Art Spiegleman
Vladek Spiegleman
The comic novel Maus is a great comic. This comic is based on a real story, and lets us know a little bit more facts about the holocaust and some of the things that happened during the holocaust that a lot of us didn’t even know. The author of this novel is Art Spiegleman, but the story was told by none other than his own father, Vladek Spiegleman that survived the holocaust and lets us in to some of the things he experienced. Vladek lets us know about his son Richieu, which he lost in the war and tells us about his wife Anja and how they both managed to survive the holocaust. Even though Anja managed to make it through the holocaust she ended up committing suicide. A lot of Jews were ratting out their own to guards to save their own lives but that didn’t even guarantee them their lives. Vladek also informed us on the cruel things the guards would do to a Jew; they wouldn't be given any mercy no matter how much they pled.
Throughout the comic Vladek let us know about his son Richieu and Anja and how his love for them was so great. Richieu was killed in the war; he died poisoned by Anja's sister Tosha. She didn't just kill her two children but also Richieu and herself. She didn’t want the children and herself to be sent to the gas chambers. All we really know about Richieu was that he was a good boy and that he was loved greatly by Vladek and Anja. Anja was Vladeks wife that he loved very much. Art did have the chance to see his mom and have some memories of her before she died. Anja came from a very wealthy family that gladly accepted Vladek into the family. Both Vladek and Anja were sent to the concentration camps and managed to survive.
Even though Anja was able to survive the holocaust she ended up committing suicide a few years later. What we did know was that Anja was suffering depression and a little before the war began we know that she had a sort of break down were she didn’t want to live anymore and didn’t care about nothing and she didn't know why. Vladek was able to help her recover from that break down a bit. Anja was sent to the concentration camps just like Vladek and they were able to get out of there alive. Nobody really understands why Anja would commit suicide after she had survived the torturing experience of the camps. She had left no note or clue on why she did it. In my personal opinion it’s a bit ironic.
As soon as the holocaust began fearing people you couldn't trust anyone. Not even your own family members could be trusted. Many thought that but ratting out another Jew would say their lives, they thought wrong, the guards would also shoot them down. Who you thought were your friends before the war, wouldn't even open the doors of their house to let you in; they would leave you on your own to die. Those people that did decide to help a Jew out would want to get paid a good amount of money, it was a really big risk helping a Jew, and it could cause them their lives. The guards had no mercy.
The guards had no mercy and would to cruel things to the Jews. In the concentration camps many Jews were killed every day and the way they would do it was by torcher. Many Jews were tricked by the German guards being told they were going to take a shower but they were really putting the gas chambers. Vladek tells us that people were trying to climb the walls trying to escape and trying to get out through the door in which they came. Also a lot of Jews were sent to the ovens to burn alive. Vladek tells us how volunteers were forced to poor the burning fat of the bead bodies on the ones that were still alive so they would burn better. All those that were put in the camps were given rotten food and just the right amount to keep them working yet have them die slowly of starvation. Those in the camps were filled with lice from head to toe. The lice was in the clothes, body, inside the wounds, and on their bunks were they slept. This comic is a great story that talks about a personal live experience. We were able to learn more things about what occurred in the camps.
