The Devil’s Arithmetic Character Analysis

Hannah/Chaya

The novel’s protagonist, Hannah is a 12-year-old Jewish girl from New Rochelle, New York. During her family’s Passover Seder, she suddenly gets transported back in time to Poland, 1942. There, all the people in the… read analysis of Hannah/Chaya

Rivka/Aunt Eva

Rivka is Hannah’s closest friend in the concentration camp (where Hannah is Chaya), and Rivka eventually grows up to become Hannah’s Aunt Eva. Despite being younger than Hannah, Rivka has learned a lot about… read analysis of Rivka/Aunt Eva

Gitl

Gitl is a stern but kind woman who is Shmuel’s sister and who acts as Hannah’s mother figure when she gets sent back in time to 1942 and takes on the identity of… read analysis of Gitl

Shmuel

Shmuel is Gitl’s kind brother who looks out for Hannah in the past as if she were his own daughter. Shmuel is about to marry Fayge, but this joyful ceremony is interrupted when… read analysis of Shmuel

Yitzchak

Yitzchak is a butcher with two young children, Reuven and Tzipporah, who wants to marry Gitl after his first wife dies. Gitl always refuses him, but the two maintain a lifelong friendship. When Yitzchak’s… read analysis of Yitzchak

Fayge

Fayge is the woman who marries Shmuel near the beginning of the novel. She has calloused hands, indicating how she is accustomed to hard work. When Shmuel and some others begin plotting an escape attempt… read analysis of Fayge

Grandpa Will

Out of all her older relatives, Hannah finds Grandpa Will the strangest, because he occasionally has fits where he seems to think he’s back in the past. From an early age, Hannah is both fascinated… read analysis of Grandpa Will

Mother

Hannah’s mother brings Hannah to the Passover Seder where Hannah gets sent back in time to the Holocaust. Although Hannah’s mother wants Hannah to participate in Jewish culture, unlike Hannah’s older relatives like Aunt… read analysis of Mother

The Blokova

A blokova is a prisoner in a concentration camp who acts as an overseer to the other prisoners. Like many blokovas, the one Hannah encounters is not Jewish and looks down on the Jewish prisoners… read analysis of The Blokova

The Commandant

A commandant is the person in charge of a concentration camp. The commandant at Hannah’s concentration camp is a fearsome figure whose appearance always means that prisoners are about to die. It becomes Hannah’s… read analysis of The Commandant

The Badchan

A badchan is a professional or semi-professional wedding entertainer, similar to a jester. The badchan at Shmuel and Fayge’s wedding immediately senses that the Nazis are trouble, saying that he feels the presence of… read analysis of The Badchan

Minor Characters

Father

Hannah’s father brings Hannah to the Passover Seder where Hannah gets sent back in time to the Holocaust. He was raised in part by Hannah’s great aunt, her Aunt Eva.

Shifre

Shifre is Hannah’s friend, whom she meets after she travels back in time to 1942 Poland. At the concentration camp, Shifre tries to learn Rivka’s rules for survival, but she ends up chosen for death anyway, highlighting the cruel and arbitrary nature of life in the camps.

Esther

Esther is a friend Hannah meets in Poland in 1942. At the concentration camp, Esther refuses to learn the rules, which leads Hannah to learn the difficult lesson that sometimes survival means letting other people go.

Rachel

Rachel is a girl around Hannah’s age who lives in Gitl and Shmuel’s shtetl. She wants to be Hannah’s good friend, but she has a medical condition that affects her breathing, and she dies during the crowded train ride to the concentration camp.

The Rabbi

The rabbi in Gitl and Shmuel’s shtetl is a gullible man who takes all of the Nazi promises at face value. His fate demonstrates the dangers of just following orders, as he’s one of the first people from Hannah’s shtetl who is killed.

Aaron

Aaron is Hannah’s younger brother in the present day. Unlike Hannah, he is not old enough to drink wine at the Seder, but Aaron still participates in the ritual. He’s responsible for reading the Four Questions—a ritual that the youngest child who can read performs at every Seder.

Reuven

Reuven is one of Yitzchak’s young children. He dies in the concentration camp when he can’t run away from the commandant fast enough. His death inspires Yitzchak, Shmuel, and others to make an escape attempt.

Tzipporah

Tzipporah is one of Yitzchak’s young children. She dies, seemingly of starvation, in the concentration camp.

Wolfe

Wolfe is Rivka’s brother who seems to be on the brink of death but somehow survives his time in a concentration camp, making him Rivka’s only other family member to do so.

Grandpa Dan

Grandpa Dan is the grandfather that Hannah initially prefers over Grandpa Will, because unlike Grandpa Will, Grandpa Dan didn’t experience the Holocaust firsthand and so was not traumatized in the same way.