Sunday, April 29, 2012

What did Akiba Drumer ask the others to do for him?

Akiba Drumer has always been noted for his unshakeable optimism and unbending faith in God, even in the midst of the camp's unspeakable horrors. As well as a deep commitment to his faith, Akiba is also heavily into numerology, using it to predict immanent deliverance for the inmates from their terrible ordeal.
Eventually, however, Akiba is broken by his experiences of the camp, and he loses not just his faith but also his will to live. When he's selected by the Germans to be sent to the crematorium he asks his fellow inmates to say the Kaddish for him. In Judaism, Kaddish is the prayer for the dead. Although Akiba has lost his faith, he still feels it appropriate that the relevant religious rites should be observed. Unfortunately, however, no one remembers to say the Kaddish. The last few days had been particularly harsh and brutal, even by normal standards, so it's not surprising that the inmates' minds were focused elsewhere, on the daily struggle to survive.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Why is the fact that the Americans are helping the Russians important?

In the late author Tom Clancy’s first novel, The Hunt for Red October, the assistance rendered to the Russians by the United States is impor...