The Devil's Arithmetic

The Devil's Arithmetic is a historical novel written by Jane Yolen in 1988. This book tells the story of a Jewish girl, Hannah, as she experiences the horrors of living in a Nazi Concentration Camp. She also learns that it is very important to treasure jewish traditions. She did not treasure them earlier in the book but then at the end treasures them.

Plot summary

Hannah Stern is tired of remembering the horrors of the Holocaust and the story of Passover. She is living in modern day America, yet at her family's Passover Seder, she is transported to Poland by going through her apartment door during the height of the Nazi occupation in 1942, where she becomes Chaya Abramowicz (chay-yah).

Hannah was chosen to do the symbolic welcoming of Prophet this book is dumb my teacher made me read it and it was the iggest waste of time i have ever spent.Elijah and opened the apartment door. In an instant, when she opens the door, she was transferred back to Poland in 1942, as Chaya Abramowicz, a 13-year-old teenager living in a small village with her "Aunt" Gitl and "Uncle" Shmuel. Chaya lost her parents and was very sick but lived. Shmuel is about to be married to his fiancé Fayge. Before leaving for Fayge's village, Viosk, Hannah meets 3 other girls from her village, one with a breathing problem because of spring pollen, named Rachel. When Shmuel, Fayge, and the members of both the jir villages arrive at the synagogue in Fayge's village, they are halted by Nazis at the entrance and taken to a train station.

There they find the belongings of the family members of theirs that were already at the synagogue. They are then forced into stuffy cattle cars, and travel for four days to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. On arrival and exit of the boxcars, it is discovered that Rachel, an infants and an elderly woman died during the trip from malnutrition and the terrible conditions of the boxcars. They are then shaven bald to get rid of any lice, had numbers tattooed on their arms, and forced to choose from an assortment of ragged clothes to wear during their imprisonment.

At their first meal, Hannah meets Rivka, a ten year old girl who understands much about the camp and methods of survival. Only she and her brother Wolfe are alive out of a family of eight. Everyone was given jobs, and they had a choice to either do the jobs well, or become chosen for cremation (execution) by the commandant of the camp. Normally those chosen, were the young, elderly and those injured beyond repair. She followed Rivka, who lived everyday as it was, and she remained alive for a period of time.

Gitl, Hannah,and several others including Yitzchak, try to escape at one point. Gitl and Hannah hear gunshots and run back to their barracks. Shmuel and several others are caught by the soldiers. Just as Shmuel is about to be executed, along with the others, Fayge leaps forward. She loves him so much that she would rather die than live without him. This is where Hannah first sees Wolfe, a Musselman, someone who has just given up the fight to survive, he is also what they call a Kommando, which is a Jew who carries bodies to the crematoria. Wolfe is one of the Jews who must take the bodies to the ovens in the crematoria. He carries Fayge's body with tenderness.

A few days later Hannah's friends, Shifre, Esther, and Rivka were chosen to make up a full load of those chosen to be executed. Hannah didn't want Rivka to die in such a way, so she told her to run while she took the place of Rivka and died a hero. As she walked through the door into an oven to be executed by being cremated (burned), Hannah realized that she was staring at the door back in New York, at her grandparents' house. She afterwards talked with her Aunt Eva about her experience and realized that her Aunt Eva was Rivka, and her Grandpa Will was Wolfe, but they had changed their names and moved to America after being liberated by Allied forces.Hannah learns that Gitl lived but made it out weighing only 73 pounds and never marries Yitzach. Now Hannah will never forget because she understands, finally, the meaning of Passover. Afterwards Aunt Eva spends time with Hannah and talks about the horror the Nazis caused. They also talk about Aunt Eva's Number(her tatoo) J18202.

Characters in "The Devil's Arithmetic"

Present

• Hannah Stern – (the main protagonist) (she was given her Hebrew name (Chaya)(hi-yuh) after Aunt Eva's friend who died in the concentration camp. When she goes back in time, she becomes Chaya. So she was really given her Hebrew name after herself.) (she hates going to Passover dinners and listening to her relatives "remember the past")
• Aaron Stern – (Hannah's brother) (nickname: Ron-Ron)
• Aunt Eva – (Hannah's great-aunt. In the end, she turns out to be Rivka, Chaya's friend from the concentration camp)
• Will – (Hannah's grandfather. His name was Wolfe when he was a "Kommando" in the concentration camp. He is Aunt Eva's Brother.)
• Hannah's Mother and Father – (Hannah's parents who actually enjoy going to Passover)

1942, Poland

• Chaya Abramowicz – (the girl whom Hannah becomes)
• Gitl Abramowicz – (Chaya's aunt, Shmuel's sister)
• Shmuel Abramowicz – (Chaya's Uncle, Gitl's brother)
• Fayge – (Shmuel's fiancé and Rabbi Boruch's daughter)
• Rivka – (Hannah's friend from the concentration camp who later changed her name to Eva[Hannah's Aunt]when she came to United States)
  • Yitzchak – (The butcher who wishes to someday marry Gitl, even though Gitl thinks he's a monster)
• Tzipporah, Reuven – (Yitzchak's children who die, but for different reasons, Reuven is chosen to go to the smokestack and be killed and Tzipporah dies of unhealthiness, Reuven is known to have big blue eyes that remind Hannah of her brother Aaron)
• Shifre, Esther, Yente, Rachel – (Chaya's friends who all died, but not all for the same reason. Rachel dies in the boxcar due to allergies, Esther and Shifre die in the gas chambers, and Yente dies of unhealthiness)
• Leye – (a survivor)
• Rabbi Boruch – (The Rabbi, Fayge's father,he is unhealthy so they chose him to go to the smokestacks and be killed)
• The Badchan, a person hired for the wedding, who gets sent to the smokestacks on his own free will.

Awards and nominations

The Devil's Arithmetic received the National Jewish Book Award .`

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

It was made into a TV movie starring Kirsten Dunst and Brittany Murphy in 1999 .

See also

• List of Holocaust films