History Literature / TheDevilsArithmetic

* Tsundere: Gitl is called "Gitl the Bear" by her fellow villagers, and it's easy to see why. However, throughout the novel her softer side comes out whenever she tries to comfort her fellow prisoners, which is often.

--> '''Hannah:''' I'm not from Lublin. I'm from New Rochelle. And I'm not Chaya, I'm Hannah. And Chaya is my Hebrew name, not Chana, because of a friend of Aunt Eva's. And . . .
--> '''Shmuel:''' Lublin is a big place, I am sure. And surely I am not familiar with every avenue and street, having been there only twice in my life.
--> '''Hannah:''' New Rochelle is not in Lublin, wherever that is. Its a city all its own.
--> '''Shmuel:''' Since when is a street a city?
--> '''Hannah:''' New Rochelle is, too, a city. It's in New York.
--> '''Shmuel:''' [[BilingualBonus Nu?]]
--> '''Hannah:''' In America!
--> '''Shmuel:''' And Krakow is in Siberia. I get it. A joke to help me forget about my marriage fears. Lublin in America and Krakow in Siberia. Though dear Gitl would say it most certainly is that far to both of them.

* AdultFear:
** Your daughter ending up alone in a strange place where you can't protect her from the horrors that await her. There's also [[spoiler: the woman who has to hide her pregnancy and later her baby from the guards]].
** In the book, a widower loses both of his young children in the camp; [[spoiler:his toddler daughter dies in her sleep (the cause is never given, but it's likely starvation or similar from the trip) on the first night, and his son is killed a few months later because he's technically too young to be in the camp.]]

* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: At the start of the book,, Hannah feels this way about her Grandpa Will, a traumatized Holocaust survivor [[spoiler:and former Sonderkommando]].

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: While the book is horrifyingly accurate overall, it is especially unlikely that Grandpa Will would have survived the Holocaust if [[spoiler: he was a Sonderkommando in 1942, as these prisoners were routinely murdered every few months in an effort to conceal the extent of the Nazis' crimes]].

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: While the book is horrifyingly accurate overall, it is unlikely that Grandpa Will would have survived the Holocaust if [[spoiler: he was a Sonderkommando in 1942, as these prisoners were routinely murdered every few months in an effort to conceal the extent of the Nazis' crimes]].

* InfantImmortality: Averted in the book with the death of an unnamed baby during the cattle car transport, and in the movie with a newborn baby being discovered in the concentration camp.

* Chaya is pronounced with a guttural 'chh': KHAI-yuh (HAI-yuh works in a pinch.)

** Yitzchak's name includes the same guttural chh: YITZ-khok (or YITZ-hock.

** Finally, Tzipporah is pronounced ZIP-per-uh

%%* AsTheGoodBookSays: Done every so often, particularly by Fayge's father Rabbi Boruch.

* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler Hannah/Chaya]] invokes this at the end of the novel, when she and [[spoiler:Shifre and Esther]] are sent to the gas chambers. She holds their hands and comforts them with a story about [[spoiler:her life in the future as Hannah]] where there are powerful, influential Jewish people, thriving Jewish communities and no shame in being Jewish.

* Determinator: While there were certainly many real-life Determinators who could not survive the Holocaust [[spoiler:Gitl]] quietly vows to survive the ordeal upon arrival at the concentration camp,and [[spoiler:she is one of only two people from her village who does]].

--> '''Hannah:''' Look, it doesn’t matter if you make a mistake, Ron-ron, but if you do, I’ll be right there next to you. I’ll whisper it into your ear just like they do in plays when someone forgets a line. --> '''Aaron:''' Like Mrs. Grahame had to do when you forgot . . .

AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: At the start of the book,, Hannah feels this way about her Grandpa Will, a traumatized Holocaust survivor (and former Sonderkommando.)

ArtisticLicenseHistory: While the book is horrifyingly accurate overall, it is unlikely that Grandpa Will would have survived the Holocaust if [[spoiler: he was a Sonderkommando in 1942, as these prisoners were routinely murdered every few months in an effort to conceal the extent of the Nazis' crimes]].

%%* AsTheGoodBookSays

* InfantImmortality:
** Averted completely. There are many mentions of children having been killed, and [[spoiler:both of Yitzhak's children die]]. In a more general sense, it's mentioned that they have to get the children into the midden (garbage dump) every time there's an inspection because they're not technically supposed to be there, and will be killed if they're seen.
** Played fairly straight with one child in the book. Hannah carries Leye's baby into the midden during a camp inspection, saving her from the gas. The book's epilogue tells us that Leye and her baby, "a solemn three-year-old," survived to be liberated.
** [[spoiler:In the film, a woman is discovered to be hiding her baby, and both mother and child are taken away, presumably to be killed. Also, 11-year-old Sarah is gassed at the end.]]
** Also, while Hannah and Rivka are [[AgeLift in their mid-teens]] in the film, in the book, they're both relatively young children themselves; Rivka is ten and Hannah/Chaya is about twelve. [[spoiler:Hannah becomes an aversion, as do her close-in-age friends from the shtetl (Rachel, Yente, Esther, and Shifre), while Rivka becomes a straight example thanks to Hannah's HeroicSacrifice.]]

%%* GrandfatherClause

** Several minor characters as well, such as Rachel, Yente, Esther, and Shifre, who Hannah meets at the wedding (although [[CompositeCharacter some of their role is given to Rivka]]), and the female overseer, the ''Blokova''. A female guard is heard very briefly during the scene where Chana and the other women must change into camp clothes, but this is a momentary voice, where the ''Blokova'' was a significant character.

** In the book, Rivka has Hannah/Chaya memorize her tattoo number. At the very end, after Hannah returns to the present, [[spoiler:she sees Eva's tattoo and realizes it's the same number, meaning Eva is Rivka. (In the movie, she had already figured this out before her HeroicSacrifice.)]]

* TrueBlueFemininity: The dress Hannah/Chana wears to Passover is blue. She then wears it to Leah and Shmuel's wedding.

** Played fairly straight with one child in the book. Hannah carries Leye's baby into the midden during a camp inspection, saving her from the gas. The book's epilogue tells us Leye and her baby, "a solemn three-year-old," had survived.

** Also, while Hannah and Rivka are [[AgeLift in their mid-teens]] in the film, in the book, they're both relatively young children themselves; Rivka is ten and Hannah is twelve. [[spoiler:Hannah becomes an aversion, as do her close-in-age friends from the shtetl (Rachel, Yente, Esther, and Shifre), while Rivka becomes a straight example thanks to Hannah's HeroicSacrifice.]]