WARSAW, POLAND ~ AUGUST 1939

“No, Ezra, we’re not orphans.”

“Yes we are. Jakob - just think about it. We don’t have parents and we barely have a place to live.”

“Yeah, but we’re not children anymore,” Jakob said, “You’re, what, twenty? And I’m eighteen. I don’t think men can be orphans. Don’t you have to be a child to be an orphan?”

As the two brothers lazily strolled down the streets of downtown Warsaw, Poland, they bantered back and forth on topics which didn’t really matter. The hilarity of their dialogue almost matched the way their appearance stood out from the rest of the city.

Warsaw was in a golden time of culture. Though there was every reason not to be, due to the threats of war being levied by the nearby countries, the people in Warsaw nevertheless sought normalcy. Or, perhaps, it was escape which they sought. But either way, the result was a glorious focus on culture, the levity of entertainment, and the tastes of fashion.

Ezra and Jakob both lacked in that department. Severely. They tried to fit in. But they just didn’t. Warsaw wasn’t especially an affluent or expensive place to live in, but their lack of financial means was easily seen from their attempt to fit into the culture of the city. Just by looking at them, it was obvious they did not belong. This didn’t hold the brothers back, though, from still trying to fit into something larger than them. This was Warsaw. This was the city. This was a concrete jungle full of ambition, discovery, and dreams.

“Listen,” Ezra continued explaining, “all I know is that we’ve been orphans since our parents died a couple years after World War One ended.”

“World War One?” Jakob exaggerated in disbelief as the two brothers’ pointless bantering continued. “What, do you think there’s going to be a second or third world war one day?”

“C’mon, Jakob - look around you. The tensions are growing by the day. Doesn’t it just feel like it’s going to erupt again?”

“You focus on that stuff too much, Ezra. You gotta just enjoy life … even if we are just orphans - which we’re not.”

“I’m serious, Jakob,” warned Ezra.

“About which one?” Jakob prodded in jest.

“About … well, both.” Ezra’s tone was defensive but knowledgeable, nonetheless. “Things are headed toward another war. Poland is right in the middle of Germany and the Soviet Union. Things aren’t looking good right now, especially with the Nazi threat against Jews. We may not be Jewish, but that doesn’t matter. We’d be caught in the middle of it all. Oh, and we are orphans.”

“Well, what are you going to do about it, then?”

“I have a plan.” Ezra’s response was quick and to the point. It was as though all of their prior bantering led straight to what he’d wanted to divulge from the beginning. His plan.

“For which one?” Jakob asked, just as before, to give his brother a hard time.

Despite trying to mess with Ezra with his question, Jakob was earnestly listening. He never admitted it, but he relied on his older brother for advice on most things. It began in the waning days of their mother’s life when they saw her sickness slowly degrade her health, within a year of their father’s passing from some unknown sickness. They never learned what sickness took their parents, but Jakob still remembered the tearful moment his mother succumbed to it as he and Ezra sat bedside. He remembered feeling alone. Being at such a young age, he instantly looked up to his older brother, fearful of what they should do next. Ezra wasn’t much older than him, but from that moment, Ezra had assumed the role. They’d never verbalized Ezra being the leader of their remaining small family, but he always had a plan for them. And so far, that plan panned out, no matter the fact that they were left with little more than just the unfashionable clothes on their back, nowhere to call home, and little money.

Just now, Ezra didn’t even hear Jakob sarcastically giving him a hard time. Instead, all the older brother heard was Jakob asking what his plan was for them. Ezra’s dreams for the future were, as always, wide-eyed and ambitious, no matter the lack of practicality.

As the two brothers walked with naive swagger down the city as if they owned it, Ezra’s plan came spilling out with eager enthusiasm: “We’re going to join the Polish army.”

Jakob stopped immediately in his tracks on the Warsaw sidewalk. He didn’t care that they were in front of a restaurant with a large window full of patrons who would see their confrontation. For the first time that he could remember since his mother’s death, he found himself in stark disagreement with his older brother.

