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
After the evening meal of bread and watery soup, Rivka finds Hannah. Hannah is afraid, but Rivka tells her the Nazis only run the gas chambers during the daytime. Rivka tells Hannah that every member of her family was burned in the chimney for various reasons—the Nazis’ “brutal arithmetic”—except for a brother named Wolfe who is nearly dead. Rivka says that while the Angel of Death hovers over the camp, there are ways to fool him. Prisoners call the doors near the chimney the entrance to Lilith’s Cave, since people who enter them never come out.
Lilith is a demon from Jewish folklore. She is a mysterious and often evil figure that has been the subject of many legends, and so the nickname “Lilith’s Cave” suggests a place that is sinister and mysterious. Rivka’s description of the Nazis’ work as “brutal arithmetic” might be partly ironic, since while the Nazis are powerful, they also enforce rules on the camp in a way that can seem arbitrary and the opposite of an orderly system like arithmetic.
Themes
Hannah says she thinks the camp is the Devil’s place, but Rivka says God made the Devil, so God is in the camp too. Rivka begins telling Hannah, Shifre, and Esther that the way to survive in camp is to learn the rules and follow them, always smiling and always using identification numbers instead of names. Rivka’s is J18202, which she remembers with a memory trick. Esther doesn’t want to hear any more and walks off. Hannah wants to go get her, but Rivka says that another rule of survival is letting people go.
Rivka’s comments about God and the Devil suggest a belief that hope can survive even in the darkest moments. And so, Rivka gives Hanna a firsthand lesson in why religious belief has been so important to so many Jewish people, particularly during times of suffering. Rivka’s willingness to let Esther walk away, potentially endangering her own life, shows how the camp has forced Rivka to become strongly pragmatic.
Themes
Rivka tells Hannah and Shifre that the most important rule is to hide in the midden—the garbage dump—whenever the commandant comes to inspect the camp, since children under 14 aren’t supposed to be in the camp. Rivka believes that she, Hannah, and Shifre can pass for old enough, but they have to help the smaller children hide in the dump. Shifre complains about garbage, but Rivka says it’s better than being sent to “the line”—the one for people who will be killed and go up the chimneys of the gas ovens.
This passage shows yet again how the “arithmetic” of the Nazi camps is a messy system, where children can only live so long as they are never actually seen. By learning how to care for the young children, Hannah once again continues her journey toward becoming more mature as well as learning how to become more selfless.
Themes
Rivka tells Hannah more about camp, like how Nazis take the good Jewish shoes and ship them off to Germany, which is why the prisoners have such bad shoes. Hannah works out a memory trick to recall her identification number. Hannah tries to find Esther before they’re rounded up into the barracks for the night, but she’s unsuccessful.
The situation with the shoes shows how as much as Nazis tried to maintain an air of superiority, they continued to rely on Jewish people, even after taking them as prisoners. Esther’s disappearance seems to be a bad sign, recalling Rachel’s sudden disappearance, but Hannah doesn’t know for sure. This further highlights how uncertainty in the camps could breed fear.
Themes
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