Theme Of The Holocaust In Art Spiegelman's Maus

1308 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The impact of World War II

During World War II, millions of innocent people died in one of the most horrific genocides ever recorded. Jews, along with other religious groups were heavily persecuted by the Germans, forcing them to leave their homes and families to go to designated places where the heartless killing and torture of these groups took place. In Art Spiegelman’s Maus, Art obtains the countless stories and memories of his father Vladek as he recalls his sad and sorrowful experience of the Holocaust. During the Holocaust, the Germans conceptualized the Jews and other prosecuted groups as lesser than regular human beings. Because of this mentality, they treated the victims of the Holocaust with hatred and abhorrence. The Germans treatment of the Jews led …show more content…

The prisoners of Auschwitz were given such little food that a week’s worth of food only amounted to a loaf of bread. Food was so precious that giving even a small amount of it to someone else was considered heroic. However, in certain situations, a few brave individuals were willing to sacrifice their own health, for the well being of another. In Vladek’s circumstances, he was willing to make tremendous sacrifices to protect his beloved Anja. “I starved a little to pay to bring Anja over. All what I organized I kept in a box under my mattress. But, when I came back one time from work… ‘It – Its gone!’ I’m telling you I wanted to cry … I saved a second time a fortune, and gave over bribes to bring Anja close to me.” (64 vol II) Vladek experienced starvation not only once, but twice just to ensure Anja’s safety. In Auschwitz and other concentration camps, the prisoners were taken away from everything they had, and stripped from everyone they loved. And after being placed into a unfamiliar situation, completely alone, they had to continue with fear in their hearts through the terrible camps while being given very little food, water, clothes. Even though the prisoners had so little, some courageous people were willing to share their means of surviving so others could also survive, which signifies the group aspect of the …show more content…

For example, Jews were under extreme discrimination because of orders by Hitler would had ingrained the thought that Jews were second class humans compared to the Germans. However, despite the constant abuse because of the Jews religion, they continued to persistently practice their religion. In some ways, the practicing of religion was a direct defiance of Nazi wants and orders. One of the reasons the Jews were believed to be subhuman was because they did not practice Christianity, which the Germans thought to be the ultimate religion. However, Jews, even after experiencing the Holocaust due to their religion, continued to practice it showing that they could not be broken and were committed to their religion. Religion also sometimes gave them hope and the will the live. “It was so real, this voice… ‘You will come out of this place – free!... On the day of parshas truma … before work a few from us prayed. IT was a rabbi there with us. One moment, rabbi. When will we read parshas truma? … In the middle of February – almost three months from now.” (57 vol I) Vladek had a dream where his grandfather came to him and told him he would be freed on parshas truma, a Jewish holiday. This news gave him hope and the energy to endure through all punishments down onto him. Besides from giving him hope, religion brought together various lonely victims of Auschwitz,

Show More
Related

  • A Picture is worth a Thousand Words: The use of Animal Allegory in Maus

    1227 Words  | 3 Pages

    The victims of the Holocaust lose sight of who they are during this time and begin to live their life by playing a part they believe they were because of their race. Loman discussed the irony behind the cat-and-mouse metaphor that Spiegelman uses in his graphic novel in his article titled “’Well Intended Liberal Slop’: Allegories of Race in Spiegelman’s Maus”. In his article he states,

    Read More

  • Maus and the Holocaust

    839 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Holocaust took a great toll on many lives in one way or another, one in particular being Vladek

    Read More

  • Totalitarian Government: Hitler and Stalin

    1102 Words  | 3 Pages

    Following the beginning of the Second World War, Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany and Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union would start what would become two of the worst genocides in world history. These totalitarian governments would “welcome” people all across Europe into a new domain. A domain in which they would learn, in the utmost tragic manner, the astonishing capabilities that mankind possesses. Nazis and Soviets gradually acquired the ability to wipe millions of people from the face of the Earth. Throughout the war they would continue to kill millions of people, from both their home country and Europe. This was an effort to rid the Earth of people seen as unfit to live in their ideal society. These atrocities often went unacknowledged and forgotten by the rest of the world, leaving little hope for those who suffered. Yet optimism was not completely dead in the hearts of the few and the strong. Reading Man is Wolf to Man: Surviving the Gulag by Janusz Bardach and Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi help one capture this vivid sense of resistance toward the brutality of the German concentration and Soviet work camps. Both Bardach and Levi provide a commendable account of their long nightmarish experience including the impact it had on their lives and the lives of others. The willingness to survive was what drove these two men to achieve their goals and prevent their oppressors from achieving theirs. Even after surviving the camps, their mission continued on in hopes of spreading their story and preventing any future occurrence of such tragic events. “To have endurance to survive what left millions dead and millions more shattered in spirit is heroic enough. To gather the strength from that experience for a life devoted to caring for oth...

