The Devil's Arithmetic Essay Topics

The Devil’s Arithmetic is a book and a movie that truly exposes what it was like for the Jewish people in Nazi Germany during the time of Hitler’s reign. The movie starts off with Hannah Stern, a teenage girl in the 1990s who is very rebellious. She is at a tattoo shop and her mother calls her because she is late for Passover Seder with her family. Hannah has no interest in her Jewish culture and does not want to go, but she is forced to. Somehow during the dinner she is transported to the 1940s to Germany during the time of Hitler and she and her cousin Rivka are captured by the Nazis and forced to work in concentration camps. She learns of the hardships her ancestors had to go through during their time in the camps and gains a respect for her family. Hannah saves her cousin by pretending she was Rivka when she coughed and she is brought to the gas chamber. In the end Hannah is brought back to present day and reunited with family, which she will never take for granted again.

When the Nazi’s came to the Jewish village where Hannah, Rivka and their families and friends were staying they were forced to leave their home and all of their belongings behind. Once they got to the camp they were forced to strip off their clothing and give away any personnel belongings that they may have had with them. Including Leah, the bride, she had to take off her wedding dress and put it in the possession of the Nazis. Loss was also exemplified when the Nazi’s took Rivka’s mother away after she stood up for the women who had recently had the baby. Rivka was very distraught, especially because her mother was taken away, one of the only women she had to confide in. Rivka lost Hannah when she sacrificed herself to save Rivka and she was never the