Use Of Propaganda In Maus By Art Spiegelman

Maus, written by Art Spiegelman, is a graphic novel that tells the story of Art’s father, Vladek and his experiences during the holocaust as a German Jew. In this book, many instances of Nazi propaganda are shown being used to deceive the German public. Such deception, despite being evil, was simply ingenious on the Nazi’s part. This cleverness of the Nazis can help one understand that the Jews that survived this ordeal had to be equally or more clever than the Nazis.

Propaganda for the Nazis was overseen by their minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels. In this station, the man was an evil genius. Goebbels successfully hid a multitude of information on the death camps and the overall atrocities of the Nazis from both foreign powers and from

In chronological order, the first example is that of a poster in an early holocaust Ghetto. This poster is used to draw in Jews who wish to be treated better, “Workers Needed War Prisoners may volunteer for labor assignments to replace German workers called to the front. Housing and abundant food will be supplied” (Spiegelman 54) By advertising such appealing conditions, this poster successfully tricks Vladek into going there saying, “I’m not going to die, and I won’t die HERE! I want to be treated like a human being!” (Spiegelman 54) At the new work camp things appear to look up. The Jews are given a single night of truth and are allowed to stay in feather beds with a furnace to warm them. In the light of a new day however, the trickery is made clear as they are forced to perform work worse than that they were forced to do before. In this, the Nazis were able to get Jews to willingly travel to the harsh conditions of the job of mining and digging. The second time Nazi propaganda was used to trick Jews is the most famous one, Theresienstadt, as described in detail earlier. Vladek and his family get a notice from the Nazis that spits out lies, “All Jews over 70 years old will be transferred to Theresienstadt in Czechoslovakia on May 10, 1942”... “A community better prepared to take car of the elderly that ours in Sosnowiec…,” (Spiegelman 86) However, unlike before in the work camp, Vladek does not fall for it and instead hides his grandparents in a bunker. This keeps them alive until later when Vladek and his wife Anja must escape with no other option than to leave them behind. If Vladek and Anja had fallen for it, their shared grandparents would’ve been taken to a transit camp where they’d either die of harsh conditions or die in a gas chamber latter. Later, as a third example, Vladek and Anja are hiding in a bunker from the Nazzis made of shoes . As days turn to weeks, a small portion of them