Description
Based on the popular novel by Jane Yolen, a typical American teenager gets transported back in time and experiences firsthand the horrors of the Holocaust and discovers the meaning of her family’s heritage.

Amazon.com
Executive producers Dustin Hoffman and Mimi Rogers present the truth of the Holocaust so a new generation can understand why it must never be forgotten. Kirsten Dunst plays Hannah, a modern teen more concerned with trends than history. During the traditional Passover dinner, she zones out as her relatives harp about concentration camps. But then Hannah passes through a portal to the past, where she becomes her own ancestor in Poland during the Nazi persecution of the Jews.

Director Donna Deitch provides an infinite library of Holocaust detail, re-creating the period with minute dedication. Haunting images, every costume, every hair, every light and shadow conspire to maintain a sense of desolate desperation. Suspense pervades as escapes fail and mothers with newborns are taken away. Only the magical context of the story, taken from the original children's novel by Jane Yolen, allows for a life-affirming ending. The performances may not be multifaceted but, considering the single-mindedness of the tale, the deep commitment of the actors makes every moment real and meaningful. Dunst seems able to carry a movie herself, and Brittany Murphy is mesmerizing as Hannah's sweet cousin Rivkah.

The message is powerfully direct, but the film avoids extreme violence in deference to young audiences. The theme is enshrined in the Rivkah's words: "We must stay alive to tell everyone what we've been through." Indeed, when Hannah returns to the present, she is a new woman, with a profound love of her culture and a religious respect for the value of all human life. --Lloyd Chesley

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 61 reviews)

Great movie

Every teen should watch this movie to understand the holocaust better, evershould watch it to and be reminded of what is really important and ers like family and faithmatt y adult
November 05, 2008

The Devil's Arithmetic

The film, "The Devil's Arithmetic" is very moving. The details were uncanny and the actress did a very good job. I enjoyed it very much and hope that others will be able to see how moving it was.
November 02, 2008

Accompaniment to Anne Frank

My teaching colleague and I showed this to eighth graders as an accompaniment to an Anne Frank unit. The students were clearly moved by it. We have now made this a standard part of our curriculum. We feel it encourages students to seek further information about the Holocaust, meeting the goal of any teaching opportunity. While it touches on the horrors our fellow human beings faced, it still respects the sensitive nature of some our less mature students. I highly endorse this movie.
October 24, 2008

Excellent depiction

Kirsten Dunst is bored with her family's Sabbath dinner and her old aunt, who was in a concentration camp. When she answers the door for 'Elijah' during the dinner, she is transported immediately to her aunt's life as a young girl in WW II Poland and Germany. She knows she is from the current time but realizes what is happening to her. Without giving away the story line, suffice it to say she learns what her aunt endured and also learns never to forget this time in history. She also learns how one person makes the ultimate sacrifice for a friend. I read this book when my daughter was small and it moved me greatly. The movie was done exactly as the book was written and it left nothing out. You must see this movie, if only to know what man is capable of doing to other humans.
September 02, 2008

Excellent Resources fosr World War II When Used with the Book

Dustin Hoffman's poignant introduction reveals his passion that young people today never forget the horrors of the holocaust. To my surprise, the film proved to be a most riveting and attention-holding movie, "The Devil's Arithmetic" is geared to teenagers.

Modern teenager Hannah Stern, feeling no attachment to her religion, resents being made to participate in her Aunt Eva's Passover celebrations,. As her relatives, all concentration camp survivors, try to recount their experiences, Hannah turns away, bored. All of this changes as Hannah is chosen to perform the ritual act of opening the door for the Prophet Elijah--instead of the hallway of her aunt's apartment, Hannah is transported to rural Jewish Poland, circa 1941.

Hannah attempts to make sense of her old life, and the girl her new Polish "family" expects her to be. As time passes, Hannah and her cousin Rivkah explore the town before attending a wedding, at which point Nazis round up the wedding guests and load them onto trucks going to the concentration camp
If ever a theme of love, sacrifice, and the horror of hatred needed portrayal outside the realm of religion, one could not do much better than to show this film. What Hannah does for her best friend at the movie's conclusion is as gut-wrenching as it is predictable, and Nazi treatment of the Jews is brutally captured with appropriate reserve--no easy task! In the end, a young Jewish girl who began only with an interest in tattoos learns the lessons of history, tradition, and above all--life's priorities. In a nutshell, how lives and a culture can change in an instant is the strength of "The Devil's Arithmetic".
Be very sure--this film will make a powerful impact on young teens! The dropping of the gas pellets at the conclusion of the dream sequence is intense...very intense. Yet how can the Holocaust be portrayed without such reality? With younger teenagers, take care that background preparation, as well as a reflective time for discussion is provided.

August 11, 2008

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