The Treatment Of Jews In Maus, By At Spiegelman

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During World War II, the treatment of the Jewish population was horrendous. The Holocaust itself was the annihilation of six million Jews; by 1945 two out of three European Jews had been killed. The Jews felt the effect of more than four hundred decrees and regulations that restrained all aspects of their private and public life by the Nazis. Maus, by At Spiegelman is a prime example of the methods the Nazis used against the Jewish population during the war. The Nazis used methods such as the registration of Jews, placing them in ghettos, and creating concentration camps to control the Jewish population and these methods came with short and long term effects.
One of the methods implemented by the Nazis was the use of concentration camps, in …show more content…

To make the Nazi’s task easier and more effective, they required them to wear yellow stars on their clothing so they could be spotted in public. For example, the concentration camp in Auschwitz, many incoming prisoners were assigned a camp serial number. Only prisoners who were selected for work were issued a number; those prisoners sent directly to the gas chambers were not registered. In Maus, there is an image, in which Vladek is pedaling and one can see a number written on his arm. This gives the reader an indication of how during World War II, Jews were forced to register so that the Nazis would know who they are and thus they were “branded”. This image is superimposed on the scenes relating Vladek’s entry into the concentration camps. Making Jews wear a number or have a number imprinted on them, dehumanized them because they were not considered humans in the eyes of the Nazis and non-Jews. The registration process was as follows: prisoners would be registered before undressing. They would then be tattooed with a registration number, shaved of al body hair, disinfected and forced through showers that were extremely cold or painfully hot. The fact that they were forced to be branded and be considered a number during that time just shows how much control the Nazis had over them

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