ww The Complete Maus CKGROUND & CONTEXT ‘Art Spiegelman’s conceptualisation of Maus began in 1972, when he decided to do a comic strip about racism based on stor his father, Vladek, had told him during childhood, inthis comic strip, Spiegelman Sepicted Jews as mice and Nazi Germans as cats. When Spiegelman ‘ook the strip to show his father, Viadek divulged more of his story about the Holocaust, and Spiegelman decided to interview him further to glean more of his story. By the time Spiegelman moved to New York in 1975, he had decided to do ‘a very long comic book’ based on the interviews he had conducted with his father, along with ad research, In 1978 he carried out further interviews and c ‘enough material to complete the project. From December 1980, the omic strips were serialised in RAW; the magazine featured a chapter ‘of the story in every issue until 1991. In 1986, the publisher Pantheon Published the first six chapters as Maus: A Survivors Tale (subtitled My Father Bleeds History). In 1991, Pantheon published the last five chapters of Part Two as And Here My Troubles Began. Both volumes ‘were brought together in 1994, when the Voyager Company released The Complete Maus on CD-ROM, Comic books as literature When we think of comic books, we could be forgiven for thinking in ‘he first instance of superhero and fantasy comics, made famous by fs of comic-book giants DC Comics and Marvel. We know that comic book is a story (ust ional) told through a sequence of frames or pictures, within which characters engage in dialogue. The comic book traditionally has little prose, and the reader derives most of the story from the visual frames he dialogue. It is this dialogue, along with brief captions in the frames that provide some nar delivers the plot. The must notable comic-book publishers, OC Comics and Marvel, ‘are no doubt part of the reason why comics are often regarded as juvenile or non-liteary. Rising to great popularity in the 1950s and 1960s, superhero comic books aimed primarily at younger readers dominated the shelves. As a result of this popularity, most considered the comic book aba genre rather than a medium fr Hiteray regard " is only in recent years that comic books have been categorised as ‘graphic novels’ when they present serious or real stories beyond the adolescent fantasies often associated with comic books. Underground comix Inhis retrospective of comics, Co-Mix, Spiegelman provides a det ‘comix as a verb: To mix tagether. As in words and pictures’ (Spiegelman 2013, p.7). What sets comix apart from comic books is that the content ture of comix is usually socially relevant or satirical When we refer to something as “‘undergroun ‘movement away from the mainstream or popular. Underground media y published or exhibited on a small scale, outside rs oF distributors. It often pushes boundaries, it suggests a in any form is typi of large corporate publi incorporating content that would not be permitted in mainstream publications or exhibits, including coarse language and gritty depictions sxuality and violence. ee untand coix mrenet vs ns opi 1960s to early 1970s in the United States, and Art Spiegelman was it. His autobiographical comin, Planet: A Case History’, which was published ‘in an obscure underground comic book’ (p.101, frame 8), is referred to in Maus: Viadek reads it and is affected by the grim yet honest account of his son's response t0 Anja’s suicide. Communism in Poland ly. We see this in Chapter In Maus, communists are portrayed negat : ‘Two of Part One, when Anja is suspected of being a communist anithe Spiegelman house is searched by police. Anja has a neighbouring seamstress hide a package containing documents that implicate her as ‘a communist sympathiser, and the seamstress the documents Communism was outlawed in Poland after World War |, The reasons led for possession of for the outlawing of and subsequent negativity towards communism are complicated, owing to a long history of political in Europe in general. More specifically, they are a result of hundreds of years of struggle between Poland and what is now known as Russia {formerly the Union of Soviet Social Power struggles between these two cour Republics, or the Soviet Union). Poland once occupying Moscow (in 1610), and, mote significantly, the Soviet Union occupying a large proportion of Poland in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Prior to World War Poland, Soviet Union leader Joseph Stalin made many offers to Poland when the German threat was building in to form an anti-German alliance. Poland feared Stalin’s communism as much as they feared Hitler's Nazism, and they refused. Many people hhave argued that World War It would not have been so devastating for Poland had they allied with the Soviet Union. The truth of this will never be known, Yet in 1939 @ non-aggression pa Ribbentrop Pact) was signed between the Soviet Union and Germany, after the Soviet Union's alliance offers to Poland were refused. This pact contained an agreement to segment Europe, including Poland, between the two powers and was the basis of the invasion of many countries in Europe. The Jewish people in Poland Maus is a story about Polish Jews, and it is important to understand the distinction between Jewish people of different nations in Europe. Jews have been in Poland for centuries; for