Vladek’s Intelligence and How he Survived the Holocaust

720 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: In what ways does money help Vladek and his family survive the holocaust

1. Possessing intelligence was vital for Vladek, since every move he took would mean life or death. Vladek knew if he wanted to survive in the concentration camps, he must make clever actions and have inside information on what the Nazis were planning. Since Vladek knew English, he started teaching it to a Nazi who worked at his concentration camp and befriended him. His Nazi friend informed Vladek on what was going to happen to the Jews, and how he could survive. Vladek’s intelligence is the main reason he survived throughout the Holocaust, and his intelligence also saved the life of his wife. 2. Vladek learned many skills before the Holocaust that guided him throughout his life during the Holocaust. Vladek knew that he could use his skills to help him survive. First, Vladek taught English which resulted in not only survival, but Vladek also acquired clothing of his choice which almost no other person in his concentration had the privilege to do. After teaching English, Vladek found an occupation as a shoe repairman in the concentration camps. Vladek’s wife, Anja, was greatly mistreated by a female Nazi general, and Anja noticed that the general’s shoes were torn. Anja informed the general that her husband could repair her shoes, and after Vladek fixed the general’s shoes, the general was nice to Anja and brought her extra food. 3. Vladek’s life during the Holocaust was gruesome, but regardless of what was happening in his own life Vladek was always thinking about the safety of Anja. Vladek loved Anja dearly, if anything happened to Anja Vladek would not care about his own life, and lose the will to live. When Anja and Vladek were separated in the concentration camp, Vladek found a woman and asked her if she knew if Anja is... ... middle of paper ... ...ho helped Vladek communicate with Anja also received food from Vladek since she was helping him out. Even though Vladek didn’t need to, he still supported his friends and family even when he was the one who was in need of support. 7. Vladek’s skill of being persuasive helped him throughout his hard times. Vladek persuaded Anja’s father to buy him a textile company, which helped Vladek later on. Vladek also persuaded a family to put him into hiding using the money he got from the textile company. When Vladek wanted to escape his current home to move to Turkey, Anja refused. Vladek successfully persuaded Anja, and changed Anja’s answer from defiantly not to let’s do it. Vladek even persuaded a Nazi soldier whom Vladek was teaching English to, to give Vladek and his relative new clothing. 8. Despite Vladek’s good qualities, he also had a nervous outlook on things.

Show More
Related

  • Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

    681 Words  | 2 Pages

    Lina Vilkas is a fifteen year old girl who is the protagonist of this story. She was taken, by the NKVD, from her house with her mother and brother to exile. Later in the story she meets Andrius and falls in love with him. She marries him after the war while moving from place to place. Andrius uses his misfortune as a fortune to help others. He takes care of Lina and her family as best he can. Nikolai Kretzsky is a young NKVD officer who helps Lina and her mother even after Lina insulted him. Mr Stalas is a Jew who is deported with the other people. He wanted to die with dignity. He is often referred to as The Bald Man. He confesses that he was liable for the deportation. Janina is a starry-eyed young girl who likes to help others and to talk to her "dead" doll. When few selected people are brought to the North Pole for more suffering, dozens of people die from cholera and pneumonia. Lina however, survives and manages to save Jonas and Janina with the help of Nikolai Kretzsky.

    Read More

  • Maus and the Holocaust

    839 Words  | 2 Pages

    same exact experiences as he did. Even to his own son, Vladek has  trouble opening up about personal

    Read More

  • The Father-Son Relationship Between Holocaust And Maus

    593 Words  | 2 Pages

    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. Even though this relationship gets better by the end of the second book, Vladek’s and Artie’s relationship remains tenuous for the majority of the book. This begins at the very beginning when Artie’s friends leave him behind when they were skating and Artie goes to his father crying and Vladek says, “Friends? Your friends? If you lock them in a room with no food for a week THEN you see what it is Friends” (Spiegelman 6).

