50 pages • 1 hour read
Jane YolenThe Devil's Arithmetic
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1988A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 9-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 9 Summary
Rabbi Boruch, Shmuel, and another man have a contentious discussion with the head Nazi. The Nazis want the party to get in the trucks. They tell the party they’ll resettle them closer to big cities. Hannah tells them the Nazis plan to put them in concentration camps and burn them in ovens. Gitl hushes Hannah, and Fayge accuses her of trying to summon the Angel of Death—the husband of Lilith, a female demon. Gitl yells at Fayge for yelling at Hannah—a child with an overactive imagination. Rachel thinks Hannah got the ovens from the “Hansel and Gretel” fairytale.
Fayge asks about her aunts, and Shmuel says they’re already in the process of moving. Hannah can’t believe that the party is falling for the Nazis’ lies, but Shmuel doesn’t know what else to believe, and Rabbi Boruch says they have no choice. Jewish individuals have to live elsewhere until the war ends. They can’t go home and get their things, but the Nazi colonel says they won’t need anything. Their new homes have everything, and they’ll have the chance to work.
The badchan utters a few odious sayings, and Gitl hushes Hannah before she tries to warn the party again. Hannah remembers the concentration camp images from Will’s TV. She tries not to cry. Rabbi Boruch tries to calm everyone and prays.
The trucks are crowded, dusty, and hot. To keep the kids from crying, Gitl and the other adults sing. Hannah remembers discussions about the Holocaust in school. An odd, terrible taste grows in her mouth—worse than the bitter herbs at Seder.
Chapter 10 Summary
The Nazi soldiers point their guns at Jewish individuals and hurry them from the trucks to boxcars. Fayge’s wedding dress rips, and she notices her grandma’s bag in a pile of items by the tracks. Hannah tries to speak again, but Gitl hushes her. Another high-ranking Nazi tells the prisoners they’ll be fine if they cooperate. He orders them to lie on the ground so that the Nazis can take their identification papers and jewelry. Someone, perhaps Shmuel, claims the Nazis are taking the things for themselves. The accusation upsets the high-ranking Nazi. He shoots his gun near the feet of a man.
The Jewish prisoners lie down, and Hannah closes her eyes and hears crying. She sees men bleeding and notices a bruise on Shmuel. Hannah has a red mark on her neck from where the Nazis tore off her necklace.
The boxcars are as unpleasant as the trucks. It’s worse than the packed New York City subways. It’s dark, hot, and smelly. The rabbi prays. Their fate is up to God. Another man talks about mass killings in Russia. The man says that Jewish individuals have to serve as witnesses to the horrible crimes. Fayge dismisses the man’s information as gossip. There are more stories: Nazis took away a Jewish doctor in the middle of an operation and killed him; they locked Jewish individuals in a synagogue and burned the building.
Gitl tries to lighten the mood with jokes. Laughter makes things less frightening. Hannah isn’t in a laughing mood. She thinks they should run away to America or Israel. Gitl says Israel exists only in her prayers. Fayge doesn’t want to hear more brutal stories. Someone then realizes a child in the boxcar is dead.
Chapter 11 Summary
The Jewish prisoners are in the boxcar train for four days and nights. It smells like human waste and sweat. Children and older people die, and the Nazis give the prisoners dirty trough water. Gitl calls the Nazis monsters.
When the trains stop, the Nazis rush the prisoners to a gate with a sign that reads ARBEIT MACHT FREI or “work makes you free” (86). Fayge’s white wedding dress has stains. She falls, and Shmuel runs and holds her. The Nazis shout at them and the rest of the Jewish prisoners. They separate the men from the women and Yitzchak from his kids.
In the barracks, a non-Jewish prisoner in a blue dress calls the Jewish prisoners newcomers or zugangi. She’s the blokova—a prisoner in charge of other prisoners. Hannah questions her authority, and the woman takes her blue ribbon and slaps her. The blokova tells the Jewish prisoners to undress for a shower. She says they should think of it as a mikvah (in Judaism, a ritual bath). Hannah says they’re not showers, but Esther and Gitl shush her. The Jewish individuals sing, and Hannah wonders about Rachel. She realizes she probably died on the train.
A male Nazi soldier barges in on the naked women and forces them into the shower. Hannah tells herself to be brave and not deprive the other Jews of hope. The showers are showers and not gas chambers, but the water is icy cold. A barber cuts off their hair. Hannah tries to remember what will happen next, but she can’t. She calls out for Gitl, and Gitl comforts her.
Chapter 12 Summary
After the barber cuts off Hannah’s hair, she has to wait while the barber cuts off the hair of the other women. She’s cold and losing her grip on reality. She tries not to think about what she looks like now. The blokova returns and takes them to get clothes. Hannah notices the blokova only has three fingers on her right hand.
There are tables with piles of raggedy clothes. A woman calls them shmattes, and Hannah remembers how she called Gitl’s dress a rag. She then helps Tzipporah, Yitzchak’s daughter, dress.
Next, a man asks Hannah for her name. She tells him her name is Chaya Abramowicz. The man has sad eyes and murmurs about the Angel of Death. He says she is wearing his daughter’s dress. He informs her that her name means life. He then tattoos the number J197241 on her arm.
