which camp were they taken to? - The Devil's Arithmetic (1999) Discussion

[–] lonebear-1 17 years ago

Your are correct young man as horrible as it was in the film, it was much worse. In deference to your age I will not go into detail. Lets just say that in the hair shaving for instance, the women were not allowed any clothing and all hair on their bodies were shaved. As a 60 year old Jew I have slightly older relatives and friends, most of who won't or can't speak of it. Those who do still fell shame. Understand that they came from a culture that a man was not allowed to even dance with a women in public.
You hear people deny that there was a Holocaust now a days. Believe me it was all too real. Also, don't think it was just Jews who suffered. Gays, Gypsies and other minorities were looked upon as not human and treated the same way or worse.

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[–] A_Bob 17 years ago

The book was a lot more harsh. The camp they were taken to was a fictional camp. I think they wanted to make it a PG-13 movie so they did water it down a bit. The book camp probably was a bit on the nice side, allowing some children to stay alive, although part of the wicked game in the book was making the children who were too young to be there run into the trash heap whenever a higer-up Nazi official came around.

However, it could have been a work camp as opposed to a death camp. Work camps did provide better for the workers than the death camps, which were around just to kill. Mind you, work camps still did not provide much, but it was better than waiting around for death.

Bob

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[–] afi_boy104 17 years ago

well thats true since there was no crematoriums

"GLAM stood for Gay LA Metal."

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[–] afi_boy104 17 years ago

well it could be a work camp since all they did was work.

"GLAM stood for Gay LA Metal."

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[–] jep831 17 years ago

In the book, and even more so in the film, it is implied that it was Auschwitz/Birkenau. That was the only camp where incoming prisoners, even children, were always tatooed. And, in the gas chamber scene, the girls to be killed are walking past a grove of birch trees. Birkenau means "birch grove."

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[–] Potato7 16 years ago

The name of the camp is never said, but it's most similar to Auschwitz-Birkenau. The book is fictional, and there are some factual errors in the book, but the camp is mainly made to mirror Auschwitz (i.e. Dr. Mengele-like doctor, "Arbeit Macht Frei" gateway, location, etc.).

In Auschwitz, children were usually only spared temporarily in the case that the gas chamber was too full (as too many had been selected) or if they were going to be used for experimentation. For the most part, mothers and children were immediately sent to the gas chamber when arriving in Auschwitz.

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[–] Potato7 16 years ago

Since the camp had a gas chamber and was more intended for murdering the prisoners (most of the work they were doing involved digging mass graves), it would be defined as a death camp, whereas work camps generally did not have execution facilities, though the guards in these camps were often just as brutal as those in the death camps. In work camps, many prisoners were put to work to assist the Germans in the war effort (such as in airplane and munitions factories).

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[–] MissEmilyAnn91 16 years ago

If you read the very end of the book where it says "what is true about this book", it says that the concentration camp in this book was not a real one.

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