The Devil’s Arithmetic, by Jane Yolen
It is Passover, and Hannah dreads attending the first night’s Seder at Grandpa Will, Grandma Belle, and Aunt Eva’s house. Her grandfather’s strange outbursts about the Holocaust embarrass and frighten her.
Following ancient tradition, Hannah opens the door for the prophet Elijah, but instead of seeing a hallway filled with apartment doors, she sees a green field. She must be suffering the effects of too much watered-down wine. When Hannah turns around to face her waiting family, she finds an old-fashioned kitchen. At the kitchen sink, a woman pounds bread dough. The woman calls Hannah, “Chaya,” the Hebrew name for Aunt Eva’s best friend.
Somehow, Hannah has stepped back in time to 1940 Poland; right into the horrors of the Holocaust. During a wedding celebration, twelve German army trunks pull into town. The Nazi officers tell the Jews that they are being relocated until the war is over, and soldiers will be posted in town to protect their property. As her head fills with images of cattle cars, concentration camps, and crematoria, Hannah knows they are lying. When she tries to tell the others, no one believes her.
They travel for four days and nights in horribly crowded cattle cars that smell of sweat, urine, feces, and fear. At the concentration camp, Hannah meets Rivka and her brother, Wolfe. Rivka befriends Hannah and makes life in the camp more bearable. The day Rivka gets chosen for the gas chamber, Hannah makes a split-second decision to save her friend.
