The Warsaw Orphan

In the late afternoon of March 28, 1942, Roman Gorka walks through the Warsaw Ghetto streets with his nine-year-old brother, Dawidek, who works under the supervision of Jewish Police officers. They head to a street vendor on Zamenhofa Street to trade soap from their stepfather, Samuel, for food. Their mother is starving and struggling to produce milk for their baby sister, Eleanora. The vendor has nothing left and can only promise to save something for them the following day. Roman becomes alarmed when he sees two Jewish Police officers (Kapo) speaking with Dawidek and rushes over, but Dawidek explains that they are simply his work supervisors.

On their way home, the brothers witness one of the same Kapo place a piece of bread in the hand of a dying child on the street. When Roman realizes that the child is too weak to eat the bread, he takes it for his family despite his moral conflict. As the brothers walk home, Davidek discusses the nature of his work: He collects the bodies of the dead from the streets each morning. Roman reflects that he is lucky to have a factory job that pays him in food. He gets lunch every day, which means that the other family members can split his rations.