影片根据雅努什·柯扎克(Janusz Korczak)真实经历改编。 1939年9月,德军占领华沙后,柯扎克拒绝了德国人的邀请,利用教授和医生的身份,在华沙建立了犹太孤儿院,并使这些孩子接受教育…… 1942年,随着对犹太人迫害的加剧,柯扎克四处筹集资金养活200个犹太孤儿,并与抵抗组织人员接触,但很快他们遭到盖世太保逮捕。柯扎克拒绝了德国走狗为他弄到的瑞士护照,决意与孩子们在一起,最终他与孩子们一起死在了特雷布林卡毒气室…… 影片力图把柯扎克塑造成视死如归的基督式人物,描述他把正义和尊严放到比安全和生命更重要的位置。 影片结尾处孩子们在乡野自由漫跑的镜头属于美好祝愿,导演也许因为觉得若拍摄他们进入毒气室太残忍了吧。Account of the last days of life of the legendary Polish pedagogue Janusz Korczak and his heroic dedication to protecting Jewish orphans during the war. Jewish doctor Henryk Goldszmit, known also as Janusz Korczak, is a man of high principles. He is unafraid of shouting at German officers and frequently has to be persuaded to save his own life. His orphanage, set up in a cramped school in the Warsaw ghetto, provides shelter to 200 homeless kids. Putting his experimental educational methods into practice, he installs a kind of children's self-government, whose justice is in a big contrast to what is happening in the outside world. Right in front of the school, dozens of kids are dying or being killed everyday and their naked bodies lie on the street unattended. Ghetto's mayor assures Korczak that the orphanages will be saved. Korczak raises food and money for the orphanage from the rich Jews. In the final roundup he refuses to accept a Swiss passport and boards the train to Treblinka with his orphans.