Comparing Paul Bronski Andrei Androfski

The Nazi’s Warsaw ghetto brought out the worst in many people. Crammed into a few blocks with little to eat or drink, people were forced to fight for their survival. Some were affected worse than others—betraying family members and friends for a bite to eat was not uncommon. However, not everyone bore their worst. For a very few people, the dark times drove them to be the best they could, to fight tooth and nail for their people’s survival. They did not lose themselves and shrink to mere husks of their former selves—they remained strong and with resolve. Nowhere is this contrast more evident than between the two good friends Paul Bronski and Andrei Androfski. While Paul withered away as a person, unable to handle his great burden, Andrei rose to the challenge, standing as a beacon of hope and resolve to all.

From the beginning, Paul and Andrei were in sharp physical contrast. Andrei was a Ulany warrior—Paul a soft dean. From the start of the conflict, this contrast continued. Andrei, after receiving near fatal injuries in one of the first battles on Polish soil, continued after a spot of rest to practically crawl his way to Warsaw. His physical recovery was swift and aided by his strong resolve to push forward. Bronski, on the other hand, did not heal so swiftly. After losing his arm in the war, he never fully recovered. Days later, he was still pained and weak He allowed himself to be pushed around by Shreiker, and he became a pawn of the Germans. In sharp contrast, Andrei never stopped fighting. Throughout their time in the ghetto, Andrei constantly pushed to violently resist the German occupation. He petitioned for weapons and training, and only the resistance of those around him kept him from fighting the Germans from the b...

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... under Jewish Tradition. After the German invasion, Paul was forced to identify himself as a Jew. He plead to the Germans that he had abandoned his faith, but they did not care. His children first knew of their heritage as they were forced to wear the star of David for identification. Once inside the ghetto, Paul begrudgingly allowed his children to be raised as Jews. His son, Stephen, began receiving lessons from Rabbi Solomon, much to Paul’s disdain. At his son’s Bar Mitzvah, he was hurt by the realization that he deprived his son of a Jewish upbringing. Andrei’s faith only grows with the conflict, as he would occasionally pray before any battle. Towards the end of the conflict, Andrei began to truly embrace Zionism for the first time, and pushed for the cause of Jewish freedom. Like everything in Andrei’s life, he looks to his religion with a militaristic lens.