Question

How do films such as the devil arithmetic help us to understand a "real" historical event such as the holocaust?

Answer 1

It shows a difference between modern time, and then the time before. IN the beginning, the main characters are in the modern time, celebrating some sort of Jewish Holiday. As the movie goes on, it then goes to the time of WWII, and how their lives were before they were shipped off to camps. Compared to other movies (such as the Boy in the Striped Pyjamas), it actually shows the process of how they were entered into the camp, from the violent cutting of hair (which should have been way closer to the scalp than it was), branding, and the gas chambers. It gives a closer look than the movies I have personally seen so far.