Why use Akkusativ for "Katastrophenopfern"?
I see a sentence from a book as below:

- Es kommt jetzt darauf an, den Katastrophenopfern schnell geholfen wird.

I don't understand why they use Akkusativ for "Katastrophenopfern" because I think it should be Nominativ? Any help would be appreciated.

Question

Why use Akkusativ for "Katastrophenopfern"?
I see a sentence from a book as below:

- Es kommt jetzt darauf an, den Katastrophenopfern schnell geholfen wird.

I don't understand why they use Akkusativ for "Katastrophenopfern" because I think it should be Nominativ? Any help would be appreciated.

Answer

WEM wird geholfen? Den Opfern...den Katastrophenopfern...it is Dativ Plural. Some cases have the same endings, hier we have neuter, das Opfer (Singular) and die Opfer (Plural). Dativ Plural is "den Opfern".

To try out which case is you can ask the following questions:
WER or WAS ist das? = Nominativ
WESSEN? = Genitiv.
WEM? z. B. Wem gebe ich etwas? = Dativ
WEN? Wen sehe ich? = Akkusativ.

Answer

It is Dativ Plural, because the verb helfen requires Dativ. In the passiv sentence the Dativ is not changed, but remains just Dativ. Only the Akkusativ of the aktive sentence  is changed to Nominativ.
This is also the case for the prepositions, e.g. 'bei der Versorgung der Kranken' can't be changed in the Passiv sentence.

Answer

I think they use Dativ not Akkusativ.

Nevermind, I understand why they use Dativ, at first I think it is Akkusativ.