much o , dating back to before the year 1000, Poland was home to the largest Jewish ‘community in Europe. Poland was known he most tolerant country Inaight ext buice in the continent, with a long period of and social autonomy. These laws were in place partitioning of Poland began. Yet this culture of tolerance prevailed; when Poland gained political autonomy in 1918, after World War I, cover 3 million Jews wer ing in the country, Before World War sixty per cent of the world’s Jewish population ~ lived in Europe. This equated to about two per cent of the total European population at that time, Most ews lived in Eastern Europe (in countries including Poland, the Soviet Union, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia), followed by central Europe (Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Austria) The Jewish population of Poland was devastated by World Wat Historians have estimated that the number of surviving Jews in Poland ‘was a meagre 350,000. This devastation and loss is made very real at the conclusion of Vladek’s story when, in his words, ‘All what the photos’ (p.275, frame 7) of Anja’ family, and ‘Nothing ‘even a snapshot’ (p.276, frame 7) of his own family. approximately 9.5 million Jews ~ more thanHistorical and Cunural Context Judaism sludaism is one of the oldest religions in the world. It is an Abrahamic religion which, like Christianity and Islam, sees the prophet Abraharn is a key figure. These religious traditions diverge significantly trom ach other after the Abraham story. Jews believe that the saviour has Mot yet arrived, unlike Christians who see the saviour in Jesus, or Muslims who see a prophet in Muhammad. While Jews are note specific race, they can trace a common ancestry and {he Middle East. Also, being a Jew isnot only about rligion: anyone whos mother is 2 Jew is automatically Jewish themselves - ite ¢ lineal he Persecution of Jews was not limited to the Holocaust. It had been a long-running occurrence throughout Europe for hundreds of yeats. This persecution had religious and cultural roots. One of the I and national governments. In some eaions they were banned from certain professions and denied the {ight to own farming land. Ths difficulty in owning property often led them to consolidate their wealth in jewels and banking, which ted ce Jcalous hosillity from the wider community in periods af economic. Gistress. The persecution of Jews often took the form of forced rigration and violence. Such phenomena had been taking place tor hundreds of years before Hitler's rise to pawer in Germany, pep,PoPular misconception of Jews in European culture, particularly before and. for some, after the Holocaust, has been one ot money grubbing misers. Male Jews are often represented as having 2 hooked nose and a beard. The repeated attacks against Jews here Produced a persecution complex for many Jews Poland: 1920s-1939 Poland is 9 relatively new state in Europe. While the country has hhad a strong national identity tor centuries, Pol nation was created during the Russian Revolution (i {t Broke away from Russian control. The sense of being Polish wos {atgely based on geography and membership in the Catholic Charen Respite this strong Catholic background, the majority of Europe's ews lived in or around Poland. This was largely because Jews in the Fussian Empire were encouraged from 1792 to internally migrate ta he Pale of Settlement, an area that included much of contemporory Poland, the Ukraine and Lithuania. They were promised more rights and protection than Jews in most other areas of the Empire, This ‘resulted in a considerable Jewish population in this zone. Over the ext few hundred years, most Jews in this area felt integrated into Polish society: they saw themselves as Polish first, Jewish second religious sense was secondary to their national identity, Poland was obliterated as a national entity in September 1939 at the ‘tart of the World War Il by the Germans in the west and the Russians inthe cast. There was a degree of complicity between both countries inate Poland as a state. Poland was under full German control from 1941 once they invaded Russia. The Germans did not lose Control until the start of 1945, clase to the end of the war. The Holocaust: 1933-1945 The ‘Holocaust’ is the name given to the persecution and murder of millions of people in Nazi-controlled Europe from 1933-1945, The re38 under control included France and most of Eastern Europe. The Holocaust was tied up with many of Hitler's ideas of political and (ciel purity. Those persecuted included people seen as threats to the State ~ such as Communists, conscientious objectors and church leaders ~ as well as those who were deemed to pose a threat to Germany and Europe's ethnic identity, including Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals and the mentally disabled. ‘Jews were the largest group affected by this persecution. This was flue to the pre-existing prejudice against them, and thelt relatively high visibility in European society. While the persecution sterten Curing the early period of Nazi Party rule, the war accelerated and formalised it. A meeting between top Nazis in 1942, known as the Wannsee Conference. discussed and finalised the most efficient way to persecute and exterminate so-called ‘undesirables: Particularly Jews Jews’ lives