The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen

1. When Hannah’s head is shaved at the camp, she begins to cry. Gitl makes Hannah promise-“…promise me you will cry no more before these monsters. We will never cry again. ‘Never,’ Hannah agreed…feeling stronger because of the promise…(p. 95).” Why does this promise make her feel stronger? Support your response with text evidence.

Gitl states, "Without laughter there is no hope. Without hope there is no life." Crying shows weakness, and if the Jews show weakness, the Nazis will take advantage of that. The Nais will see that they do not have any hope of life, therefore they will be easily killed. If the Jews laughed, they would show strength and hope, which is what Nazis hate to see. Also, resisting not to cry in these terrible moments is very difficult. However, if they are able to fight their tears, they will show strength, and hope. These actions can show the Nazis, that they are undefeatable. Death may come their way, but their hope will still live. In this case, Hannah and Gitl will fight their tears, because they do not want to cry. Crying can be hard to fight, and accomplishing this action is very hard to do. This action makes them feel and look stronger in front of everyone. At the end this reminds me of an event that occurred to me. Recently, my grandmother died, and it was difficult to hold back my tears. I loved her so much, and I have never had the chance to say goodbye. However, I held my tears, and people called me strong, because I was still full of hope that my life will continue in the right direction. Hannah did not cry, because she wanted to be tough enough to handle any situation. Both case, (Hannah’s and mine,) both show how holding back tears can make a huge difference in life. It can make people have s...

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...upying Poland in 1939, the policy of forced emigration became untenable for the Nazi regime. It was simply unrealistic to make more than 3 million Polish Jews emigrate. This led to ambitious Nazi plans for a solution to the ’Jewish Question’.” The Nazis wanted to keep their place to themselves, and they disliked the Jews. They tried moving the Jews to another place, but the amount of time it would take was too long. Therefore, they thought of the Final Solution. They sent Jews to concentration camps, where they killed many Jews. They though that this solution would keep their place to themselves, not to share with any other race. This reminds me of the Rwandan Genocide, because both genocides wanted to remove a specific group or race. In the Holocaust, they wanted to remove all Jews, and in the Rwandan Genocide, the Hutus wanted to wipe the whole Tutsis population.