Student Question
What is the "Final Solution" in Jane Yolen's The Devil's Arithmetic?
Quick answer:
In Jane Yolen's The Devil's Arithmetic, the "Final Solution" refers to Adolf Hitler's plan for the systematic extermination of the Jewish population during the Holocaust. This plan involved three steps: expulsion of Jews from Germany, containment in concentration camps, and eventual annihilation. The Nazis implemented this through mobile killing squads known as Einsatzgruppen, which carried out mass murders in the camps.
The Devil's Arithmetic, by Jane Yolan, is the story of Hannah Stem's very "vivid memory" of the Holocaust. Although she was not there, Hannah remembers being part of it. At the end of the novel, Hannah realizes how important it is to embrace her family's Jewish last name and ties to the Holocaust.
The phrase "final solution" referred to Adolf Hitler's plan to rid the earth of the Jewish population. Hitler's plan included three steps: 1) expulsion (getting the Jewish people out of Germany); 2) containment (force them into isolation (concentration camps)); and 3) Final Solution (annihilation). The Nazis used groups called the Einsatzgrupen (mobile killing squads) to perform the mass murders of the Jewish prisoners in the concentration camps.
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