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
Early the next day, the commandant comes down for an inspection. Rivka begins making a clicking sound like a cricket in order to warn the young children that it’s time to go to the garbage dump. Everyone moves quickly, stripping down naked and jumping into the dump. Hannah doesn’t strip, and she notices a baby in a washtub and instinctively picks it up and takes it with her to the dump.
Hannah potentially risks her own life by taking time to help the baby of a complete stranger. This once again shows how she has changed from the more selfish girl she was at the beginning of the story. This passage is perhaps one of the most explicit examples in the story of the dangers of not remembering (since someone seems to have forgotten to hide their baby).
Themes
The dump smells terrible. When Hannah emerges and returns the baby to its mother, the mother barely thanks Hannah because she’s too busy cursing the man who was responsible for watching over the baby. That night, Hannah has to wash her smelly clothes, and she realizes why the children stripped nude before going in the dump.
Hannah learns that being selfless doesn’t always lead to immediate rewards. First, she has to put up with the ungrateful mother, then she has to deal with her smelly clothes. This chapter sets up a test to see whether Hannah will continue to act selflessly or whether she’ll be discouraged by her efforts.
Themes
Days pass, and Hannah gets into a routine. She begins helping Rivka in the kitchen and is occasionally rewarded with scraps of food. Hannah learns that Rivka offered a gold ring to the blokova in order to prevent Hannah from being assigned to haul wood with the men.
When Hannah learns of Rivka’s generosity, she feels a greater obligation to be selfless herself. This passage shows how selflessness can bind a community together, with one act of selflessness providing a starting point that inspires others and creates expectations.
Themes
Hannah tries to pass on Rivka’s kindness by giving some of her bread to Reuven. But Gitl says Hannah must make sure she gets enough nutrition herself. Hannah notices, however, that Gitl herself has given up almost all of her food to Reuven.
Hannah is so interested in making sacrifices that she perhaps overdoes it. While Hannah has been forced to grow up quickly, Gitl acknowledges how Hannah is still a child in some ways—and how she still potentially has a lot of life left to live.
Themes
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The commandant comes to the camp again, and the rumor is that there will be a “Choosing” (of people to die). Rivka explains to Hannah that those who can’t work anymore are most likely to be “chosen.” Rivka says it’s important not to acknowledge death around the Nazis and to always use euphemisms like saying that people are “chosen” to go to “processing.”
Some Jewish people refer to themselves as “the chosen people” to signify how the Jews as a people have been chosen by God, but here the word “chosen” takes on a dark new meaning, representing death. Rivka’s lesson about not mentioning death in the presence of Nazis demonstrates how the Nazis used euphemisms to justify their actions and conceal the truth.
Themes
Hannah thinks the commandant reminds her of someone, and then she remembers a photo of Dr. Mengele she saw in history class. When she tries to remember who Dr. Mengele was, Shifre and Rivka think Hannah is feverish again.
Dr. Mengele was a Nazi doctor who tortured prisoners with inhumane experiments. The characters in this story are all fictional, but the Dr. Mengele lookalike shows how this fictional story nevertheless incorporates elements of real history that Hannah remembers learning in school.
Themes
Later, Gitl manages to steal a blue scarf, which she gives to Hannah as a birthday present, to replace the blue ribbons Hannah lost earlier. Hannah is confused at first, because she thinks her birthday is a different time of year, but eventually, she’s very grateful for the gift.
Blue is an important color in Judaism, with one of the most famous examples today being the flag of Israel. By this point in the story, Hannah has so fully taken on the role of Chaya that she seemingly loses track of her own birthday.
Themes
Hannah asks if Gitl has heard about the men of the shtetl, like Shmuel and Yitzchak (who are in a different part of the camp for men), and Gitl confirms that they are alive and on a wood-cutting crew. But when someone else asks about the rabbi, Gitl is quiet for a while before finally admitting that he was chosen the previous day, along with the badchan, and a couple dozen others. Gitl begins to say a mourning prayer called the Kaddish.
This passage, in which Gitl says a mourning prayer, provides another example of how religion helped Jewish people cope with tragedy. Although Hannah probably knew about this from history books, the fact that she has personally met Gitl, the rabbi, and the badchan helps Hannah gain a better understanding of what Gitl is feeling as she prays.
Themes