“No way,” Jakob said plainly.

This caught Ezra off guard and he turned to see Jakob standing defiantly behind him. Frustration came barreling out of Ezra: “Well, we have to!”

“No way.” Jakob’s body language gave away that he wasn’t budging on the issue.

“Think about it, Jakob,” Ezra was now pleading. “War is right on Poland’s doorstep. Look around you. See all of this? This is just a facade. In a few short months, either Germany or the Soviets - if not both - will be invading. What you see around you won’t be here forever.”

“So, what if I want to enjoy it while it’s here - instead of running off to war?” As Jakob said it, he could see the light of Ezra’s plan die in Ezra’s eyes. Jakob knew it wasn’t just a plan he was spoiling - it was Ezra’s dream. And in the heat of their abrupt disagreement, Jakob let that spill out as an insult. “You’re the dreamer, Ezra. You always have been. And I’ve always followed you through your dreams. But this isn’t a dream. This is reality. And people die in war.”

Ezra knew that what Jakob just said was right - he was a dreamer. He always so easily got swept up into dreams and ambitions that he never stopped to realize their effect on his younger brother. But this time, that wasn’t the case. Ezra’s plan had been thought out extensively before divulging it.

Despite his natural inclination to give into the heat of their disagreement, Ezra’s tone calmed down. He loved his Jakob – like nothing else in the world. They’d been more than brothers since their parents’ deaths. They’d been friends. Confidants. Life rafts. Shoulders for each other to both cry and laugh on. So, in this moment, Ezra’s natural instinct toward conflict was overcome by his even stronger inclination to love his brother.

“I know, I know, Jakob. I’ve led you on some crazy paths since mom died.” Ezra then put his hand on Jakob’s shoulder to bridge the gap between them - both emotionally and physically. “But this isn’t about my dreams. It’s about what’s real.”

“And then what, Ezra?” Jakob’s tone was mellowing out. “We just hope to survive the war? Wouldn’t you rather go somewhere safe and let other people fight a war that isn’t ours?”

“We’d survive. Look at us - two orphans that don’t need much, who have always found a way to survive.” Ezra smiled at having just referenced their prior pointless disagreement about whether they were orphans. “And then afterwards, we’ll open an orphanage.”

This made Jakob chuckle out loud and playfully push Ezra in the shoulder. “Not funny. But I’ll think about the whole army thing.”

“No, I mean it, Jakob. Someone’s gotta show all the other orphans how to survive. Who better than you and me?”

Now that they’d made up, Ezra went to put his arm around his brother’s shoulder to keep walking down the Warsaw sidewalk. Ezra’s mind normally would be filled with dreams at this point, now that there was a glimmer of hope for them to enlist in the Polish army. But his dreams were immediately cut short. Jakob wasn’t moving.

It was as though he was frozen in place. Ezra quickly turned to look his brother in the eyes to see what the deal was. And for the first time, he saw dreams shining in Jakob’s own eyes. They’d always followed Ezra’s dreams, but now, for the first time, Ezra could instantly tell that Jakob had been struck with his own overbearing dream. The stark light beaming from Jakob’s glance emanated a look different than any other he’d ever seen his brother make before.

Ezra curiously followed his brother’s line of sight to see what had unexpectedly and wholeheartedly captivated Jakob.

Then he saw it. Or, rather - he saw her. Jakob was staring through the large restaurant window next to them, and at the lounge piano providing background music for the patrons. And seated at that piano was the centerpiece of not only Jakob’s attention, but what Ezra recognized as the centerpiece of Jakob’s very being in this moment. Behind the piano was, undeniably, a beautiful Jewish woman, whose blue eyes had met Jakob’s by happenstance, yet now was staring back at him with a consumption matching his.

Ezra knew it immediately by just observing the unspoken spark between his brother and the Jewish woman. Things were now going to be different for the two brothers.