    Read More

  • Compare the way Goldhagen and Browning present the perpetrators of the Holocaust

    2071 Words  | 5 Pages

    The events which have become to be known as The Holocaust have caused much debate and dispute among historians. Central to this varied dispute is the intentions and motives of the perpetrators, with a wide range of theories as to why such horrific events took place. The publication of Jonah Goldhagen’s controversial but bestselling book “Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust” in many ways saw the reigniting of the debate and a flurry of scholarly and public interest. Central to Goldhagen’s disputed argument is the presentation of the perpetrators of the Holocaust as ordinary Germans who largely, willingly took part in the atrocities because of deeply held and violently strong anti-Semitic beliefs. This in many ways challenged earlier works like Christopher Browning’s “Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland” which arguably gives a more complex explanation for the motives of the perpetrators placing the emphasis on circumstance and pressure to conform. These differing opinions on why the perpetrators did what they did during the Holocaust have led to them being presented in very different ways by each historian. To contrast this I have chosen to focus on the portrayal of one event both books focus on in detail; the mass shooting of around 1,500 Jews that took place in Jozefow, Poland on July 13th 1942 (Browning:2001:225). This example clearly highlights the way each historian presents the perpetrators in different ways through; the use of language, imagery, stylistic devices and quotations, as a way of backing up their own argument. To do this I will focus on how various aspects of the massacre are portrayed and the way in which this affects the presentation of the per...

    Read More

  • The Father-Son Relationship Between Holocaust And Maus

    593 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the years after the Holocaust the survivors from the concentration camps tried to cope with the horrors of the camps and what they went through and their children tried to understand not only what happened to their parents. In the story of Maus, these horrors are written down by the son of a Holocaust survivor, Vladek. Maus is not only a story of the horrors of the concentration camps, but of a son, Artie, working through his issues with his father, Vladek. These issues are shown from beginning to end and in many instances show the complexity of the father-son relationship that was affected from the Holocaust. Maus not only shows these matters of contentions, but that the Holocaust survivors constantly put their children’s experiences to unreasonable standards of the parent’s Holocaust experiences.

    Read More

  • Maus by Art Spiegelman

    596 Words  | 2 Pages

    An estimated six million Jewish people were killed during the Holocaust, and many were thought to have survived due to chance. Vladek in Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel, Maus, is one of the few Jewish people to survive the Holocaust. Though Vladek’s luck was an essential factor, his resourcefulness and quick-thinking were the key to his survival. Vladek’s ability to save for the times ahead, to find employment, and to negotiate, all resulted in the Vladek’s remarkable survival of the Holocaust. Therefore, people who survived the Holocaust were primarily the resourceful ones, not the ones who were chosen at random.

    Read More

  • Holocaust Denial and Distortion

    2232 Words  | 5 Pages

    As early as age thirteen, we start learning about the Holocaust in classrooms and in textbooks. We learn that in the 1940s, the German Nazi party (led by Adolph Hitler) intentionally performed a mass genocide in order to try to breed a perfect population of human beings. Jews were the first peoples to be put into ghettos and eventually sent by train to concentration camps like Auschwitz and Buchenwald. At these places, each person was separated from their families and given a number. In essence, these people were no longer people at all; they were machines. An estimation of six million deaths resulting from the Holocaust has been recorded and is mourned by descendants of these people every day. There are, however, some individuals who claim that this horrific event never took place.

    Read More

  • Hardships with in the Holocaust

    1036 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Holocaust was a terrible time in history; many innocent people were killed, all because of their faith. The book Night by Ellie Wiesel portrays the vigorous journey Wiesel and his family undergo throughout this torturous time. The holocaust wasn’t just genocide against the Jews; it was also a long process of dehumanizing them too. Their valuables were taken and their heads were shaved stripping them of their identity.

    Read More

  • The Holocaust: Family Life During The Holocaust

    1005 Words  | 3 Pages

    Even though once Jews were moved to concentration camps, it was hard to maintain a normal life, evidence from the camps reveals families stayed intact throughout this time of hardship. Families were often left without a father or child and still sought to keep living. There’s no better evidence of the Jew’s resiliency than the survivor’s willingness to set up families in the years immediately following the Holocaust.

