The Devil's Arithmetic

When trying to decide what to write an entry on, I recalled a book I read years ago when I was in elementary school called The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen. Because some time has passed since I read it, I decided to watch the 1999 made-for-television film adaptation to refresh my memory on it's contents. Though I believe the book and film alike are are probably geared for a younger audience, I do feel as though the movie lends interesting insight into the occurences of the Holocaust and that it depicts an interesting take on the notion of memory.

The story focuses on a sixteen year old Jewish American girl named Hannah. She cares very little about her heritage and does not like participating in religious traditions with her family and often brushes off her relatives when they try to tell her stories about their time spent in the concentration camps during the war. Everything changes for her during one Seder celebration, however. When opening the door for Elijah, Hannah is transported to another time and place: Poland, 1941.
She assumes the identity of Chaya Abramowicz, and finds herself in the home of her aunt Gitl and cousin Rivka after having suffered from a fever that claimed the life of her parents. She is quite confused about what is going on, and believes she must be dreaming. Things become real, however, when the Nazis come to town. They pack the villagers into trucks, telling them they are being relocated to the East. Only then does Hannah realize what is going on - they are on their way to the concentration camps.

Hannah and the others work in the camps. All the while, Hannah is remembering little bits and pieces of the stories her relatives had told her. She soon realized what is going on - she is with her family in the past. Rivka is her Aunt Ava, who assumed a new name when she went to the United States after the war. She herself is Ava's cousin, who's story Hannah had never wished to hear.
In the end, Hannah saves Rivka's life by sacrificing herself to the gas chambers. After being gased to death, she wakes up in her own, surrounded by her family who claim she'd passed out from too much wine. She has a new found sense of identity and a whole new connection with her Aunt and with her heritage.


While I do not think that the film itself is wholly accurate in it's portrayal of either the Nazis or the Jews, I do think that it has an important message behind it. The film deals with the concepts of memory and experience. When Hannah does not care to hear about the stories of her relatives, her aunt attributes it to the fact that she would not understand. Without actually experiences the horrors of the camp, Hannah could not appreciate what had happened to her family members. The film says that without lived experience, one can not truly understand an event. This is why Hannah becomes someone from the past. Only then, when she is Chaya, does she realize and appreciate what her identity as a Jew really means.

I think that the film also deals with the separation between generations. Hannah's elderly relatives had an incredibly deep devotion to their faith. They pull their faith from their experiences. The next generation, Hannah's parents, are a a step behind in that they realize and appreciate what their parents, aunts, and uncles went though, but they did not experience it themselves. Hannah, her brother, and her cousins, are yet another step behind. Hannah has no tie to the Holocaust in that she never lived at a time or in a place where it was of great impact on her. Yes, her relatives had suffered, but she herself had not. One can not know suffering without experiencing it. No one who was not a Holocaust victim will ever truly know what it was like to be a Holocaust victim because they aren't Holocaust victims.

In addition to this, the film alludes to the importance of not forgetting the past. Hannah's relatives are upset that Hannah does not care about her past. By not caring, one is making room to forget. Once Hannah is educated on the subject matter, she is deeply inspired and affected by it. I think Hannah could stand as a symbol of her entire generation. Perhaps it is not that the entire generation does not care about the Holocaust, but their degree of separation causes them to not relate to it as much as older generations. That being said, the film tries to fill in the gap by forcing Hannah to experience it for herself.