The Devil's Arithmetic Book Vs Movie

Anti-Semitism, or racism against Jews, has been around forever. However, during WWII it was taken to the next step. A genocide committed by the Nazis named the Holocaust wiped out over 6 million Jews and many million other people. Today, information about the Holocaust is present everywhere in many different forms. These forms include documentaries, novels, movies, and museums. All of the forms try to convey the message of remembering what happened during the Holocaust. The way the message is delivered can impact the way it is received. The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen delivers the message of remembering much better and more aptly than the movie adaptation directed by Donna Deitch, because of the relationship of the characters, the scenes …show more content…
For example, in the novel, some of the prisoners in the concentration camp try to escape one night, and most end up being caught. They are publicly being shot the next day, and Jane Yolen says one of the men “[B]ent down and kissed the top of [his wife’s] head as the guns roared.” That man was named Shmuel and was Hannah’s(the main character) uncle. The importance of the death helped drive the theme of surviving and remembering to bear witness because of the way it imprinted itself in Hannah’s mind and inspired her to survive so she could testify of the horror of the camps. The movie has Shmuel as a totally unrelated character and the death does not have as much as an effect to imprint the theme in her mind as it does in the novel. Another example is Hannah’s relationship with a girl named Rivka. …show more content…
For example, near the beginning of the book, whole chapters are written about boxcars taking the Jews to the concentration camps. These scenes are all gone from the movie. Right before the Jews get into the boxcars they see something in the novel they do not see in the movie. Page 74 states, “More and more, the villagers began to recognize baskets and bags belonging to their families. But they were not allowed to stop.” The Jews at this scene see the belongings of their family and realize the cunningness of the Nazi’s and how they are truly trapped. All they had left to do to keep the memories of their family and remember. People may argue that the boxcar scene does not add enough to the movie and does not deliver the theme enough to include it in the movie. However, as more evidence reveals, this is wrong. At the end of the boxcar scene in the novel, when the Jews are being herded out, Shmuel has to be dragged out. He sees that there are dead in there and wants to do something about it. Page 86 says that “Shmuel … he was still standing in the door of the boxcar. ‘There are more dead here,’... ‘Leave them!’ a soldier said.” The Jews and Hannah have to leave their dead behind and the only thing left to do is learn how to keep the dead alive in the Jew’s memories. Any other way will result in pain or

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