This film tells the story of the last days of the legendary Polish pedagogue Janusz Korczak and his heroic dedication to protecting Jewish orphans during the war. The Jewish doctor Henryk Goldszmit, also known as Janusz Korczak, has high principles. He is not afraid of shouting at German officers and has to be persuaded to save his own life. In his orphanage, which is situated in an old school in the ghetto of Warsaw, live 200 homeless children. His educational method is experimental. He installs a kind of children's self-government, which is a contrast to what is happening in the outside world. In front of the school lots of children are dying and their dead bodies lie on the streets. The ghetto's mayor assures Korczak that the orphanage and all the children will be saved. From the rich Jews Korczak organizes food and money. At the end he goes - together with his orphans - by train to Treblinka after he had refused to accept a Swiss passport.