In 1906 the "Help for Orphans" Society with a registered office at 2 Franciszkańska Street decided to build their own orphanage. On 12 May 1910 they bought a square at 92 Krochmalna Street (currently 6 Jaktorowska Street) for 24,000 rubles. A Building Committee was constituted with the guidance of Isaac Eliasberg. The outstanding doctor and pedagogue Janusz Korczak was also a member of the committee. The building was designed by Henryk Stiefelman. A cornerstone for a building for 106 children was laid on 14 June 1911. Janusz Korczak became the director of the Orphanage. The building was comissioned in 1912.
On the ground floor there was a spacious recreational hall that was also used as a dining hall. Near to them there were classrooms and a director's chamber. The pupils' bedrooms and the room of Stefania Wilczyńska, who managed the Orphanage with Korczak, were situated on higher floors. Korczak himself lived in the attic.
The Orphanage was a coeducational establishment. At the beginning 85 boys and girls lived there. Korczak implemented innovational pedagogical methods in the Orphanage. The children had their own council, they expressed their opinions at meetings and in their newspaper.
In the autumn of 1940, after the establishment of the Warsaw ghetto, the Germans forced Korczak and Wilczyńska to move the Orphanage. At that time Korczak found a new place in the building of the J. and M. Roesler National Trading School for Men (Polish: Państwowa Szkoła Handlowa Męska im. J. i M. Roeslerów) at 33 Chłodna Street. Another moving came in the autumn of 1941. The Orphanage was then relocated to 16 Sienna Street, to the building of the Trade Union of Trade, Industry and Office Workers in Warsaw (Polish: Związek Zawodowy Pracowników Handlowych, Przemysłowych i Biurowych m. st. Warszawy).
On 5 August 1942 Janusz Korczak, Stefania Wilczyńska and their fosterlings were casted out from Sienna street to Umschlagplatz, from where they were taken away to a German concentration camp in Treblinka.
The Janusz Korczak National Orphanage is currently located in the building (Polish: Państwowy Dom Dziecka im. Janusza Korczaka). On its forecourt we can see a bust of Janusz Korczak sculpted by Xawery Dunikowski, disclosed in 1979[1.1].
