The Devil's Arithmetic Analysis

Dying to Remember The Holocaust was one of the most horrific events in history, lasting from 1933-1945 killing millions of innocent people. The mastermind behind this event was Adolf Hitler, he started gaining power in the early 1930s. He and had a plan for racial purification, with the idea of anti semitism and unfortunately this plan was executed. Jane Yolen’s novel The Devil’s Arithmetic more aptly delivers the message of remembrance than Donna Deitch’s film adaptation, through the use of boxcars, dehumanization, and rebellion.
During the Holocaust, boxcars were used to gather prisoners and transport them to the concentration camps. For example, the novel states, “The older people were pushed into the boxcars first, then the women and …show more content…
For example, Yolen states, “As the scissors snip-snapped through [Hannah’s] hair and the razor shaved the rest, she realized with a sudden awful panic that she could no longer recall anything from the past...she looked up and couldn't recognize anyone in the room. Without their hair, all the woman looked the same.” The shaven heads strip everyone from their identities and take away their individuality, people tend take the littlest things for granite and they really need to cherish what they have because anything can be taken away at any moment. This is wrong because even though Donna Deitch used this scene to show the illusion of dehumanization, it sugarcoats what actually happened to the people in the concentration camps. Showing that the Jews were not brutally dehumanized in the movie does not provide people with the opportunity to remember what the prisoners really endured. Furthermore, Yolen states, “ [The prisoner] nodded, then shook his head, the one following the other like a single movement. ‘You are Chaya no longer child. Now you are J197241. Remember it.’ ‘I can't remember anything,’ Hannah said, puzzled. ‘This you must remember, for if you forget it, life is gone indeed.’” In the text, Hannah is getting a tattoo in exchange for her name; prisoners are no longer called their real names but are referred to as numbers. The text later describes how …show more content…
The novel states, “‘Silence!’ Breuer said, his voice hardly raised at all, ‘if you are silent, I will let you watch.’ They were all silent. Not, Hannah thought, because they wanted to watch, but because they wanted to be witnesses. And because they had no other choice.” In the novel, four prisoners attempted to escape, but were caught. They were shot and no one could speak out as long as they wanted to live and remember. On the other side, the film shows the men handing over money to the guard, attempting to escape, and getting caught and hung; all the while, the Rabbi spoke in protest.This is wrong because it is unrealistic and does not show what would have actually happened. The Nazis were portrayed as less strict in the movie; they would not have allowed the Rabbi to speak out for as long as he did. Moreover, the novel states, “Without thinking through they why of it, Hannah snatched the kerchief off Rivaka’s head. ‘Run!’ she whispered. ‘Run to the midden, run to the barracks, run to the kitchen. The guard is new he won't know the difference. One jew is the same as another to him. Run for your life, Rivka. Run for your future. Run. Run. Run. And remember.” When Hannah switches places with Rivka to save her life, it shows that Hannah knew she might die, but knew that Rivka also had to remember. Hannah’s sacrifice is selfless, which shows she has learned her