Korczak’s Post Office

PROJECT SUMMARY

Janusz Korczak was a Polish Jew. An educator, a doctor and a children’s author.

When the Germans created the Warsaw ghetto in 1940 his orphanage was forced to move and Korczak moved with them.

He decided that the children in the orphanage should put on Rabindranath Tagore’s play The Post Office to keep their spirits up.

In August 1942 the children were taken to Treblinka extermination camp and, although he had been offered personal sanctuary, Korczak repeatedly turned it down saying that he could not abandon his children. He died with them.

Mike wrote a play that we called, ‘Korczak’s Post Office’. Set in the orphanage and featuring the Tagore play – a play within a play.

We have produced three separate versions of the play. One in The Cambridge Drama Festival, one for Holocaust Memorial day and one as part of a Polish Heroes event.

The cast changed each time with just a few originals performing in all three versions but in older roles.

• Exhibition
• Holocaust Education
• Research
• School
• Theatre