Page 136 - Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen

cannot be blamed. Because that is what they want. So
that is how it must be. Quickly, back to work."
No sooner had they begun scrubbing again than the
door to the hospital opened and Commandant Breuer
emerged, still smiling, but broader this time. As he
and his aide passed by, Hannah could see the paper on
the clipboard was now covered with numbers and
names.
The commandant reminded her of someone. A pic-
ture perhaps. A moving picture. She'd seen a smiling
face like that somewhere.
"Dr. . . Dr. Mengele," she said suddenly. "The
.
Angel of Auschwitz." As suddenly as she knew it, the
reference was gone.
"No," Rivka said, puzzled, "his name is Breuer. Why
did you say that?"
"I told you she says strange things," Shifre put in.
Hannah looked down at her hands. They were trem-
bling. "I don't know why I said it. Am I becoming a
musselman? Am I going mad?"
No one answered.

Gitlhad been working in the sorting shed, where moun-
tains of clothes and shoes, mounds of books and toys
and household goods from the suitcases and bags were
divided up. It was also the place where men and women
could talk together, so there was a quick, quiet trading
of information from the women's camp to the men's
and back again.
That night, Gitl shared the news with the others of
the zugangi barracks. "Allthe clothes and shoes in good

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