A Light in the Darkness by Albert Marrin

I put the book down many times because I couldn't endure any more of the horrors all too well described.

I was drawn in immediately by how Marrin described the setting at Treblinka. However, once I saw Marrin had written about someone I knew almost nothing about, I braced myself and read it. I finally got where I simply couldn't read any more about the Holocaust. I have been fascinated with WWII and the Holocaust since I first read Anne Frank's diary. Usually, I can stick with a well written book no matter what the subject matter. Normally, if a book takes me a long time, it is because it is poorly written. I had indigestion and other issues from this book. This book took me well over a month to read because of Marrin's superb writing. His work formed some of the basis for the UN declaration on the Rights of the Child. He was well known, and his work probably is still in advance of most in the education field today. Korczack was a leading philosopher on how to teach children. So much for the myth that nothing ever really goes away on the internet! I have read a number of Marrin's works, all of which range from very good to excellent. My first effort at reviewing this amazing book disappeared into the ether. A Light in the Darkness is an outstanding nonfiction book about the dangers of racism and fanaticism and about the importance of valuing children.

Meanwhile, Janusz Korczak’s legacy lives on in Europe and worldwide he helped draft the United Nations’ Declaration of the Rights of the Child. The book also explores how typical Germans were caught up in the racist ideas of Hitler (and used those to justify horrible atrocities), along with how German children were sacrificed in the war in inappropriate ways (many Hitler Youth were sent to the front lines in the final days of the war). Hitler and Himmler believed that Judaism was in the children’s “blood” and “souls” and that “even the child in the cradle must be trampled down like a poisonous toad.” Hitler’s systematic method of dehumanizing the Jewish people, the mentally ill, etc. He asked if the children would be kept safe and when learning that there was no guarantee, Korczak replied, “it is best that I keep the children with me.” His life is set in direct contrast with the horrific acts of Adolf Hitler and his fellow Nazis who considered Jewish children vermin and one of the most important targets of the Nazi Final Solution. Korczak had multiple opportunities to escape the ghetto and death at the Treblinka concentration camp, but refused to the leave the children he loved. Ostensibly, the book is a biography of Janusz Korczak, a pediatrician, author and playwright who created an orphanage for young children. His latest book, A Light in the Darkness, has over 30 pages of notes and several pages of selected sources backing up the details contained in his book.

A Light in the Darkness by Albert Marrin