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.