7813tk+Whole+by+Whole+Essay

Too Many Rules! Doesn't it get tiring remembering so many rules? The consequences of not obeying the rules creates feelings of anxiety and fear. ‍At the concentration camps, that's exactly how the prisoners felt. In the book //The Devil's Arithmetic,// ‍‍‍the Nazis subject the prisoners to ‍‍‍ many rules. The camp rules were very strict and difficult to follow. The Nazis created rules so the prsioners could fail. Rivka was a prisoner at the concentration camp who worked with serving food. Rivka had to enforce the Nazis rules, but she also created some of her own. ‍ ‍The camp rules and Rivka's rules had different intents, but also some similarities. ‍‍‍ The rules both help you survive and they both maintain order and boundaries. Although Rivka's and the Nazis rules seemed similar, Rivka's rules were intended for survival in the concentration camps. The official camp rules are enforced the commandant, the tattooist, the three fingered lady, and Rivka. ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍Some examples of the camp rules are: to not speak unless spoken to, ‍‍‍obey and remember the word schnell, the German word for faster, and "do or die," which means to do this or do that or else you die. The rules had certain intents such as: to keep them healthy enough to work, make them terrified, and to make them work harder. ‍‍‍ The most important intent of the Nazi rules was to make the prisoners forget them so they would be punished, a.k.a death. These were the most important but many more rules had to be followed every day.

 Rivka also gives the prisoners rules, but her intents are very different. One example is one doesn't ask why. She created this rule so the prisoners could avoid getting in trouble. ‍‍‍ Another important example is to know when to fight. She tells this to them because you don't want to fight in front of the officer. It was important to never stand next to someone with a G in her number. The G means they are Greek and they do not understand the language as well as the Jewish prisoners. Lastly, Rivka's most important rule was to help the prisoners remember their identity. She taught them to do this by making up a sentence about each number. ‍‍‍Rivka's main intent of her rules is to prevent bad things from happening to the prisoners. Her other goals were to keep the prisoners out of trouble as well as to encourage, give hope, and to help keep others safe. ‍‍‍ ‍‍‍

‍‍‍Even though the prisoners felt very overwhelmed by the many rules, they did their best to obey them to survive. In the prisoners' case, the rules are given to let them know how to survive when truly, the officers don't want them to. That is why they give so many rules and not write them down. The prisoners were lucky to have someone like Rivka that was trying to help them survive. ‍‍‍ If you were in a situation like theirs, wouldn't you want to follow them so you could stay alive and maybe survive the Holocaust?