Figure 1.-- Here is one of the older orphans in the film, "Korczak." Note that the boy is not wearing tights but long brown stockings with his short pants and white shirt. Joseph's clothing is typical of what the boys in the film wear in the Warsaw ghetto orphange before they are forced to leave in a group for the NAZI death camp where they all perish (along with their protector, Dr. Korczak himself).

The costuming in the film is very accurate. The adolescent is wearing a white shirt, dark short pants, and dark colored (probably brown) long stockings. The costuming seems very realistic in depicting the children's clothing. Many children are show wearing long over-the-knee stockings. This is unusual in that films of the era usually show boys in short pants wearing kneesocks, even though long stockings were quite common. For the filming, actual long stockings were used. Sometimes in films, tights are used rather than long stockings because they are easier to obtain and wear. One scene from the film shows a teenager after a younger boy in the Warsaw ghetto orphanage has just snatched a love letter that he was writing to a non-Jewish girl who lives outside the ghetto. She has been forbidden to see him anymore because he is Jewish. The teenager, who is the most prominent boy character in the film, is Joseph. The standard dress of boys in the ghetto consists of white shirts, short pants, and long brown stockings. The younger boy is Szloma. He teased Joseph about his amorous involvement with a girl. He wears the same style of clothing except that he is shown with a jacket. e image here clearly illustrates Joseph's clothing. He is one of the older boys in the Warsaw Ghetto orphanage and becomes a student leader of the younger boys. Joseph falls in love with a non-Jewish girl of about his own age (14-15) and is rejected by the girl because of the pressure of her family. The subtitle (in English) is Joseph's tragically disillusioned line about the "childish" romanticism of his hope for a love relationship not based on race or ethnicity. One of the many reviews of the film comments on the fact that the famous director, Andreiz Wajda, was very careful to reproduce the costuming with historical accuracy, including vintage long stockings for the boys in place of the more modern tights.

Created: 9:57 PM 3/16/2007
Last updated: 9:57 PM 3/16/2007