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Korczak International News: I'm small, but important, by Konrad Weiss
Also note a plethora of other topical links on this blog.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Ich bin klein aber wchtig
This film essay on Janusz Korczak shows many documents that are indeed precious on the life of Janusz Korczak: photographs, books, letters, friends co-workers and pupils tell of their memories, and,yes, the faces of the children. They show the vanished world of the Warsaw ghetto, not destined to last. Because memory is the mystery of the reconciliation. Ivo and Sabine are the 2 documentaries . Ivo Klauck,14, and in a wheelchair does not desire pity. His everyday life at Birkenwerder is featured.
- The first film ends with the communist Jugendweihe (ceremony in which children are given adult social status) of Ivo (QUOTE)
- The second film - seven years later - begins with the wedding in the church. Sabine, the wife of Ivo, is also paraplegic. When the film was turned, she was unemployed. The two young people aborted their study. Now they are at the beginning of a new period of life. Their home is particularly important for the both. (Quote)
- The second film voices their opinions and attitudes.
Ich bin klein, aber wichtig (I'm small, but important)Documentary about Janusz
Korczak
Directed by Konrad WeißScreenplay: Walther Petri and Konrad
WeißCinematographers: Gunter Becher and Michael LöscheEditor: Ingeborg
MarszalekProducers: Christina Eggert and Tadeusz RejnowiczDEFA Studio für
Dokumentarfilme, Berlin, 198844 min. - 35 mm - colour / black and whiteFirst
broadcast: 31st August 1989, Fernsehen der DDR
This is a film-essay
about Janusz Korczak, the Jew and
Pole, the doctor and educator and writer. A film about a wonderful man. The film
goes on the search for a lost time. It is the attempt to come closer to Korczak,
and it is a very personal film. He tries a dialogue over the time - always in
the knowledge about the terrible guilt of the Germans.
The film shows
precious documents: Photographs of Janusz Korczak and his orphanage children,
his books and letters. Friends, co-workers and pupils tell about their memories.
And the film shows the faces of children - faces from yesterday and faces from
today. And places, good places and bad places, the vanished world of Janusz
Korczak.
Above all: In the film are quoted his ideas and words, which he
wrote about children and for children. It is essential to preserve the memory of
Janusz Korczak and his children and their vanished world. Because memory is the
mystery of the reconciliation.
The Film on video an
DVD
Cinematography of the Holocaust
Ivo
Klauck, vierzehn Jahre alt, querschnittsgelähmt • Ivo und Sabine,
querschnittsgelähmt(Ivo Klauck, 14 years old,
paraplegic • Ivo and Sabine, paraplegic)2 Documentaries
about young handicapped People
Screenplay and Direction by Konrad
WeißCinematographer: Michael Lösche • Photographer: Harald
HauswaldSong: Barbara Thalheim • Tino und JessicaEditor:
Martina Hoffmann • Angelika ArnoldScript Editor: Andreas
Voigt • Ev WittmannProducers: Regina Lösche and Helmut
Gießmann • Rainer BaumertDEFA Studio für Dokumentarfilme,
Berlin, 1981 • 1988
The first film tells the story of Ivo Klauck.
He is a handicapped boy, 14 years old. To beginning says the boy in the
wheelchair: "I would not like to be pitied. I don't need that, the little
compassion." The film respects this attitude. It shows the everyday life of Ivo
and other young people from the school for handicapped persons in Birkenwerder:
The school, the boarding school, the home, the leisure time. Also are shown the
distance from non-handicapped persons and the various obstacles, who make their
everyday life so heavy.
The first film ends with the communist Jugendweihe
(ceremony in which children are given adult social status) of Ivo. The second
film - seven years later - begins with the wedding in the church. Sabine, the
wife of Ivo, is also paraplegic. When the film was turned, she was unemployed.
The two young people aborted their study. Now they are at the beginning of a new
period of life. Their home is particularly important for the both.
In focus
of attention of the second film are the opinions and attitudes of Ivo and
Sabine. They speak about their difficulties in a world, which is often
indifferent or hostile.
Korczak I'm small but important 2 film essays
The film searches for a lost time. That's what the film essay is always about. The lost time is an ultimate time of persecution and the testing of his values concerning children.The terrible guilt of the Germans is always in front of us. It is a vanished but conceivably a repetitive world in many aspects. His ideas and his words are the words quoted about the children.
