July 4, 2014

Author: Vladek Art Spiegelman

Genre: Non-Fiction

Grabber: “If you lock them in a room with no food for a week…Then you could see what it is, friends!”

Printed: Random House

Places: Germany: Gross-Rosen.  Poland: Reich: Lodz, Chelmno, Warsaw, Treblinka, Sobibor, Majdanek, Belzec, Czestochowa, Zawierci, Sosnowiec, Krakow, Auschwitz, And Bielsko.

Main Characters:

·         Vladeck: Main character, POW and Jew.

·         Anja: Vladeck’s first wife.

·         Mala: Vladeck’s second wife has millions of problems.

·         Art: The author, Vladeck’s son.

Bad Guys:

·         Germans: Guards, Soldiers, everyone who killed Jews.

Minor Characters:

·         I will just say them, there are just too many.

Main story:

Maus is the story of the holocaust, but they aren’t humans, they are animals instead:

·         Jew---Mouse

·         German---Cat

·         American---Dog

·         Frenchmen---Frog

·         Finland--- Fish

·         Pole---Pig

The above is a guide, that’s what they are.

It starts way after the war, when Art skins his knee skating with his ‘friends’ and goes home to his dad. His dad, wondering why he is crying, asks him why he is. After hearing the answer he says: “Friends? Your Friends?...If you lock them in a room with no food for a week…Then you could see what it is, friends!” After a group of years (9 to 41 is how old Art is now) he goes to his dad to ask a question: “Can I do that book about your life in Poland and the war?” “It would take many books, my life, and no one wants to hear such stories, but, if you want…”

“I was, at that time, young, and really a nice, handsome of me, boy. I had lots of girls I didn’t even know who would run after me. They always would, but most I didn't even see.  One, Lucia, I took to a dance, and from there, well, we grew." "But Dad, mom's name was Anja!” “This was before that. See how you get me messed up? Anyway. This was my first long range affair, until I had to go to my family for the holiday, it was 35-40 mile trip on train. There I was met by my cousin, who told me about her friend, Anja. They made the mistake of speaking English in front of me, which they didn’t know I knew English. I fell in love with her.” “But dad, what about Lucia?” “Her? She almost destroyed the relationship, and all by a letter, sending some of the most horrible things about me. But I convinced her that they weren’t true, and we were happy, until the honeymoon.”

“The Honeymoon was okay until we hit one of those cities that were full with people chasing Jews and putting up German signs. God, the things that the passengers said when we left.  “My cousin had to quit his job. “They killed my brother and his wife.” “They made Jews life so miserable.” Boy, everyone hated the Germans until one said “Just hope they don’t start a war!” One of Anja’s ‘boy friends’ who even kept seeing her after the marriage, wasn’t a boy friend at all! He brought messages, and Anja turned them into German messages. She went to her seamstress, and told her to hide it. She did, and only she got arrested, and then Anja’s father payed the bail, then gave her even more (He was a rich person.) And he gave me enough to start a factory. Richieu, our son, was healthy, though pre-mature, but Anja, why, she was hysteric, and we had to go to a sanitarium. When we got back, the factory was robbed, and while in a riot too.”

“Everyone was yelling ‘Jews out! Jews out!’ it was quite a commotion. We were thinking of running back, but we stayed. A mistake. The Jewish police began to begin sending people to Austwich, where we knew of the gas tanks. “Jewish Police?”“Yes, ones with big sticks. They thought that if they could send a few, the Germans would give up. They, unfortunately, didn’t, and took more and more. We made a bunker for Anja’s parents.” “Bunker? How did you make a bunker?” “In our tool shed, we put up a false wall, and put them inside.” “Ahh, ok.”

“We go caught soon, though, and had to go to the German camp. The parents, they were sent to Austwich, and died. I was strong, so the rest of us were sent to the camp to work, and there I went from teaching some of the guards English and Polish, to being a tin man, to-” “Tin Man?” “That what they called the tin workers, and I was a good one. Then I began fixing shoes. After a while, though, they made some black work.” “Black work, huh? What’s that?” “They made us pick up rocks and such, to make trenches for the troops.” “You were that close to freedom? Why didn’t anyone run?”  “They always had a gun to our heads, and even if we didn’t, they were back up ones, most of which not used.”

“We got sent to Austwich, but not for gassing, we were workers, sent to do the gassing. A Rebellion happened, and about 6, maybe 7, Germans got killed. The Rebellion got gassed, all of them. I told them it wasn’t a good idea. I was a roofer, and got a bird’s eye view of the whole thing. We got back to work, and with more guards. It wasn’t goof, and we we’re going to die until we got exchanged as prisoner of war with the Americans, and were sent to a town where they were going to pick us up. They weren’t there, but we leapt out anyway, and 200 of us got recaptured, and they put us on the shore of a lake, with machine guns all around. But at the last moment, the commanders girlfriend saved us. We escaped again, but they captured us again, about 50. The Americans chased them away, and once again we managed to escape, this time with no capture. We found the Americans, got home free, and got away from the Germans once and for all.”

My Review: Good, but a sadistic way.

Message: Trick others when you need to, and make friends when you have to.