I'm so sad. My friends Laura, Jane, and I watched one of the world's saddest movies last night/this morning. It's called "The Devil's Arithmetic", and it's based on a book by Jane Yolen. It's about a girl named Hanna Stern who doesn't respect her Jewish heritage, until one fatefull Passover. Hanna's 16 and can't imagine why her parents drag her to her aunt Eve's house for a holiday that "is for old people". Hanna is volunteered to open the door for Elijah during Passover, and when she opens the door, she's transported back to 1941, in Poland. Hanna does not believe that she went back in time, because she wakes up in her cousin Rivka's house. Rivka tells Hanna that she's been very sick with a fever that killed her parents. During Rivka's neighbor's wedding, the Nazis come and round up all of the Jews and ship them to a concentration camp. Rivka and Hanna find a young girl, nine years old, who's missing her parents, so they take her in. These three girls are made to work, digging trenches, in the freezing winter, with very thin clothes on and no hats, shoes, or gloves. During the movie, one of Rivka's friends, who was 24, had her baby in the camp. The women manage to keep the baby hidden for a couple of weeks, but the Nazi officers eventually find it and take it away. The mother demands to go with it, so they take her too, and then Rivka's mother attacks the Commandent, so she's taken also. Rivka develops chronic depression after her mother is shot, (we don't see that though- thank gosh!), and she becomes very ill, until it's all that Hanna can do to keep her on her feet. No one believes Hanna that she's from the future, so they are all entertained with her stories of pizza, dances, and other common American things. Rivka is so happy with Hanna's stories that she proclaims that if she ever gets out, she'll change her name to Eve.
Rivka's illness persists, and finally the Nazis find out. They also discover that Hanna and Rivka snuck the young girl into the women's barrack. They want to kill the girl and Rivka!! Hanna knows, however that Rivka is, in fact, Hanna's Aunt Eve! Hanna knows that if she lets Rivka die, her family's history will be changed forever. Hanna takes Rivka's headscarf and the little girl, and they are sent to a gas chamber. They are gassed, and right after Hanna dies, she sees a white light, and wakes up, back in her own time period, on Aunt Eve's bed! "Where's Aunt Eve? I need her!" Aunt Eve is brought over, and Hanna cries out, "My Rivka!" Eve tells Hanna the whole story of what happens, and Hanna realizes the importance of traditional holidays, to remember.
The Holocaust.
Never again.
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ReplyDeletewow that sound like such a good/ sad movie
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ReplyDeletemore powerful like an dthen they came for me
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