The Holocaust: Final Exam: Maus By Art Spiegelman

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Maus Final Exam The Holocaust was a terrible and tragic time for Jewish people. They were constantly treated bad, harassed, and killed. The Nazi’s maintained many concentration camps, the most infamous of which being Auschwitz, where Vladek Spiegelman was sent to during the war. In the graphic novel, Maus, Art Spiegelman tells the tale of his father, Vladek, and his life during the Holocaust. In order to improve his chances of staying alive, Vladek got involved in helping the guards with certain tasks and jobs. By doing so, Vladek was able to raise his reputation among the Nazi officers, which improved his living conditions and saved his life a few times, and he was able to help his fellow prisoners and his wife, Anja. In Auschwitz, Jews …show more content…

Vladek’s roofing experience allowed him to retain his roofing job instead of being reassigned to a much more miserable job (“Volume II,” 55). There were also several instances where he was saved by his reputation. One day when the guards were deciding who to assign work and who to “take away forever (“Volume II,” 32),” the Kapo who he was teaching English to placed him on the good side, so Vladek can continue with the lessons (“Volume II,” 32). Vladek continued to give the Kapo lessons for over two months. During that period, He was the only one remaining from his group of 200 (“Volume II,” 36) The others were sent away, likely to be killed. If Vladek never got into the lessons, he would have been one of …show more content…

When Vladek was granted supplies by the Kapo that he was giving lessons to, he decided to help out another prisoner, Mandelbaum, who was unlucky and miserable. Vladek got him a spoon, which was stolen from him, a belt for his pants that he had to hold up with his hand at all times, and shoes that actually fit. Mandelbaum was overjoyed to tears. “He was so happy, he was crying… and [Vladek] started also crying [sic] with him (“Volume II,” 34).” Additionally, the Kapo knew that he was Vladek’s friend, so they left him alone (“Volume II,” 34). Vladek’s experience aided Anja’s survival as well. Anja had to carry extremely heavy soup containers which she frequently dropped and was beaten because of it. Anja noticed that her supervisor had a worn boot as she was getting kicked. When Anja mentioned that her husband was a shoemaker, and the Gestapo had her boot mended, Anja was treated much better (“Volume II,”

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