailing attitude towards children in general at the time. The orphanage, which still stands today and remains a children’s home, was specifically designed by Korczak himself to offer the children who would live there as comfortable an existence as possible. Korczak ran the orphanage as a model of democracy, the orphans having their own parliament and even their own newspaper, and were consulted on all major decisions. You can read more about Janusz Korczak and the full story of his orphanage here.

Today the building houses not only an orphanage, but also a research centre focused on the life and times of Korczak, and the main hall features a permanent exhibition detailing the history of the institution in the time period 1912-1940.