Summary Of Vladek Spiegelman's Maus

In late July of 1944, the Soviet Red Army comes upon the first Nazi war camp in Poland known as Majdanek that was discovered by the allies. After liberating the people there, they move further west in an attempt to invade Germany". On their conquest to the German homeland, the Soviets liberate hundreds of work camps that ranged from small prisons all the way to full-fledged concentration camps. The Soviet Union, along with other allied powers such as the United States, liberated thousands of people from Nazi rule. For many, the sight of the allied powers signaled a renewed freedom and a better life to come, just as it did for Vladek Spiegelman in his son’s book Maus. Maus is the story of Vladek Spiegelman's life. The book focuses on the time

In Maus, the main protagonist, Vladek, is put in a trade deal by the Nazis with the Americans. The deal was an exchange of prisoners on the Swiss border because Switzerland was a neutral country. The war has ended at this point, Vladek and the prisoners were put onto a freight train and a Nazi soldier shouted that “The Americans will be in the next town” (Spiegelman 265). This quote shows that the Americans were there to liberate imprisoned people in the book. Other armies that freed Nazis camps included the Soviet Red Army and the British Army. The British Army liberated a number of labor and concentration camps, but the most notable was the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp that was liberated in April of 1945. The Soviet Red Army liberated the highest amount of labor and concentration camps. Some notable camps that were liberated were Auschwitz, Majdanek, Ravensbrück, and Theresienstadt. In Maus, Art says “Mom used to mention Ravensbrück” (Spiegelman 264), he is referring to the fact that his mother may have gone to Ravensbrück concentration camp after Auschwitz was evacuated. Vladek responds by saying that all he knows is that his wife, Anja, was liberated on the Russian side. Ravensbrück was liberated by Russians, therefore Anja was most likely freed