08/08/2025
Real-life Superman
The new Superman movie was released last week. The USA can’t seem to get enough of him and everything he stands for: truth, justice and empathy. Everyone likes to watch those ideals embodied on the big screen but too few of us live up to them.
On this occasion of the anniversary of Dr. Korczak’s death, I find myself comparing Superman and Janusz Korczak. I think our doctor would have loved the fictional hero. One likes to think there is the possibility that he saw the comics, from which the movies are derived, before his death. But it seems highly unlikely, considering the N**i occupation of Poland. I believe he would have recognized how empowering the nature of the narratives would have been for his children.
The comic book hero was created in 1938 by Americans, Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, both sons of Lithuanian Jewish immigrants who fled persecution from their native country years before the N**i occupation. Shuster and Siegel created Superman in response to the rising dictatorship of Hi**er and used the alien hero as a symbol of goodness and strength to battle all that they feared would follow.
Janusz Korczak, in Poland, and Shuster and Siegel’s Superman, in the United States, represent two distinct kinds of heroism—one grounded in real-life compassion and sacrifice, the other in fictional superhuman abilities—yet both embody ideals of protection and justice. Their stories, origins, and battles highlight different manifestations of courage and responsibility.
I enjoyed the movie, but my mind kept coming back to the real-life heroes who, day in and day out, in an orphanage in Warsaw, championed the youngest and most vulnerable of us – to set them on a path to a meaningful life.
The tragic end of Janusz, Stefa, the other staff members and the children was indeed a heroic act and the superpower that lies within the tragedy is that the story is still with us. Korczak’s teachings are still with us. His wise words and stories remain to guide, and remind us that humanity can find itself even in the harshest of circumstances.
Mary Tanner, Korczak USA Board Secretary
Co-creator and performer of Korczak inspired
multi-media puppet plays
Illustration by Brian Hull
