Vladek Spiegelman had great business sense, and he used it
to survive. He survived on it as a young salesman, and as a prisoner of war,
and as a victim of Hitler’s death camps.
Fast forward 40
years. Vladek is old and cranky. His son, with whom he isn’t close, wants to
hear (and tell others) his father’s story. He knows his father is angry; after
all, he grew up with this man’s stinginess, crankiness, and lack of empathy for
anyone. But he’ll soon see that there’s a part missing. Although his father is
alive, part of him died when he “survived.”
When I was growing up in the 1980’s, I knew many Holocaust
survivors. They were either glad to be alive or full of anger. Some were eager
to tell their stories to the young; others carried the scars deep inside. For
many years (perhaps until the 1970’s) it was almost taboo for the survivors to
talk about what happened. The children of Holocaust survivors have a lot of
emotional baggage.
Vadek Spiegelman
is one such survivor. He kept himself alive using his great business sense and
his “street smarts.” He knew when to speak up and when to remain invisible, and
used these abilities to help anyone who needed him. In fact he risked his life
to save people when even his own relatives turned their backs on him.
But Vladek’s
survival skills couldn’t save everyone. His father, his oldest son, his sister,
and countless other relatives didn’t survive. You wonder if Vladek feels guilty
for not dying. Does he feel ashamed that he kept himself alive while his
friends and family were killed? Does Vladek have “survivor’s guilt”?
Artistically, the
book is unique. Spiegelman draws the Jews as mice, the Nazis as cats, the Poles
as pigs, the Americans as dogs, French as frogs, and so on. The use of animal
faces is great for this story because it highlights the aggression of the
Holocaust. Vladek is essentially a mouse hiding from a marauding cat, and the
Poles are these big, aggressive men who don’t want the Jews around. If you need
to clarify, there’s a scene in Maus
Book II where a Polish capo rages “Jew, you just got here and you’re ready to
do business!” The Poles are portrayed as pigs who don’t want mice in their
stall. The Poles don’t get off light in this story.
When I read Roger
Ebert’s review of The Killing Fields
I was reminded a little of Maus.
Ebert wrote “In a Hollywood epic, Shamberg would go back into Cambodia to
rescue his friend, accompanied by mercenaries, but in this movie, all he can do
is make phone calls and write letters.” That’s what Maus is about, and it’s also what Schindler’s List, Hotel
Rwanda, and The Pianist are
about. In the middle of a genocide, you have to survive by your wits. Armed
resistance worked in Sobibor and Treblanka, but it didn’t happen in most death
camps; the camps were patrolled by guns and dogs, and the prisoners were weak
from starvation. Hostile Polish towns surrounded the camps. They were made for
nobody to escape.
In the second
book, Art Spiegelman talks about survivor’s guilt. Would he respect his father
as much if he hadn’t survived? Does death equal losing the fight? Vladek may
have survived the war (as did his wife) but his spirit didn’t. Did his father
hate himself for not saving more of his relatives? He certainly did more than
his cousins did, who betrayed him. When Art asks his father “He didn’t want to
help you? But he was family, wasn’t he?” Vladek replies “it was every person
for himself.” You have to wonder if maybe Vladek had lost faith in humanity
too?
I recommend this
book for anyone who wants to learn more about Jewish history and the Holocaust.
Spiegelman has done a great service, not only to the comics medium, but also to
Holocaust studies. He captures the feeling of the camps, with the dirt, filth,
and cold, and sometimes I can almost smell the stench.
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