Chapter 5, Part 4 Summary

Yakov has been in prison for three months. He ponders his situation, wondering how an innocent fixer just trying to make a living should end up in this situation. Yakov begins to hate the gentiles for their senseless anti-Semitism. This section then moves to a montage of Yakov's life to this point interwoven with the events since the murder.

Yakov had been an orphan, when he married Raisl. Her family became his only family. He was such a good man before that he feels certain nobody would accuse him of the horrible acts had they known him in his village. Yakov is angry that he did not listen to Shmuel and stay in the village. He is now the randomly selected Jew the Russians will surely sacrifice.

One day, a fat prisoner enters the holding cell. He is wealthy and shares...