The Effects of the Holocaust

Maus A Survival’s Tale is a two volume graphic novel that artist and writer Art Spiegelman wrote about his father’s time during World War II. It is written in two different time periods. It is written in Art’s father’s past during the Holocaust in World War II and his more present life in New York. These two volumes cover all sorts of themes such as guilt and race and class, and they cover quite a bit of emotional content. The use of both the past and more present tense helps to further show the emotional impact that the Holocaust had on both Vladek and his son Art.
In the very first panel of the first chapter, the reader is introduced to Art and Vladek and is told that they aren’t very close. It had apparently been almost two years since they last saw each other. This sets the emotional tension of the story which continues to build up as Art gets his father to talk about his life. It then switches to Vladek’s life before he meets Art’s mother, Anja.  As the story progresses, the reader is shown the very first stirrings of the anti-Semitic views of the Nazis during the second chapter’s flashback which shows Vladek and his family’s life getting a bit tougher with their business being robbed, and then Vladek being drafted into the army. The story continues in much of the same fashion where the reader sees Art and Vladek interacting in the present day and then switching over to Vladek’s life during the start of the Holocaust, and the tension slowly builds as the story starts to unfold. A pivotal moment where the emotional impact of the Holocaust has affected Art and Vladek’s relationship in the present day can be seen in chapter 6 where Vladek admits to burning Anja’s diaries because they had too many memories, and Art gets angry and accuses him of murdering Anja. 
Another source of emotional impact due to the Holocaust is seen through Vladek’s personality and relationship with those around him. He is forces Art to eat all of the food on his plate which is probably due to the fact that during his time in World War II he had to survive off of what little food he could get. He also mentions later on in volume two of the story that ever since the war he just can’t seem to throw things away, and he is constantly trying to give Art some of the leftovers, though Art always refuses them. Vladek is also very stubborn, and his relationship with his second wife is rather tense for many reasons. One of those reasons happens to be because he refuses to give Mala more than fifty dollars a month because he’s afraid she’s trying to steal all of his money. He seems to be very stingy when it comes to his possessions which is probably due to the fact that he didn’t have many possessions during his time at the concentration camp. It seems as if Vladek himself isn’t a very amiable person because of his experiences which causes him to have a rather strained relationship with those around him.
One of the main sources of emotional impact due to the Holocaust comes from Art when he feels guilty about having an easier life than his parents. He explains to his wife, Francoise, that he would sometimes wish that he could have been with his parents at Auschwitz, a German concentration and extermination camp, simply so that he could understand what his parents went through. In the same chapter, he also explains his sort of resentment against Richieu, the brother he never met because he was poisoned by his aunt, Tosha, who would rather them be dead than them being sent to Auschwitz. He explains that he always felt in competition with his dead brother simply because Richieu died at the age where he could do no wrong and was the perfect child (Spiegelman, Vol. 2 Chapter 1). This sort of tension that Art feels is directly related to his parents’ experiences during World War II. He couldn’t get out of his dead brother’s shadows, and he couldn’t fully understand what his parents went through, so he had to deal with conflicting feelings towards his dad. 
Due to Vladek’s time spent in Auschwitz and having to live through World War II Poland and Germany as a Jew he and his son have been rather effected by the disturbing and emotional impact of those experiences. They have a strained relationship with one another, Vladek is rather stingy and stubborn due to his experiences, and Art feels guilty about not knowing what his parents had to go through as well as feeling like he’s in a competition with his dead brother. They both struggle to deal with these issues, and the reader gets to see how they are both affected by these events. Overall, Maus is a tale of a father and son who have to deal with events in the past that affect their lives every day.

The Ultimate Decision

     The graphic novel Maus A Survivor’s Tale is a story about the holocaust and the genocide of the Jews during world war two. There is a scene where Vladek, the main character of the graphic novel, is hiding in the ceiling above the chandelier from the German Nazis. Vladek is amongst several other Jews hiding and another Jew seems to stumble upon them. They pull the Jew that finds them into the ceiling and begin to interrogate the individual he then tells the other Jews that he is merely looking for food for his wife and starving baby. Some of the other Jews assume he is lying, and they discuss what they want to do with him. One Jew suggests that he may be an informer and that they should kill him. Instead Vladek decides to give him some food and force him to stay the night with them and lets him go in the morning. Later on, that same Jew returns with a few Germans and rats the other Jews out that are hiding.
     This is a very controversial subject. I myself would have let the man live as well because there is no real reason to kill him even though the next day he did report the Jews to the Gestapo. If I were to have made the decision and took his life that would have put me on the same level as the Nazis. The man was simply looking for food for his family, and during this time everyone was doing anything he or she possibly could to survive. All he wanted to do was to survive one way or another just like every other person in that room did, so to kill him because of that reason would, by all means, require the others to die for the same exact thing.
     Another reason why I would have let the other man live would be because if I were in the same situation as he was, I would hope that the others would take me in and help me. I would not want to have my loyalties questioned, and then have my fate decided by a bunch of strangers when all I want is shelter and food. I would hope that the strangers would show me the same kindness that I would have shown the other man. It’s like the saying treat others how you want to be treated. I wouldn’t want to be treated like a traitor and have suspicion cast on my character. I’d rather they showed mercy and took me in.
     To kill simply based off of a hunch would be wrong. Yes, the Jew did end up selling the others out, but no one could have known for certain that he was working for the Nazis. If I were to kill him based off of suspicion, then that would make me as low as the Nazis. Yes, I know that in the story the Jew sold the whole group out, but I wouldn’t have known that if I was actually in that situation myself. Like they say, hindsight is twenty-twenty. I wouldn’t kill him simply because I wouldn’t know whether or not he’s telling the truth, and I wouldn’t just assume he’s lying and take his life.
     The situation that Vladek found himself in was a difficult one. He ended up having to make one of the biggest decisions of his life. Should he take the life of a man who might simply be looking for a way to survive, or he might be trying to sell them out to the Germans. He ultimately decides to let the man live, and I think he made the right decision with all the information that they had. If I were in his place and I knew what he did at that time, I would make the same exact decision that he did.