Professor Viktor E. Frankl
Vienna, 1935
Original article: Kol Nidre at the Steinhof Hospital (“Kol Nidre auf dem Steinhof” en: Mitteilungsblatt der Vereinigung judischer Artzte 2 [1935] n. 22, 6-79).
Translated by Professor Edward Marshall and Professor Maria Marshall from the Spanish text “Kol Nidre en el Hospital am Steinhof. In “Escritos de Juventud 1923-1942. Edited by Gabriele Vesely-Frankl and Foreword by Eugenio Fizzotti [Original work: Fruhe Schriften 1923-1942], translated by Roberto H. Bernet. Barcelona: Herder. Pages 216-218. First publsihed in English in the book “Carried by the Spirit: Our Hearts Sing” (2020), Ottawa Institute of Logotherapy.
Responding to the suggestion of two Jewish doctors of the hospital, and thanks to a good disposition of the Director, Dr. Mauczka, the secretary of the director, Dr. Scherz, and the administrative secretary, Mr. Waltenberger, it was possible to celebrate, for the first time in many, many years, a truly religious service organised for the Jewish patients of the Steinhof Hospital on the occasion of the feast of Yom Kippur. And, like every year, the patients who voluntarily fasted, were served a Kosher meal.
About 40 patients gathered in the afternoon of Yom Kippur in the classroom of Pavilion 2. Despite the improvised nature of the celebration, sacred solemnity was not lacking in the atmosphere that reigned in that small room. A cupboard covered with a red velvet which contained the scrolls of the Torah was placed in plain sight in the middle of the room. In front of it was a table with candle holders and on the side, or close to it, there was a lectern for the leader of the prayers.
Close by, the sun-bathed beautiful fall afternoon in the park. In the room the patients waited for the starting of the celebration.
Then, the Rabbi, Bela Fischer, appeared. While he was lighting the candles, two patients distributed the prayers. Everyone received a book because there were more prayers than the number of people gathered for the celebration. A patient who seemed to be having autistic schizophrenia remained quiet and with his gaze lost as he held on his lap the eight remaining books, closed.
The celebration…Rabbi Fisher was not only conscious of his religious responsibility but also of his teaching duty. He did not come only to preside the prayers. He sang the Kol Nidre with a gentle and fervent singing, according to its ancient melody and ritual. Some patients hummed the prayers in the traditional tone. Many, nevertheless, remained detached… The flow of the fervent prayer has not reached them yet. They had not yet joined in a disposition of pious surrender. Some patients with hallucinations spoke to themselves and their lost gaze spread without a precise objective in the room. Then, the Rabbi approached them, for—“to serve human beings is also to serve God”–and started to talk to them in German. With emphasis, he explained to them what has been sung in sacred language, capturing in this way the attention of his listeners. This is what he did for an hour and the following day for six more hours. Soon, he realised what a sick soul needs: to be snatched out of the delusional world, to conquer once again their attention…keep the patients occupied. A lot of sensitivity, adaptation, patience, and capacity for encounter were needed for this task. But Rabbi Fischer managed to do it.
Subsequently, when without the least sign of fatigue, now alone in the room he started to gather up the prayer books and removed his white vestments to wear a suit again, we spoke. “Now I remember,” he said, “that one time, perhaps twenty- five years ago I was already here presiding the prayers.” “Was he satisfied with the level of attention of the patients?” “In my vast experience as a Rabbi and minister, only one time I had been as moved as today. It was during the war in the Isonzo front [First World War battle *translator]. On that occasion I had to preside prayer as a military chaplain while the Austrian and Italian cannons were sounding…. That time and today is when I was most deeply touched.”
The following day during the medical rounds I approached one of the patients who participated in the celebration to inquire about his impression: “It was so dignifying and so beautiful. It was a truly charitable action, Doctor, that something for us was also done and that we were not forgotten for the Kol Nidre. –For us here, at the Steinhof….”