Monday, July 23, 2007

Jane Yolen - The Devil's Arithmetic

One might imagine the books description tells all and you already know what will happen etc. but let me tell you, I have read a lot of books about the Second World War and the Holocaust.
Hard facts, peoples destiny during those times.
This book is fiction, told by a author with Jewish descent, thinking it is time to let go and no longer remember at any holiday or occasion what happend in the past.
She writes what most German people of the second generation past the Second World War feel, think and live. Most people are sick of hearing of it, sick of being blamed for what their ancestors did, sick of paying and sick of still wearing the invisible sign of being a German. I know that because I am German and had a lot of discussions with people from other countries.

So it is quite fantastic and emotional that a jewish author picks up this high sensible topic to write a book why people are sick of remembering and why it is important to not to forget.

There is this little girl Hannah, who is bored and rebellious with all this jewish rituals every year. She opens a door and is transported into the past. Not any past, it is the past of her own ancestors and a journey that ends in a concentration camp and the gas chamber.

It remembered me that when no one´s left to remember mankind, there won´t be someone who´s going to protect us against the same happening again and to tell us what can happen all over the world when there´s one person with the ability to influence a whole nation and more.

Rating:
Visit Jane Yolen.

ISBN-13: 9780142401095
ISBN-10: 0142401099
Publisher: Puffin Books
Publication Date: 4/12/2004
Pages: 176
Book Type: Paperback

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