August 5, 1942. The Nazis arrived at the orphanage in the Warsaw Ghetto.

Janusz Korczak gathered the children—192 of them.

He didn’t tell them where they were really going.

He said they were off to the countryside.
There would be fresh air, meadows, and mountain streams.

Each child could bring a favorite toy.

They dressed in their best clothes.
They walked in pairs, calm and quiet.

At the front was Korczak, holding the smallest hands.
Beside him was Stefania Wilczyńska, his devoted colleague.
Both had been offered a way out.
Both refused to leave the children.

They led the children to the train bound for Treblinka.
And they never came back.

He had once written:

“You do not leave a sick child in the night, and you do not leave children at a time like this.”

Janusz Korczak didn’t carry a weapon. He wasn’t in a uniform. But in a time of unspeakable cruelty, he chose to stand beside the vulnerable. And that is a different kind of heroism.

In our time, courage may not look like his.
But it still begins with the decision not to look away.

What would you have done? Help teach the next generation about courage and conscience at Facing History and Ourselves.