Previous
Terms
A shtetl is a small Jewish town, typically located somewhere in Eastern Europe. Residents of a shtetl were a close-knit community that spoke Yiddish and participated in communal Jewish traditions. The Holocaust wiped out virtually all of the shtetls.
Shtetl Quotes in The Devil’s Arithmetic
The The Devil’s Arithmetic quotes below are all either spoken by Shtetl or refer to Shtetl. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 4
Quotes
“Never mind, little Chaya, never mind,” Gitl said. “Shmuel and I—we are your family now.”
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Chapter 5
Quotes
“But if there is no Old Rochelle, how can there be a New?” Shmuel mused out loud. “Perhaps there is a Rochelle all alone, though the child does not know it.”
Chapter 7
Quotes
Pretty girl, with faraway eyes,
Why do you look with such surprise?
How did you get to be so wise,
Old girl in young-girl disguise.
Chapter 8
Quotes
“The men down there,” she cried out desperately, “they’re not wedding guests. They’re Nazis. Nazis! Do you understand? They kill people. They killed—kill—will kill Jews. Hundreds of them. Thousands of them. Six million of them! I know. Don’t ask me how I know, I just do. We have to turn the wagons around. We have to run!”
Chapter 9
Quotes
Was knowing—or not knowing—more frightening? She couldn’t decide. A strange awful taste rose in her mouth, more bitter even than the Seder’s bitter herbs. And they were for remembering.
Chapter 10
Quotes
“Of course, Jew,” came the officer’s voice. “And then my men will move among you and take your papers and jewelry for safekeeping.”
Chapter 18
Quotes
The memories of Lublin and the shtetl and the camp itself suddenly seemed like the dreams. She lived, had lived, would live in the future—she, or someone with whom she shared memories. But Rivka had only now.
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Chapter 19
Quotes
“In my village, in the camp . . . in the past,” Eva said, “I was called Rivka.”
Hannah nodded and took her aunt’s fingers from her lips. She said, in a voice much louder than she had intended, so loud that the entire table hushed at its sound, “I remember. Oh, I remember.”
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Get the entire The Devil’s Arithmetic LitChart as a printable PDF.
Shtetl Term Timeline in The Devil’s Arithmetic
The timeline below shows where the term Shtetl appears in The Devil’s Arithmetic. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 5
...she hasn’t woken up from a dream and is in fact still living in the shtetl (small town with a mostly Jewish population) with Gitl and Shmuel. Shmuel asks Hannah if...
(full context)
Chapter 6
The whole shtetl comes over to Gitl and Shmuel’s place to celebrate before Shmuel’s wedding. Three girls come...
(full context)
Chapter 9
The Nazi officer encourages the residents of the shtetl to hurry up and board the truck, promising that all their needs will be taken...
(full context)
Chapter 11
...free.” The rabbi takes this as a good sign, feeling that the people of his shtetl have never been afraid of work.
(full context)
Chapter 15
Hannah asks if Gitl has heard about the men of the shtetl, like Shmuel and Yitzchak (who are in a different part of the camp for men),...
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Chapter 18
...acknowledge many seemingly contradictory memories about her life, in America, in Lublin, and in the shtetl. As Hannah is telling the other girls about how Jewish people will survive, a guard...
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Epilogue
...dinner, Aunt Eva tells Hannah the rest of the story. Only two people from Chaya’s shtetl survived: Yitzchak, who actually did escape and joined a resistance force, and Gitl, who survived...
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