Rivka/Aunt Eva Character Analysis in The Devil’s Arithmetic

Rivka is Hannah’s closest friend in the concentration camp (where Hannah is Chaya), and Rivka eventually grows up to become Hannah’s Aunt Eva. Despite being younger than Hannah, Rivka has learned a lot about how the concentration camp works in her time there. She believes that the best way to avoid dying is to avoid attracting attention, and the best way to avoid attracting attention is to follow the camp rules, which can be nonsensical and contradictory, but which are nevertheless important to learn. Rivka teaches Hannah the meaning of sacrifice when she gives up her gold ring so that Hannah can be placed on kitchen duty instead of on the more dangerous woodcutting crew. Hannah returns the favor by swapping places with Rivka at the end of the novel so that Rivka can live on (and so that Hannah can return to her life in present-day America). Rivka demonstrates the injustices that Jewish people lived through in the concentration camps, showing how the Nazis imposed arbitrary expectations on them and how even following these expectations was not enough to guarantee survival. As the adult Aunt Eva, she impresses on Hannah the endurance and resilience of the Jewish people.

Rivka/Aunt Eva Quotes in The Devil’s Arithmetic

The The Devil’s Arithmetic quotes below are all either spoken by Rivka/Aunt Eva or refer to Rivka/Aunt Eva . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

There was a lipstick stain where Aunt Eva had kissed her on the forehead. She ran some water and tried to scrub it off, feeling guilty because Aunt Eva was her favorite aunt, the only one who preferred her over Aaron. Hannah was even named after some friend of Aunt Eva’s. Some dead friend.

Related Characters: Hannah/Chaya, Rivka/Aunt Eva , Grandpa Will, Aaron

Related Symbols: Tattoo

Page Number and Citation: 7

Explanation and Analysis:

“Never mind, little Chaya, never mind,” Gitl said. “Shmuel and I—we are your family now.”

Related Characters: Gitl (speaker), Hannah/Chaya, Rivka/Aunt Eva , Shmuel, Mother, Father

Page Number and Citation: 31

Explanation and Analysis:

Photographs of Grandma’s family but none of Grandpa Will’s, because, Aunt Eva had once explained, no photographs had been saved in the death camps. “We are our own photos. Those pictures are engraved only in our memories. When we are gone, they are gone.”

Related Characters: Rivka/Aunt Eva (speaker), Hannah/Chaya, Gitl, Shmuel, Grandpa Will

Related Symbols: Tattoo

Page Number and Citation: 44

Explanation and Analysis:

“God made the Devil, so God is here, too,” Rivka said.

Related Characters: Rivka/Aunt Eva (speaker), Hannah/Chaya, Wolfe

Page Number and Citation: 114

Explanation and Analysis:

“Organize,” Rivka said. “As I have organized some shoes for you, and not wooden clogs, either. And sweaters. You will need them because the nights are cold still.”

Related Characters: Rivka/Aunt Eva (speaker), Hannah/Chaya

Page Number and Citation: 115

Explanation and Analysis:

Suddenly Hannah noticed that one of the camp babies was still cradled in a wash tub. Without stopping to ask, she grabbed it up and ran with the child into the middle of the midden. Garbage slipped along her bare legs.

Related Characters: Hannah/Chaya, Rivka/Aunt Eva , The Commandant

Page Number and Citation: 123

Explanation and Analysis:

When it was silent at last, the commandant threw the shoes on top of Fayge’s body. “Let them all go up the stack,” he said. “Call the Kommandos. Schnell!”

Related Characters: The Commandant (speaker), Hannah/Chaya, Rivka/Aunt Eva , Shmuel, Fayge, Grandpa Will

Related Symbols: Chimneys

Page Number and Citation: 159

Explanation and Analysis:

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.

Related Characters: Hannah/Chaya, Rivka/Aunt Eva , Shifre, Esther

Related Symbols: Chimneys

Page Number and Citation: 159

Explanation and Analysis:

Then all three of them took deep, ragged breaths and walked in through the door into endless night.

Related Characters: Hannah/Chaya, Rivka/Aunt Eva , Grandpa Will, Shifre, Esther

Related Symbols: Chimneys

Page Number and Citation: 160

Explanation and Analysis:

“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.”

