The Devil's Arithmetic (novel)

The Devil's Arithmetic, a 1988 historical fiction novel by American author Jane Yolen, uses a time slip to send its protagonist, Hannah Stern, from a contemporary Passover Seder to 1942 Poland. There, the Jewish preteen endures the Holocaust in a concentration camp, ultimately grasping why the past must be remembered.

Yolen, who is Jewish, had long considered writing about the Holocaust but felt daunted. She was encouraged to proceed by her editor, the wife of a rabbi. This novel marks Yolen's first work to directly address Jewish themes. While writing it, she spent a week at a private school in Indianapolis; when she described the upcoming book to students, one asked if she had invented the events, based on the real Holocaust story.

The story begins with Hannah, bored by her relatives' stories and weary of her religion, dreading the Passover Seder. When she opens the door for the prophet Elijah, she is transported to a shtetl on the Polish-German border in 1942. Unaware of the time period, she is mistaken for Chaya Abramowicz, a girl recovering from cholera, which also killed her parents. Hannah's strange remarks about the future are attributed to the fever. At her uncle Shmuel's wedding, Nazis arrive and deport the entire village to a death camp near Donavin. Only Hannah knows the coming horrors: starvation, forced labor, and execution. The women are stripped, shaved, and tattooed. Hannah, with help from a girl named Rivka, digs trenches. Shmuel and others attempt escape; they are caught and shot. Fayge, Shmuel's intended bride, is killed when she runs to him. Yitzchak escapes to the forest to fight with partisans. Later, while working, Hannah, Rivka, Esther, and Shifre are overheard talking. A guard takes the other three, but Hannah swaps places with Rivka by putting on her babushka, and the girls are led to the gas chamber. Hannah then returns to her family's Seder. She sees that Aunt Eva's tattoo number matches Rivka's. Hannah realizes she, as Chaya, was the girl she was named after; Rivka was Aunt Eva, and Rivka's brother Wolfe was Grandpa Will. The epilogue reveals that after liberation, survivors included Gitl (weighing 73 pounds), Yitzchak, Rivka, and Leye with her baby. Gitl and Yitzchak reunite, immigrate to Israel, where Yitzchak becomes a politician and Gitl organizes a rescue mission for young survivors, named after Chaya.