Devil's Arithmetic

            The book, Devil's Arithmetic, by Jane Yolen was about the Holocaust. The type of book is historical fiction. The main character is Hannah. Her name is Chaya when she travels back in time, but her original name was Hannah. She is about 13 years old and is average height and weight fir her age. .
             During a normal Seder, Hannah goes to open the door and is all of a sudden taken back into a strange village. The two people call her by the name of Chaya. Gitl claims to be her aunt and that Chaya was brought to her because her entire family was killed back in her homeland, Dublin. As they go to a wedding for her "uncle," Nazis come and take everyone away. They say that they are just relocating them to a safer place, but Hannah knows who they are and where they are taking her. However, no one listens to her and they said that the trauma of losing her family has made her tell strange stories. Everyone is crammed into the back of trucks and taken to trains. On the train, again everyone is crammed into a little storage car. They stay in there for days. The odor that is developed in there was awful. Once the train ride was over, they were at a Nazi death camp. Hannah met a girl named Rivka that told her basic rules on how to survive in the death camp. They included to continue working and never speak out your opinions. Hannah did not agree too much with the rules, but she went along with them. When the commissioner came in to inspect his camp, all children under the age of 13 had to hide in the midden. Everyone was fed very little food and the time there was horrible. Hannah's aunt and uncle thought of a plan to escape. They tried it one night, no one was caught, and the aunt and uncle got away. One day Hannah remembered how she had been sent back in time, and was really from later in the century. She began to tell the story to Rivka, but a guard caught them not working. He said that one of them could survive and the other would be "processed.