Korczak

Amazing story! It was not in English, but sub-titles were fine for me.

I was very disappointed with this product. It's a good film but for some reason it was only sporadically subtitled. A subtitle would appear for maybe every tenth line of dialogue. I don't get it, I saw this film in a theater when it first came out, it was fully subtitled then. Couldn't Kino find someone fluent in Polish to translate the whole film? I find that hard to believe. I've bought other films from Kino in the past and they've all been fine. I don't know how they dropped the ball on this one but I will think twice about ordering any foreign films from Kino in the future.

It is perfect. Came on time and as described.

Great movie by a great Master.

I first saw this movie when it came out many years ago when I had just moved back to the USA from Poland. The dialogue of how different people interact with Korczak is very important. He has the name "Mr. Doctor" (Pan Doktorze) , which may sound strange in English but is perfectly respectful for the different parties from all walks of life that address him. (Try to listen for this, even if you don't speak Polish.) Korczak is a movie with several goals, which it accomplishes. The acting by all the actors, including the children, is first rate, especially the lead character, played by Wojciech Pszoniak. The actor actually even looks like Korczak himself.. First, the movie tells the story of an extraordinary educator whose passing during the Holocaust is a tragedy for all the world. Who knows what he might have presented to the world later in life had he survived past WW2. Second, it tells the story of the extraordinary ethical behavior, personal integrity/decency and courage in the face of extreme danger and ultimately, death. Despite many offers (even from within the Nazi hierarchy itself) to save himself, he stubbornly refused to abandon the Jewish orphan children of the Warsaw ghetto in his care. When told of deportation, Korczak held his head high with dignity, told all of his children to put on their best clothes and take their favorite toy with them. He himself went at the head of the line with the children into a cattle car and on to meet his death with the Jewish orphans at the death factory Treblinka. It is so very heartbreaking to think of their deaths, but I feel certain that this man stayed with them, that he insisted to the Nazis that they all die together with him trying to help and comfort the children in their fear and agony to his own last breath. Such was the courage of this incredible human being and it is a tragic loss to the entire world that this man wasn't able to spread his ideas farther and that more children didn't come under his care. Just think of the world that would have been if he had been able to train more teachers duplicating himself and if those were the people that would have trained our world's leaders of today. When you see this movie, consider this: This is only the story of one man and a small group of people that died in the Holocaust. Multiply the feeling you get from this movie times six million and you start to get a true sense of the unsettling tragedy of the Holocaust. Who would have just one of those people become? Another Mozart? An inventor of super-luminal travel (warp speed)? A philosopher like Schopfenhauer? The German speaking world was a leader in music performance, in physics/technology/science, and philosophy - the possibilities are staggering and compounds the sense of loss. As the last Holocaust survivors are quickly aging (the youngest during the time are in their eighties, if they have any recollection of the time at all), the subject becomes less relevant and more distant. Also, the relics of that camp are decaying.. No effort is made to preserve the items like shoes, luggage and they are mouldering. There was a conscious decision NOT to preserve the hair and let it crumble to dust, as it would if the bearers had received a proper burial (out of respect for the victims' dignity; I get it). It has been twenty plus years since my first trip to Oswiecim (Auschwitz) and it becomes more easy with each passing year for society at large to ignore the lesson that this terrible chapter in human history should have taught us as less people take the time to educate themselves on the subject. It is important that movies like this one are made AND watched every so often because we all need to remember that this DID happen and the people represented were/are REAL. I need to point out one important difference between this movie and other movies on the subject: The imagery in this movie is very powerful. Unlike most movies that have a tendency to "water down" the Holocaust to make it easier on the viewer, this one presents it as it likely was in all its ugliness. If you had difficulty watching the ghetto and liquidation of the ghetto scenes in Schindler's List, then be warned that this movie will really hit you head on. In closing, you can still read Korczak's Warsaw ghetto diary and his works regarding children as well as his children's books which are all available in English. Learn about this man and admire his extraordinary commitment to the orphan children and to human decency. Definitely a movie to own if you want an extraordinary film about the Holocaust and a worthwhile person/subject to learn more about, particularly if you are interested in the education of children.

There wasn't a false note throughout this film and it held our attention continually. It's a very powerful (true) story and the acting was terrific, including the performances by all of the children. The film is entirely in black-and-white, which I feel added to the storyline. As an aside, I've been to Warsaw many times and I've seen the beautiful monument of Korczak & a few of the children.

During the holocaust, an educator of Jewish children - continued to teach his wards when the Nazis were persecuting those with the Yellow Star in Poland. He found the courage to continue teaching the young men and women, giving them lessons in how to behave ethically. Because Korczak was well known, he had opportunities to escape. Yet he refused to leave his children defenseless, and stayed with them until the end, even boarding the ultimate train of death voluntarily rather than look out for his own life. It is a story that needs to be told...and retold.