The Warsaw Orphan

The Warsaw Orphan unfolds against the backdrop of Nazi-occupied Poland, focusing on the Warsaw Ghetto (1940-1943) and the destruction of Warsaw following the 1944 Uprising. The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest Jewish ghetto established by Nazi Germany, confining over 400,000 Jews in 1.3 square miles. Food rations were deliberately inadequate, resulting in more than 80,000 deaths from starvation and disease before mid-1942 (“The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.” The National WWII Museum, 17 Apr. 2024). 

Roman’s narrative depicts these conditions: “The ghetto was teeming with street children. The orphanages were full to bursting” (17). The novel portrays the mass deportations that began in July 1942, when approximately 265,000 Jewish people were sent from Warsaw to the Treblinka death camp. Roman witnesses orphaned children being marched to the Umschlagplatz, a scene that transforms his understanding: “I hadn’t seen it. On some level, I hadn’t believed it” (144).

The latter sections depict the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, when the Polish Home Army fought against German forces for 63 days. Following the uprising’s failure, the Germans systematically destroyed the city, demolishing most of the city’s buildings. Emilia returns to find that “[t]he Germans had gone from building to building and block to block, burning and demolishing almost every structure” (317).