Customer Reviews

The Devil's Arithmetic

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"The Devil's Arithmetic" is the movie adaptation (there's an excellent introduction by Dustin Hoffman) of Jane Yolen's book of the same name. Fans of the book looking for a faithful adaptation will be disappointed, but I still found this an engrossing watch. It is one of the few movies about the Holocaust apart from the three screen versions of The Diary of Anne FrankThe Diary of Anne Frank, The Diary of Anne Frank, and The Diary of Anne Frank (As Seen On BBC)that portrays the point of view of a teenager enduring the Holocaust without being overly graphic in its depiction of brutality, and thus proves invaluable as a resource for use in History, Social Studies, and Language Arts lessons at the middle school level and up.

Kirsten Dunst plays Hannah, a young Jewish girl who feels detached from her Jewish identity and disinterested in learning about her culture. Whilst attending (out of reluctance) a relative's Sabbath meal, Hannah is chosen to open the door for Elijah, and when she enters the room, she finds herself transported to a different time altogether - that of 1941 Poland, where she finds herself under the care of her aunt and cousin Rivka (Brittany Murphy). Hannah struggles to come to terms with this amazing change in her life, and just when she thinks events could not possibly get worse, she finds herself, Rivka and the rest of the Jewish population in their small village rounded up by the Nazis and taken to a concentration camp. Hannah endures a lot - hunger, mental turmoil, fear, etc. but still manages to 'entertain' the other female inmates with her fantastical stories which actually describe her life back in the present day. Hannah also finds herself making some life-changing choices towards the end.

As I said, the movie is not exactly an exact translation of the book and neither does it accurately portray all aspects of camp life (it is not even stated which camp the Jews are incarcerated in, and there were no kapos or supervisors in the camp), but I think it is well-made enough to appeal to a teenage audience and can be used as a valuable teaching tool in the classroom. The main actors especially Dunst and Murphy do a credible job in conveying the fear and turmoil they experience as they are abused and imprisoned in the camp. The ending is quite powerful and makes for excellent discussion. Recommended.

I needed a video of the Holocaust novel, The Devil's Arithmetic, to show to my class, as we began the unit on the Holocaust. Since teachers are spending so much of their salaries for school supplies these days, I wanted an inexpensive copy. This was it. The video was used, but seems to be in good condition, and I hope it will last me several more years.