The Devil's Arithmetic

Gitl is Hannah/Chaya’s aunt in Poland. She is independent, tough, funny, and empathetic. She rejects conventional gender norms. She won’t marry Yitzchak and look after his kids. After she makes fun of Hannah for insulting her dress, she apologizes: “There, there, child, forgive me. I am crazy with all this wedding business, and my tongue is sometimes quicker than my heart” (46). Gitl loves Hannah and tries to look out for her. She reminds Hannah of the importance of preserving personal identity, even in the face of physical confinement. In the camps, Gitl tells her: “You are a name, not a number. Never forget that name, whatever they tell you here” (101). Sometimes, her love manifests harshly. After Hannah touches the deceased Tzipporah, Gitl smacks her. Arguably, the hitting is for Hannah’s benefit. If Hannah focuses too much on death, she might lose the will to live.

Gitl continually tries to instill hope in Hannah and the other Jewish prisoners. She sings and makes jokes, highlighting how humor is a means of preserving one’s humanity. In the cattle cars, she tells Hannah: “If we do not laugh, we will cry. Crying will only make us hotter and sweatier. We Jews like to joke about death because what you laugh at and make familiar can no longer frighten you”(81). She doesn’t want the Jewish prisoners to allow the Nazis to intimidate them or extinguish their spirit. Gitl survives the camps and dedicates her life to helping young Holocaust survivors. She honors Hannah/Chaya by naming her organization after her. Gitl is a static character who doesn’t change and remains steady throughout the story: She represents willpower and community.

Aunt Eva is Hannah’s favorite aunt, and Hannah’s fondness for her indicates that she doesn’t feel entirely alienated from her family. At the Seder, the narrative relays:

Watching Aunt Eva saying the prayers over the candles was the one moment in all the family gatherings that Hannah had always found special. It was as if she and her aunt shared a particular bond at those times (19).

The attachment that Hannah feels toward Eva foreshadows what happens between Hannah and Rivka in the concentration camp, and the connection that they share. Like Gitl, Rivka is tough. She has been in the camp for over a year. During that time, her parents and all but one of her siblings died. Yet Rivka doesn’t want sympathy. She says: “We all have such stories. It is a brutal arithmetic” (109). Through Rivka, Yolen explores the meaning of the novel’s title. Rivka has to make horrible calculations to stay alive. She teaches Hannah how to make these terrible assessments.

Rivka is a mentor. She shows Hannah how to give meaning to the dehumanizing numerical tattoo. She instructs her on the words and prisoners to avoid, and she gets Hannah a job in the kitchen to save her from the potentially lethal job of hauling wood outside. To keep Hannah indoors, Rivka had to give the blokova a gold ring. When Hannah tries to thank Rivka, she replies that thanks are not necessary, and that Hannah should pay the kindness forward. Rivka is a model of selflessness and sacrifice. Hannah follows her lead and, as Chaya, she sacrifices her life to save Rivka, who, as it turns out, is her favorite aunt Eva—the one with whom she shares a special relationship.

The Nazis are the central antagonists in the story. They are the enemies. The violent policies they perpetuate disrupt the lives of Hannah and Jewish individuals and kill most of them. The Nazis ruin Shmuel and Fayge’s wedding. They put the wedding party in the trucks, the cattle cars, and the concentration camp. Rivka tells Hannah: “We are the victims. They are the monsters” (135). The Nazis are portrayed as inhuman characters. Their evil transcends human wickedness, and they become like otherworldly or supernatural villains—monsters. Yolen reinforces the Nazis’ amorphous inhumanity by not giving them individual names. Hannah tries to warn the Jewish prisoners that the Nazis are deadly antagonists, but they don’t believe her. For a moment, Hannah becomes the antagonist. Hannah sees the Nazis as a “dark stain,” and they dress “in a black uniform with high black boots” (64). The emphasis on black and darkness represents their deathly impact.

Yolen does give one of the Nazis a name, Commandant Breuer—perhaps an allusion to the last commandant of Auschwitz, Richard Baer. Breuer symbolizes the stealthy and lethal genocide of the Nazis. He pretends to be on the side of the Jewish prisoners. He wraps his handkerchief around Reuven’s hurt knee and tells him: “A boy your age should be with his mother” (134). The quote exemplifies the tragic doublespeak of the Nazis. Breuer reunites Reuven with his dead mother—he kills him. Neither Breuer nor the other Nazis think of the Jewish prisoners as people. Breuer calls them his “dirty little pets” (145), and the other Nazis let the kids hide in the trash—they think the Jewish children are garbage.

The blokova is also an antagonist. She’s not a Nazi: She’s a prisoner, but a non-Jewish prisoner, and has authority over the Jewish prisoners in the concentration camp hierarchy. Through the blokova, Yolen shows how the Nazis delegated power and enlisted prisoners to help them run the camps. The blokova antagonizes Hannah and the other women. She slaps Hannah and takes her blue ribbon. Yet the Nazis antagonize her. When she fails to perform her duties—that is, to control the prisoners—they cut off her fingers. In the helter-skelter camp, antagonists can violently antagonize the other antagonists.

Like Gitl, Shmuel is strong, funny, and personable. He jokes with Hannah and confides in her about his fears of getting married. He’s also defiant. He talks back to the Nazis, plans an escape, and up until his death, doesn’t let the Nazis extinguish his pride. Shmuel’s wife, Fayge, almost plays the role of the damsel in distress. She doesn’t appear as strong as Gitl or Rivka. Yolen illustrates her frailty with her torn, stained wedding dress. She falls on the way to the camp, and Shmuel runs to help her. Shmuel and Fayge die together, illustrating how they are two characters who can’t live without one another. Fayge’s dad, Rabbi Boruch, reflects the Jewish people’s unwavering belief in God and God’s plan. He tells Hannah: “No, my child, do not tremble before mere men. It is God before whom we must tremble. Only God” (65).

The girls from the village—Shifre, Esther, Yente, and Rachel—highlight the difference between modern life and life in the 1940s. They also call attention to the gulf between life in a small Jewish village and life in a bigger city like Lublin. The sudden death of Yente and Rachel underscores Hannah’s extremely precarious situation, as do the deaths of Reuven and Tzipporah. Yitzchak’s kids let Hannah show her empathy and care for others. Through Yitzchak’s success in Israel, Yolen discusses the importance of a Jewish homeland.