How much of fate was involved in Ruth being reunited with Edek, her brother?

Edek was arrested by the Germans for smuggling food out of Warsaw in order to feed his siblings. Two years later and the siblings were yet to be reunited. It took information from a Russian soldier, Ivan, for Ruth to begin the search for her brother. Ivan informed Ruth that Edek was in a camp in Posen. Ruth, Bronia and Jan went on the search for Edek in Posen. However, on their arrival, they learned...

Edek was arrested by the Germans for smuggling food out of Warsaw in order to feed his siblings. Two years later and the siblings were yet to be reunited. It took information from a Russian soldier, Ivan, for Ruth to begin the search for her brother. Ivan informed Ruth that Edek was in a camp in Posen. Ruth, Bronia and Jan went on the search for Edek in Posen. However, on their arrival, they learned that Edek had left. The siblings later learned that their brother was transferred to Warthe, a camp for tuberculosis patients. However, on reaching Warthe they again discovered Edek had left the camp. The siblings and Jan proceeded to Kolina still searching for Edek. At Kolina, a refugee camp, chaos erupted and in the melee, Ruth linked hands with a stranger. As the chaos died down, she found her hand linked to Edek. Up until that point it was only fate that worked for the siblings because;

• Information about Edek’s location in Posen was given by Ivan, a Russian soldier who provided the children with supplies.


• Information about Edek’s transfer to Warthe was provided by a man who heard Ruth’s enquiries after her brother.


• Ruth could have linked hands with any other individual in the scuffle, but she linked with her lost brother.

None of these events were by design or planned, leading to the conclusion that the children were lucky to stumble upon such information that helped in finding their brother.