Aside from the tragedy of his loss, it is the mundanity of Jacob's death that is striking and instructional. Catastrophe looms. The Germans take away his sister

Aside from the tragedy of his loss, it is the mundanity of Jacob's death that is striking and instructional. Catastrophe looms. The Germans take away his sister. He pleads with people he considers allies to help, to do anything. They reply noncommittally. He is taken into captivity himself. He dies of medical neglect in a prison camp, where he has been reduced to an anonymous figure, stripped of his past and his humanity. From well-connected public figure to a sick prisoner on a cold pallet in the course of a year, a month, a week. The train reaches the end of the line. Finally, nothing.