    Read More

  • The Aftermath of the Holocaust in Art Spiegelman’s Maus Volumes I and II

    1130 Words  | 3 Pages

    By means of comic illustration and parody, Art Spiegelman wrote a graphic novel about the lives of his parents, Vladek and Anja, before and during the Holocaust. Spiegelman’s Maus Volumes I and II delves into the emotional struggle he faced as a result of his father’s failure to recover from the trauma he suffered during the Holocaust. In the novel, Vladek’s inability to cope with the horrors he faced while imprisoned, along with his wife’s tragic death, causes him to become emotionally detached from his son, Art. Consequently, Vladek hinders Art’s emotional growth. However, Art overcomes the emotional trauma his father instilled in him through his writing.

    Read More

  • Betrayal in "Maus"

    1450 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...s would be all too happy to pay for a meal with the lives of others, there were some good people left. There were people all around who were ready to aid someone else in their quest to stay alive, sometimes at the expense of their own lives. People such as the soldier, the priest, Ms. Motonowa, and Mancie kept things going from day to day for the Spiegelmans. In the end, Vladek and the others survived not because they did not have any friends as Vladek feels, but because they had many friends. Without the people who helped them along the way, Anja and Vladek would have surely died in the concentration camps along with the hundreds of others victims who were not so lucky.

    Read More

  • Maus Two by Art Spiegelman

    444 Words  | 1 Pages

    Art Spiegelman's Maus II is a book that tells more than the story of one family's struggle to live thought the Holocaust. It gives us a look into the psyche of a survivor's child and how the Holocaust affected him and many other generations of people who were never there at all. Maus II gives the reader a peek into the psyche of Art Spiegelman and the affects of having two parents that survived the Holocaust had on him. Spiegelman demonstrates the affects of being a survivor's child in many ways throughout the book. Examining some of these will give us a better understanding of what it was like to be a part of the Holocaust.

    Read More

  • The Holocaust: Non-Jewish Victims

    873 Words  | 2 Pages

    "A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust-Victims." A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust-Victims. University of South Florida. Web. 19 May 2014.

    Read More

  • Relationships and Stereotypes in Maus

    1210 Words  | 3 Pages

    “I'm not talking about YOUR book now, but look at how many books have already been written about the Holocaust. What's the point? People haven't changed... Maybe they need a newer, bigger Holocaust.” These words were spoken by author Art Spielgelman. Many books have been written about the Holocaust; however, only one book comically describes the non-superficial characteristics of it. Art Spiegelman authors a graphic novel titled Maus, a book surrounding the life a Jewish man living in Poland, named Vladek. His son, Art Spielgelman, was primarily focused on writing a book based on his father’s experiences during the Holocaust. While this was his main focus, his book includes unique personal experiences, those of which are not commonly described in other Holocaust books. Art’s book includes the troubles his mother, Anja, and his father, Vladek, conquered during their marriage and with their family; also, how his parents tried to avoid their children being victimized through the troubles. The book includes other main characters, such as: Richieu Spiegelman, Vladek first son; Mala Spiegelman, Vladek second wife; and Françoise, Art’s French wife. Being that this is a graphic novel, it expresses the most significant background of the story. The most significant aspect about the book is how the characters are dehumanized as animals. The Jewish people were portrayed as mice, the Polish as pigs, the Germans (Nazis in particular) as cats, and Americans as dogs. There are many possible reasons why Spiegelman uses animals instead of humans. Spiegelman uses cats, dogs, and mice to express visual interests in relative relationships and common stereotypes among Jews, Germans, and Americans.

    Read More

  • A Comparison Of The Life Of Maus By Vladek Spiegelman

    717 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Holocaust is one of the most horrific and gruesome events in world history. It took a great toll on millions of lives in one way or another. One person in particular is Vladek Spiegelman, a Holocaust survivor. Maus, by Art Spiegelman, consists of two main narratives. One narrative occurs during World War II in Poland, and the other begins in the late 1970s in New York. In relation to each other these two narratives portray the past and present.Throughout the novel, we often see Art Spiegelman questioning why his father acts the way he does. Although the war is over, the events of the Holocaust continue to influence the life of Vladek. Why do we allow the past to effect the present? Vladek's personality is largely influenced by his Holocaust experience. In Maus I and II, Vladek was stubborn, selfish, and cheap because of his experiences in the Holocaust.

    Read More

More about Theme Of The Holocaust In Art Spiegelman's Maus

Open Document