The Devil's Arithmetic - Jane Yolen

I do not believe anyone could read Jane Yolen's The Devil's Arithmetic and not weep. I certainly couldn't make it through the book without crying...

The Devil's Arithmetic is about a 12 (almost 13) year old girl named Hannah Stern, who has become tired of being obliged to remember about the Holocaust and Passover. Then her family goes to her Grandma Belle and Grandpa Will's house for Passover, and she finds herself wishing she were somewhere else. When she's asked to open the door for the Prophet Elijah to enter, she finds herself transported to Poland in 1942 from New York. She is called Chaya(which is her Hebrew name) by a woman who says she is her Aunt Gitl and a man who says he is her Uncle Shmuel. It is the eve of Shmuel's wedding to Fayge, the rabbi's daughter, and Chaya is going to the wedding although she's only recently recovered from the serious illness which killed her parents. Gitl, Shmuel and Chaya travel to the local synagogue for the wedding with all the wedding gifts and guests in tow, but when they reach the synagogue there are big black trucks parked outside. At this point, Chaya discovers what year it is, and realises to whom the trucks belong. She tries to warn everyone about the Nazis, but they think she is crazy and do not believe her. Soldiers get out of the trucks and tell the Jews that they are being resettled and that all the other guests have gone on ahead. Everyone is forced into the trucks and locked in for days whilst they travel to the Death Camp.

Once inside the Death Camp Gitl explains "The Devil's Arithmetic": each day she remained alive, she remained alive. One plus one plus one. Chaya gets to know some of the others at the camp, including ten year old Rivka, who explains the camp rules to the children, and in particular how to protect the youngest children, since no one under the age of 14 is supposed to be at the Camp, but if the children hide in the midden pile before the Commandant arrives, he'll pretend not to know they're there. Then one day Chaya, Rivka and two friends are caught by a new guard talking instead of working and he decides that since there is room for three more to be processed. He selects three, leaving Chaya free, but she snatches Rivka's kerchief off her head and tells her to go and hide in the midden pile and to live and remember. Then she walks into "Lilith's Cave", where the ovens are, and as she goes through the door she finds herself back in New York again, where no time has passed. She then talks quietly to her favourite aunt, Eva, about what has happened.

This is a beautifully written, moving and awe-inspiring account of the Holocaust. Jane Yolen handles the timeslip into the past very deftly and it's fascinating to see Hannah becoming Chaya and forgetting her own present in remembering Chaya's past.