‘Powerful, harrowing, and ultimately uplifting.’ Andrew Taylor ‘A brave, moving and important book.’ Katherine Clements ‘Vivid [and] utterly inspiring.’ Telegraph ’You do not leave a sick child alone to face the dark and you do not leave a child at a time like this.’ Deeply in love and about to marry, students Misha and Sophia flee a Warsaw under Nazi occupation for a chance at freedom. Forced … Misha and Sophia flee a Warsaw under Nazi occupation for a chance at freedom. Forced to return to the Warsaw ghetto, they help Misha’s mentor, Dr Janusz Korczak, care for the two hundred children in his orphanage. As Korczak struggles to uphold the rights of even the smallest child in the face of unimaginable conditions, he becomes a beacon of hope for the thousands who live behind the walls.
As the noose tightens around the ghetto Misha and Sophia are torn from one another, forcing them to face their worst fears alone. They can only hope to find each other again one day…
Meanwhile, refusing to leave the children unprotected, Korczak must confront a terrible darkness.
Half a million people lived in the Warsaw ghetto. Less than one percent survived to tell their story. This novel is based on the true accounts of Misha and Sophia, and on the life of one of Poland’s greatest men, Dr Janusz Korczak.
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When reading WII stories so many times you hear only about the bad things that happen, in The Good Doctor of Warsaw we meet Dr. Korczak who takes many of those bad things happening and protects the youngest from them. The Good Doctor has run an orphanage for years, he believes the Germans will realize that what Hitler is having them do is not what Germans stand for, and he thinks the children will not be as affected by the war. He is not quite right is in his beliefs, but he stands by them, he protects the children, and he does what he needs to be done to keep them fed, clothed, and sheltered. I am amazed at what he is able to get accomplished by knowing the right people, going to the right places, and not giving up when he is told NO!
Dr. Korczak is definitely a hero in this story but there are others that help in the running of the orphanage and I loved their stories just as much. Misha and Sophie are wonderful, strong, and caring. Together they are perfect, apart they struggle but manage to hold on to their dreams, the love, and their hope. They never give up hope that they will be together, the nightmare they are living will come to an end, and that love will be strong.
The Good Doctor of Warsaw is a hard book. It tells truths that we do not want to acknowledge, it tells stories that will make you cry, and it tells of strength, love, and perseverance. I loved this book. I loved how real it was. I loved how much it made me feel. I loved that it did not color over the hell that people went through during WWII. If you are looking for a book of real stories this is the book for you. I devoured it and as I read the last page I felt sorrow for those who lost so much but also hope for those that did what they had to just to stay alive.
The Good Doctor Of Warsaw by Elisabeth Gifford is a powerful true story of Dr Janusz Korczak and his love and care of children in his Warsaw orphanage during World War II.
This is a harrowing read and not for the faint hearted. Elisabeth Gifford tells it as it was and life in the Warsaw ghetto under the Nazis was horrendous. I am sure that the horrors described were even more horrific in reality as we ‘see’ man’s inhumanity to man. Through it all, Dr Korczak believed that deep down even then Nazis must have a heart, sadly he was proved wrong. The Nazis were a systematic killing machine, operating with brutality and efficiency. They never saw the individual.
Dr Korczak always believed in the rights of children to be cared for, loved and safe. A decorated war hero from World War I, Dr Korczak lectured and wrote about the need for children’s rights until the Nazis stripped him of his rights as he was Jewish. It always seems so awful that you can be good enough to fight in one war but not good enough to be seen in another.
Dr Korczak could not abandon the children in his care and transferred his orphanage to inside the ghetto. Far from abandoning children, he ended up overseeing four thousand children in the ghetto. “His orphanage is … a little oasis.” Whenever Dr Korczak saw a child in trouble, he rescued them. “Korczak… represents: justice, kindness, fairness and love. He is their candle held up against the darkness, the gleam of sunshine that makes the ghetto smile.” Even when given a chance to escape the transport to Treblinka, Dr Korczak would not abandon his children. “You do not leave a child alone to face the dark.”
Within the novel there are other brave souls who worked within and outside the ghetto to help the children and others to survive. Their bravery is incredible. Their love for others is beautiful. In his diary Dr Korczak wrote “It is not in me to hate.”
Elisabeth Gifford pulls no punches. This is not a pleasant read but it is a necessary one. We need to know about the bravery and the love shining in very dark times. Incidentally statistics tell us that “of 400,000 Jews in Warsaw before the war, only one per cent survived. Within just fourteen months in operation Treblinka gassed 900,000.”
Thank you Elisabeth Gifford for telling the world about Dr Korczak. May we never forget the innocents who perished in the Holocaust.
I will leave you with a very powerful quote:
“Even a small candle is stronger than the darkness… we must never stop believing that every act of kindness is stronger than the dark.”