If Not Now, When? (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Primo Levi
- First Published: 1982
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Adventure
- Time of Work: 1943-1945
- Setting: Russia, Poland, and Italy
- Genres: Long fiction, Realism, Adventure, War fiction
- Subjects: Race, 1940’s, World War II, Jews or Jewish life, Anti-Semitism, Military life or service, Heroes or heroism, Terrorism or terrorists, Italy or Italians, Poland or Polish people, Talmud, Russia or Russian people
- Locales: Germany, Palestine, Russia, Poland, Milan, Italy
Characters Discussed
Menachem Nachmanovich Dajcher, called Mendel, a twenty-eight-year-old Jewish watch mender, artilleryman, and partisan. After becoming detached from his Red Army unit, Mendel lives simply and reclusively in the woods, joining first with Leonid and then with various bands of partisan fighters. He is a patient and honest man who broods uncomprehendingly over the brutal murder of his wife and the wholesale destruction of his village. His experiences have made him sensitive to the ubiquitous anti-Semitism of wartime Europe. For his knowledge of Jewish tradition...
[The entire page is 967 words long]
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