Related Characters: Hannah/Chaya (speaker), Rivka/Aunt Eva (speaker)

Related Symbols: Tattoo

Page Number and Citation: 164

Explanation and Analysis:

It later became an adoption agency, the finest in the Mideast. She called it after her young niece, who had died a hero in the camps: CHAYA.

Life.

Related Characters: Hannah/Chaya, Rivka/Aunt Eva , Gitl, Yitzchak

Page Number and Citation: 166

Explanation and Analysis:

Rivka/Aunt Eva Character Timeline in The Devil’s Arithmetic

The timeline below shows where the character Rivka/Aunt Eva appears in The Devil’s Arithmetic. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

When Hannah arrives in the Bronx, Aunt Rose and Aunt Eva (her great aunts) greet her enthusiastically. Hannah prefers Aunt Eva, and in fact, Hannah is... (full context)

Hannah’s Aunt Eva had many chances in her youth to get married but turned them all down, preferring... (full context)

...table. Hannah remembers that Chaya is her Hebrew name, which she received in memory of Aunt Eva ’s dead friend. A man that Hannah doesn’t recognize calls himself Uncle Shmuel, and he... (full context)

...and Gitl are some of the last ones in the food line. A girl named Rivka gives them bowls and tells them they must always know where their bowl is, because... (full context)

After the evening meal of bread and watery soup, Rivka finds Hannah. Hannah is afraid, but Rivka tells her the Nazis only run the gas... (full context)

Hannah says she thinks the camp is the Devil’s place, but Rivka says God made the Devil, so God is in the camp too. Rivka begins telling... (full context)

Rivka tells Hannah and Shifre that the most important rule is to hide in the midden—the... (full context)

Rivka tells Hannah more about camp, like how Nazis take the good Jewish shoes and ship... (full context)

Early the next day, the commandant comes down for an inspection. Rivka begins making a clicking sound like a cricket in order to warn the young children... (full context)

Days pass, and Hannah gets into a routine. She begins helping Rivka in the kitchen and is occasionally rewarded with scraps of food. Hannah learns that Rivka... (full context)

Hannah tries to pass on Rivka’s kindness by giving some of her bread to Reuven. But Gitl says Hannah must make... (full context)

...again, and the rumor is that there will be a “Choosing” (of people to die). Rivka explains to Hannah that those who can’t work anymore are most likely to be “chosen.”... (full context)

...saw in history class. When she tries to remember who Dr. Mengele was, Shifre and Rivka think Hannah is feverish again. (full context)

Hannah and Shifre begin to wonder about the blokova. Rivka says that the blokova lost two of her fingers because she let the Jewish prisoners... (full context)

The commandant asks Hannah where Reuven’s mother is. Hannah says that she’s dead, then, remembering Rivka’s rule about not mentioning death in the camps, specifies that Reuven’s mother died long ago,... (full context)

...smoke comes out of the chimneys. Reuven doesn’t come back, and Hannah feels she’s responsible. Rivka assures Hannah that she did all she could, and she would’ve only gotten herself killed... (full context)

...against the Nazis, figuring it’s better to die that way than in the chimneys. But Rivka says they have no weapons, so their best option is to keep working in an... (full context)

Rivka whispers that the boy carrying away Fayge’s body is her brother Wolfe. The blokova comes... (full context)

Later that afternoon, while working in the kitchen, Hannah tells Rivka, Shifre, and Esther that she has a new story for them. She tells them that... (full context)

Rivka says that Hannah’s memories of the future are impossible, but Hannah says she is able... (full context)

Hannah realizes that she has a whole life in the future, but Rivka only has the current moment. She takes off the kerchief that Rivka is wearing, says... (full context)

...eventually remembering that the old man at the head of the table is Grandpa Will. Aunt Eva notices that Hannah looks pale and asks if there’s anything she can do. Eva raises... (full context)

...glass, Hannah notices that she has a tattoo on her arm—J18202, the same one as Rivka. Aunt Eva notices Hannah staring and asks if Hannah would like her to explain the... (full context)

Sometime after the Seder dinner, Aunt Eva tells Hannah the rest of the story. Only two people from Chaya’s shtetl survived: Yitzchak,... (full context)