“The woman in the blue dress was speaking again.
‘Quiet! Quiet!’ she shouted, putting up her hands.
‘Now, since you are all filthy from your trip, you must take a shower. You will undress here. Help the children. It must be done quickly. Quickly.’
‘What, here?’ Gitl asked. ‘In front of each other?’
The woman looked disgusted. ‘You have not learned the first lesson yet. You will not last here.’
Gitl stared at her. ‘I will last,’ she said, her voice low.
‘Now, all of you, undress. Schnell! Pretend you are in one of your ritual baths. Oh yes, I am not a Jew, but even I have heard of it. What do you call it?’
“Mikvah,’ murmured Esther’s mother.
‘Yes, mikvah,” the woman said. ‘Then this is your mikvah in preparation for your new life in the camp.’ She smiled and left.
Some of the women sat on the wooden benches and began slowly to take off their shoes and stockings. But Hannah stood in the center of the room, staring around.
‘Don’t you understand?’ she cried. ‘There are no showers. There are only the gas ovens. They will burn us all up.’
Two benches away, Esther was crying softly as she took off her right show. ‘There are no ovens, Chaya. Do not try to frighten us. We are frightened enough.’
Hannah started to answer but Gitl pulled her down to the bend. ‘She is right, child. What is here is bad enough. Let us live moment by moment. There is no harm in dreaming about a shower. God know we could all use one.’
Hannah was furious. They had to listen. She would have to make them. What use was her special foreknowledge if no one would listen? Maybe they thought her strange or sick of even crazy, but she was none of that. She was from the future, somehow. She could summon up those memories by trying really hard. She knew she could help them all if only they would let her.”
For Hannah, every teenager’s dream has come true: she’s traveled through time! But not to a place of happiness and freedom; she’s traveled back to a concentration camp run by the Nazi’s during World War II. Hannah, a young Jewish girl who never took her own ancestry seriously, is now thrown into the frightening situation of being a Jew during the Nazi regime. She knows what really happens in the concentration camps, but struggles to make the people around her listen and believe.
As an author, Jane Yolen effectively takes her readers on a historical journey, weaving fact and fiction into her stories. Yolen takes serious events and makes them approachable, affording the reader the chance to delve into a serious subject without the judgment of others looming about. She simultaneously touches your heart with realistic and moving characters, such as Hannah in The Devil’s Arithmetic. Hannah’s journey through time combines the true events with the Holocaust and the experience of a young girl during those times, creating a powerful and moving story. Yolen also has a gift for combining historical events with fairy tales. In Briar Rose, she weaves the Holocaust, into the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty. The combination of the two creates an unforgettable and moving story. Yolen’s works are incredible, heart warming stories about the real struggles everyday teenagers have faces. She is a must-read for all ages.
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