Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Devil’s Arithmetic, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Memory
Sacrifice
Jewish Culture and Identity
Hope
Summary
Analysis
In a Nazi truck, Shmuel calls out over the singing, pointing out a nearby train station. The truck stops, and soldiers with guns order everyone in the trucks to get out. Then the soldiers order everyone to get on the ground so that they can take everyone’s valuables and identification papers, supposedly for safekeeping.
By taking people’s personal belongings and identification papers, the Nazis are already trying to strip the Jewish prisoners of their individuality. Despite the warning signs, some of the Jewish people around Hannah seem to still believe the Nazis, perhaps because the alternative is too horrifying to consider.
Themes
Hours later, Hannah and the others are allowed to stand up, and the soldiers start ordering them to go into train cars. Everyone is packed in together tight. Somewhere, a child cries that she can’t use the bathroom, and later Hannah smells it. Gitl says they must pray because they’re in God’s hands now.
The fact that the prisoners couldn’t even use the bathroom shows how little the Nazis recognize their humanity. The unpleasant details, like the cramped cars and the smell of urine, help Hannah to understand the past on a more visceral level than what she would read in a history book.
Themes
As the train moves along, everyone inside tries to guess where they’re heading. They trade horror stories they’ve heard about mass killings in other villages. Hannah gets overwhelmed by all the awful things happening in the stories and begins to cry.
The lack of information among the Jewish prisoners spreads paranoia—much of it justified. This passage begins to show how Nazis used fear as a tool to control people.
Themes