    Read More

  • Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi

    1143 Words  | 3 Pages

    Primo Levi tells the readers the explicit details of the concentration camp Auschwitz, in his memoir, “Survival in Auschwitz.” The way in which the author talks about the camp is as if it is its own society. There is a very different and very specific way of life at the camp; their basic needs are provided for them, but only in the simplest form in order to have a small chance of survival. There is no clean, drinkable water, so instead they drink coffee, they eat soup twice a day, and a small amount of bread (26). There are thousands of diverse people living in the camp, who are forced to live with each other and work in a factory, reducing their self-worth to merely factors of production. The author illustrates the only purpose for the Jews is work; “This camp is a work-camp, in German one says Arbeitslager; all the prisoners, there are about ten thousand, work in a factory which produces a type of rubber called Buna, so th...

    Read More

  • Maus by Art Spiegelman

    596 Words  | 2 Pages

    Granted luck did play a part in the novel, the major factors that kept Vladek alive were his resourcefulness and quick-thinking. Specifically, his ability to save items for the times to come. When Vladek was in an overcrowded cattle train, he used the thin, tattered blanket they had given him earlier, and “climbed to somebody’s shoulder and hooked it strong” above the other prisoners in the cattle car (Spiegelman, 245). This allowed Vladek the opportunity to “rest and breat...

    Read More

  • Summary Of The People Who Walked By Borowski

    819 Words  | 2 Pages

    First, prisoners viewed the “Zauna” as a deplorable living condition because it was part of a concentration camp, but it at least presented a chance for Jews to live rather than immediate die in the gas chamber (245). Additionally, Jewish women tried to ease their mental suffering by asking prisoners about the status of their other family members, such as husbands and children, with questions such as “Surely they’re not dead?” or even more hopeful, “Tell us, are they at least a little better off?” (248). It was as though, if they could know that their families were ‘okay,’ their emotional suffering might be assuaged, even if only in the smallest sense. Borowski describes that “Despite their rough manner, they [Jewish women] had retained their femininity and human kindness”

    Read More

  • How Did Vrba Show Courage

    781 Words  | 2 Pages

    "I escaped to break that belief that it was not possible. And to stop more killings," said Rudolf Vrba. Rudolf Vrba stood up for the rights of others and himself, even while facing persecution. Because of Rudolf Vrba's courage, the world could understand the magnitude of the Holocaust. It's because of Rudolf Vrba, that I realize the importance of being the voice for those who have none.

    Read More

  • Character Analysis of Riva from The Cage by Ruth Minsky Sender

    829 Words  | 2 Pages

    Riva was forever grateful of all the magnificent friends she had and the unique treatment she received at Mittlesteine. While Riva was at Mittelsteine she got blood poisoning, and the doctor at the camp negotiated for Riva to be sent to a trained hospital where she was treated of her contamination. Riva was too fragile to work, so she instead worked at the first aid station for German soldiers rolling gauze pads into bundles. Riva also got additional helpings of food (mashed potatoes and vegetables) that was sneaked in for her by a nurse, and the nurse let her have a hot bath for the first time since she left her home. Riva also had many friends in the Łódź Ghetto that looked out for her well being such as Mr. and Mrs. Berkenwald, who acted as Riva and her brother’s parents. They would save their servings of food, wood, and water for the kids because they knew they were vital for their daily life.

    Read More

  • Maus Despondent Quotes

    1045 Words  | 3 Pages

    Vladek’s journey between Germany and Poland caused him to adapt his personality in order to survive. The hideous sights of war and death caused him to harden his personality. “If you lock[ed] them together in a room with no food for a week (…).” This starkly gruesome quote (row two, panel two page 6) provides an insight for life inside the holocaust. This blatantly harsh response to Artie’s tears of abandonment by his friends, serves to unintentionally trivialise Artie’s problems. Yet Spiegelman also portrays himself to be burdened by the Holocaust. The use of a horizontal striped shirt suggests that although he was not directly a part of the holocaust, he is yet weighed down by it, as the holocaust robbed him of a mother and hardened his father to the point where their relationship begins to disintegrate. The cross hatching of the house, reminiscent of gas chambers, and the dark shadow representative of the garage behind Vladek serves to further confirm the idea that the Holocaust had a negative effect on both Vladek and Artie. Yet as Vladek looms over Artie in the panel, and the darkness seemingly surrounding him, it leads to the conclusion that Vladek’s pain and suffering far