Ich bin klein, aber wichtig (I'm small, but important)Documentary about Janusz
Korczak
Directed by Konrad WeißScreenplay: Walther Petri and Konrad
WeißCinematographers: Gunter Becher and Michael LöscheEditor: Ingeborg
MarszalekProducers: Christina Eggert and Tadeusz RejnowiczDEFA Studio für
Dokumentarfilme, Berlin, 198844 min. - 35 mm - colour / black and whiteFirst
broadcast: 31st August 1989, Fernsehen der DDR
This is a film-essay
about Janusz Korczak, the Jew and
Pole, the doctor and educator and writer. A film about a wonderful man. The film
goes on the search for a lost time. It is the attempt to come closer to Korczak,
and it is a very personal film. He tries a dialogue over the time - always in
the knowledge about the terrible guilt of the Germans.
The film shows
precious documents: Photographs of Janusz Korczak and his orphanage children,
his books and letters. Friends, co-workers and pupils tell about their memories.
And the film shows the faces of children - faces from yesterday and faces from
today. And places, good places and bad places, the vanished world of Janusz
Korczak.
Above all: In the film are quoted his ideas and words, which he
wrote about children and for children. It is essential to preserve the memory of
Janusz Korczak and his children and their vanished world. Because memory is the
mystery of the reconciliation.
The Film on video an
DVD
Cinematography of the Holocaust
Ivo
Klauck, vierzehn Jahre alt, querschnittsgelähmt • Ivo und Sabine,
querschnittsgelähmt(Ivo Klauck, 14 years old,
paraplegic • Ivo and Sabine, paraplegic)2 Documentaries
about young handicapped People
Screenplay and Direction by Konrad
WeißCinematographer: Michael Lösche • Photographer: Harald
HauswaldSong: Barbara Thalheim • Tino und JessicaEditor:
Martina Hoffmann • Angelika ArnoldScript Editor: Andreas
Voigt • Ev WittmannProducers: Regina Lösche and Helmut
Gießmann • Rainer BaumertDEFA Studio für Dokumentarfilme,
Berlin, 1981 • 1988
The first film tells the story of Ivo Klauck.
He is a handicapped boy, 14 years old. To beginning says the boy in the
wheelchair: "I would not like to be pitied. I don't need that, the little
compassion." The film respects this attitude. It shows the everyday life of Ivo
and other young people from the school for handicapped persons in Birkenwerder:
The school, the boarding school, the home, the leisure time. Also are shown the
distance from non-handicapped persons and the various obstacles, who make their
everyday life so heavy.
The first film ends with the communist Jugendweihe
(ceremony in which children are given adult social status) of Ivo. The second
film - seven years later - begins with the wedding in the church. Sabine, the
wife of Ivo, is also paraplegic. When the film was turned, she was unemployed.
The two young people aborted their study. Now they are at the beginning of a new
period of life. Their home is particularly important for the both.
In focus
of attention of the second film are the opinions and attitudes of Ivo and
Sabine. They speak about their difficulties in a world, which is often
indifferent or hostile.
The values assigned to good deeds
The king and the orchard maschal or parable explains why the king did not tells his workers the worth of each tree cultivated.Had we known the worth of each good deed we perform this would view mitzvah observance as the opportunity to earn reward alone and nullify the purpose for practicing the mitzvos, that of self-perfection spiritually. Note Makkos 23b of the Talmud and the 248 positive mitzvos.The self denial of true perfection which consists in doing a variety of tasks and experiences which constitutes perfection makes reasonable sense,each mitzvah in its own unique way.
The commentators quote a Midrash which explains by way of parable: A king
had a large orchard surrounding his palace. He asked his workers to tend his
orchard, and he did not tell them the worth of each tree and the wages they
would receive for tending each. The result was that all the fruit trees were
cultivated and flourished, and the palace grounds became a tapestry of beauty.
Had, however, the king told his workers the value of each tree, only the most
valuable would have been cared for. The palace grounds would have become filled
with exotic and magnificent trees, but would have lacked the harmony and
variegated beauty of a truly breathtaking landscape.
This, explain the
commentators, was G-d's intention as well. Had we been apprised of the relative
worth of each mitzvah, we would have focused on the most lucrative alone -- to
the neglect of many other worthy deeds. We would have begun to see mitzvah
observance as an opportunity to earn reward alone -- almost as if "reward" were
some kind of currency we accrue, to be "traded in" when we arrive in the World
to Come.
This, however, is not the true concept of mitzvah observance. The
mitzvos were not given to us in order to earn us reward or free mileage. They
are to perfect ourselves, to make ourselves "whole" ("shalaim") in the
terminology of Jewish thinkers. By performing all the mitzvos, we become whole
and perfected human beings. The Talmud tells us that the Torah contains 248
positive mitzvos corresponding to the 248 limbs of a person's body (Makkos 23b).
(The remaining 365 (out of 613) are negative commandments; correspond to the
days of the year.) The message is that each mitzvah perfects our spiritual
bodies and our characters in its own unique way. Had we focused on a few mitzvos
-- even theoretically very important ones -- we would have denied ourselves the
true perfection which must be our aspiration.
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