7820nr+Whole+by+Whole+Essay

 Rules You Want To Follow

== Have you ever had rules that you didn't want to follow? Once of twice you might have liked rules but I bet you were never grateful for them. I have, but I would be grateful for a set of rules in the Holocaust. In the book the //Devils Arithmetic,// there were two sets of rules in the concentration camp, the camp rules and Rivka's rules.  The camp's rules are meant to keep the strong and useful people healthy and alive while eliminating the Jews who were unable to work. Rivka was a girl in the camp that was trying to help the Jews. If you don't like rules these next two paragraphs will make you appreciate them? ==

 The first set of rules come officially from the camp. Nazis, the Nazis in the camp, or Jews in the camp who were commanded to tell other Jews the rules were the people. One of these rules is, "You will work without complaints," meaning that you will never complain when you work; if your feet are sore, for example, ignore it, or the Nazis may kill you. Another rule is, "You will never attempt to escape," meaning that if you're caught trying to escape or hide from the Nazis, they will kill you. The last important Nazi rule is "You will be disciplined." The me aning or this rule is to make you listen to everything they say and obey them. The intent of these rules is to make the prisoners forget their memories and make them mindless workers, or slaves. Also these rules were made to alert you if you are weak or not useful in the Nazis eyes, if alerted, they would kill you.Their last intent is to make you scared, in the book if someone breaks the rules, they never come back. In my opinion these rules are cruel and unfair to the Jews. Even though these rules are gruesome, you needed to follow them in the camps or you (person in camp) would die.

 Rivka's rules were obviously made by Rivka, a girl in the camp trying her hardest to stay alive and keep as many other people alive as she can.. One of Rivka's rules is to "stay away from the Greeks." This was one of her rules because Greek Jews did not speak the language (Yiddish) that everyone else spoke, making it hard for them to follow the rules. Knowing the Nazis, if one person breaks the rules they would probably take the people around the Greeks as well to make sure that nobody would break the rules. Another rule is "follow everything the Nazis say and you won't die, but no matter how hard the Nazis try, do not forget your past." This is a rule because with your memories there is hope of survival. The last rule is to "stay away from the Nazi hospital." If you get hurt you have to stay away from the Nazi hospital because if the Nazis know that you are weak they will kill you. The intent of these rules is to help you survive, to not lose hope, and to not be afraid of the Nazis.

 Now, would you be brave and not follow the Nazi's rules, would you try and be safe following Rivka's rules, or would you follow both sets of rules? After this I would follow both. Knowing if you don't follow the Nazis rules they will kill you and knowing that if you don't follow Rivka's rules you would die, you really have no choice but to follow both sets of rules. If you are stubborn and don't like to follow rules, you should because one day they might save your life!