    Read More

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

    1130 Words  | 3 Pages

    Vladek’s failure to move forward from his past experiences causes him to suppress his pain. He is unable to express his emotions; as a result, he uses control as a coping mechanism. Vladek’s control is illustrated when he destroys Anja’s memoirs. Vladek explains, “After Anja died, I had to make an order with everything… These papers had too many memories. So I burned them” (1:159). By destroying any evidence that reminds him of Anja, he harms his own emotional stability. Moreover, burning the papers illustrates his attempt to cover up the reality that he cannot always have control over life. Vladek’s suppression leads him to use control in an unhealthy manner.

    Read More

  • The Perils Of Indifference By Elie Wiesel

    678 Words  | 2 Pages

    We are able to use this anger to construct a future where no human being will be the subject of indifference. Through “The Perils of Indifference”, the reader is able to see an overview that Night was completely lacking from the first person perspective. “The Perils of Indifference” lacks the in depth view of loss and bleakness that is created from hopelessness and indifference that Night successfully shows through many literary devices and a character that we are able to connect with on a personal level like the death of Juliek and his hope bringing object, his violin. Although it is very true that a reader is able to easily see the deadly changes that occur through the Holocaust in the memoir Night, the vast number of examples that are given through the thought provoking existential questions posed by “The Perils of Indifference”. These unique questions allow people to discover through deep and revealing thoughts how indifference has affected and corrupted the power countries and emotions in this unchanged world.

    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

  • The impact of survivor’s guilt in Art Spiegelman’s Maus

    699 Words  | 2 Pages

    The comic implies that surviving the holocaust affects Vladek’s life and wrecks his relationship with his son and his wife. In some parts of the story, Vladek rides a stationary bike while narrating his story (I, 81, panel 7-9). Given the fact that it is a stationary bike, it stays immobile: no matter how hard Vladek pedals, he cannot move forward. The immobility of the bike symbolizes how survivor’s guilt will never let him escape his past. Vladek can never really move past the holocaust: he cannot even fall asleep without shouting from the nightmares (II, 74, panel 4-5). Moreover, throughout the story, the two narrators depict Vladek before, during and after the war. Before the war, Vladek is characterized as a pragmatic and resourceful man. He is resourceful as he is able to continue his black business and make money even under the strengthened control of the Nazi right before the war (I, 77 panel 1-7). However, after surviving the holocaust, Vladek feels an obligation to prove to himself and to others that his survival was not simply by mere luck, but because h...

    Read More

  • A Comparison Of The Life Of Maus By Vladek Spiegelman

    717 Words  | 2 Pages

    Vladek has clearly never fully recovered from the horrors of the Holocaust. Because he was once wealthy and carefree now he’s cheap and pragmatic. Once a generous businessman now he’s a selfish miser. The Holocaust affect each survivor differently. Art notes on a few separate occasions, the Holocaust cannot be the reason for all of Vladek’s behavior. “I used to think the war made him this way.” Art says to Mala. In which, she responds that "all our friends went through the camps; nobody is like him!” It may be that no survivor is like him, but it’s the way he copes with what he went through. Basically, he’s still living his life as if he were still in those concentration camps in the present time.

    Read More

  • Janusz Korczak: Beacon of Hope in the Holocaust

    1273 Words  | 3 Pages

    During the destructive and apprehensive time of the Holocaust, one man accentuated happiness for the children in his orphanage. Janusz Korczak would let the children color on his bald head with crayons, and when the children lost their teeth, he would collect them and use them to build a toy castle. Known as a children’s writer, educator, and hero, Janusz Korczak showed leadership throughout the tragic event known as the Holocaust. Janusz Korczak had an unique early life compared to other children. He always tried to be decorous and positive throughout the Nazi Era. Korczak was memorialized because of his fearlessness. Indeed, Janusz Korczak displayed courage and determination throughout his life.

    Read More

More about Vladek’s Intelligence and How he Survived the Holocaust

Open Document