In the barracks, Hannah helps Tzipporah into one of the shelves that serve as a bed. She speaks to Gitl, who’s laughing. Laughter equals hope, and hope equals life. Gitl tries to look for food, but a soldier stops her. He says the prisoners have to get used to hunger. If they don’t, they’ll turn into smoke. Gitl doesn’t get it, and Hannah reminds her about the ovens.
Before bed, Gitl reminds Hannah that she’s Chaya—life—and not the number tattooed on her arm. Hannah dreams about herbs, wine, and roast beef.
Chapters 9-12 Analysis
Shmuel tells the other Jewish prisoners: “They say all Jews are being resettled. It is government policy” (66). But his gestures suggest a different truth. The image of Shmuel’s “fists clenching and unclenching behind his back” suggests the conflict between the Jewish prisoners and the Nazis (66). Chaya’s family might not believe Hannah, but, as Shmuel’s angry gestures suggests, it’s not as if Jewish individuals and Nazis are allies.
The Nazis create a story. In their narrative, they treat Jewish individuals humanely if they follow their rules. Hannah’s story conflicts with the one the Nazis tell. She says: “They’ll take you from here and put you in a concentration camp. Then they’ll put you in gas ovens and kill you” (67).
The members of the wedding party think that Hannah’s story symbolizes deception. Rachel connects Hannah’s story to “Hansel and Gretel.” It’s as if Hannah is telling a horrible fairytale. Shmuel asks: “What else can we believe?” (69). His question hints that Jewish individuals believe the Nazis, not because they’re fools or dupes, but to give themselves hope. The Nazi narrative at least ostensibly points to survival.
Past connects to present when Hannah remembers discussions about the Holocaust in school and the Holocaust TV show Grandpa Will watched. Her knowledge doesn’t give the other prisoners much hope, so Gitl continues to hush her. Hannah confronts her privilege and realizes there are worse things in life than having to eat herbs at a Seder: “A strange, awful taste rose in her mouth, more bitter even than the Seder’s bitter herbs” (72).
A Nazi tells the Jewish prisoners: “Do what you are told and no one will be hurt. All I ask is your cooperation” (74). His story continues to deceive. Shmuel’s quip that the Nazis are stealing things further hints that the prisoners don’t entirely buy the Nazis’ benevolence. The ensuing violence provides more evidence that they don’t care about the Jewish prisoners. Yolen illustrates the violence with imagery. She describes the bleeding men, the bruise on Shmuel, and the red mark around Hannah’s neck.
Yolen also uses imagery and sensory detail to communicate the vile atmosphere of the boxcar. The narrative relays: “The stench in the crowded boxcar was overwhelming, a powerful stew of human perspiration and fear and the smell of children being sick” (78). On the train, men tell stories that corroborate Hannah’s memories, but many of the Jewish prisoners refuse to believe them. Fayge dismisses them as “only gossip. Vicious, cruel gossip” (79). The stories don’t embody hope, so Fayge and the others think of them as distorted lies.
Yolen shows how the characters use dark humor as a coping mechanism. Gitl relays an anecdote: A man says a man told him the Nazis locked Jewish individuals in a synagogue in Poland and set fire to it. The man says the smell reminded the man of “cooking pigs” (80). As some Jewish individuals don’t eat pork, Gitl quips: “And how does he—a good Jew—know what pigs smell like cooking?” For Gitl, laughter represents the triumph of life and hope over fear.
Whether Gitl and the other Jewish prisoners believe the brutal stories, they have to confront death on the train. Older people and children die in front of them. There’s no distance—it’s a part of the immediate environment and experience. Gitl screams: “Monsters!” (84). She’s not under the illusion that the Nazis are good. At the same time, the word “monsters” keeps the experience in the realm of fairytales and therefore separate from reality. The Nazis represent supernatural, otherworldly evil—the kind one can find in movies and stories.
The phrase, “work makes you free” (86), appears outside Auschwitz, the largest and deadliest concentration camp, and continues the Nazis’ false narrative. Work might keep the prisoners alive for the moment, but it won’t liberate them from the brutal concentration camp. Yolen illustrates the mindless inhumanity of the camp through imagery and dialogue. She shows the blokova slapping Hannah and telling her: “You never say no here” (88). Thoughtless compliance and degradation dominate the camp. The indignity continues when the male soldier bursts in on the naked female prisoners and orders them into the shower. Hannah’s memories trip her up—not all showers are gas chambers in disguise.
By shaving their hair and giving them threadbare clothes, the Nazis try to strip the identity and humanity of Hannah and the women. The narrative relays: “[Hannah] looked up and couldn’t recognize anyone in the room. Without their hair, all the women looked the same” (93). The numerical tattoo is another way for the Nazis to dehumanize Jewish individuals.
Gitl helps Hannah salvage who she is when telling her: “You are a name, not a number. Never forget that name, whatever they tell you here. You will always be Chaya—life—to me. You are my brother’s child. You are my blood” (101). Here, The Preservation of Identity has become crucial. While the prisoners can’t control what happens to them physically, they must try to hold on to who they are.
Hannah has not lost her sense of community or family. She helps Tzipporah settle into a shelf. She then dreams of “roast beef, sweet wine, and bitter herbs” (101). The tragic irony continues. The things Hannah didn’t appreciate at the Seder, she wishes she had now.
Related Titles
By Jane Yolen