were slowly made worse. They slowly lost their civil Tights, were forced to wear a yellow star in public and were moved into ghettos, before being rounded up and taken to concentration famps to be murdered. The final destination for mast victims of the Holocaust were the so-called ‘death camps’, including Auschwite o- Treblinks, both of which were situated in Poland. The death compe were enormous factories in the service of efficient and wholessle Geath, This pattern of elimination was mimicked across most of the States conquered by Germany. The notable exception is Denmark, the country, ‘The horror of the Holocaust is not just the number of deaths ~ the ion — but their organised nature and intiem, then children, then women who were too old, then the healthiest men and women. The malority of survivors were fit men in their twenties and thirties, The Systematic nature of this process shocked much of the rest of thebd Judaism Postcolonial rations world once they discovered what was happening. The reaction to these deaths was made worse because Germany at that time was ‘seen as the most cultured and advanced nation in Europe. The fact that the Holocaust took place is less a reflection on Germany than on human nature. Post-war: 1945 to the Present Holocaust was @ new Jewish diaspora. Many Europe. the most 'e Middle East. The of thousands of refugees and other post ial problems the creation of the state of Israel Jews also migrated to anglophone countries such as North America, Britain, Canada and Au: jon to North America produced a new social group of Jewish-Americans. The outlook and tudes of these new migrants occupy 2 significant cultural place in the USA in disproportion to their actual numbers For a long time, people tried to forget abou experiences. This was true of Spiegelman’s parents. However, 9 ‘great deal of literature and cultural content has since ‘oduced about the Holocaust experience. It has survivors, including Primo Levi and El survived Auschwitz and wi Holocaust has assumed a spe itis generally seen as a story of suf liber ish, American or Russian soldiers —and eventual ‘safety in Israel. Maus does not ignore this perception, but it does undermine and re-contextualise the experience, providing a more personal and unresalved model of experience. FOCUS QUESTIONS to Spiegelman - his parents’ Holocaust post-Holocaust experiences? Are there any modern events pal What does this indicate about human nai lel to the Holocaust?iegelman Maus: A Survivors Tale II: And Here My Troubles Began Published in 1991 fter the Holocaust, survivors were scattered across the slobe and faced the prospect of rebuilding their shat- tered lives. Despite social, economic and cultural differences, they all shared a common bond—they wondered why they had survived while so many others had not. Some struggled to tell their stories, confiding in family members and friends, Many began writing and lecturing about their experiences, hoping to honor the deceased and to prevent future atroci. ties, A few remained silent, vowing never to speak of this ter. ible chapter in their past. For the survivors who started fam. ilies after the war, they passed on a unique set of experiences to their children. In addition to the love and nurturing they received from their parents, this second generation inherited the emotional scars and broken family heritage left in the wake of the Holocaust, During the late 1960s and early 1970s, American social and political activism flourished. Among the numerous cam- Palgns of the era was the “roots” movement, which cele- brated family genealogy. At this time, groups of Jewish grad- wate students in the United States began meeting and exploring their similar experiences as children of survivors. Despite their socioeconomic differences and the varying cir. cumstances of theit parents’ survival, they shared many of the same struggles. They witnessed and participated in their Parents’ attempts to cope with the immeasurable loss of com- munity, family, and identity caused by the Holocaust. Early articles discussing these themes appeared in the Jewish pub- lication Response. Through grassroots organizations, mem: bers of the second generation began to meet with each other. n. The largest group, Calied the International Network for Children of Survivors, Promotes commemoration and education and works toward Preventing future genocides (attempted destruction of an entire body of people). As the children of survivors grew up, they usually learned something of their patents’ experiences duting the Holocaust. Some survivors, still haunted by fear, never let thelr children out of their sight and strictly monitored their Playtime with friends. Others compulsively counted pieces of food such as slices of bread, crackers, and vegetables due to the chronic hunger they suffered long ago. One of the chil. dren of Holocaust survivors, Art Spiegelman, poignantly cap- tured his father’s idiosyncratic (odd, eccentric) behavior and painful reminders of the past. A gifted cartoonist, Spiegelman invented an unusual medium for sharing his family’s struggles. In 1986, he pub- lished a volume about the Holocaust in comic book format called Maus: A Survivor's Tale I: My Father Bleeds History. This first volume of Maus (“mouse”) introduces readers to charac. ters modeled after Spiegelman and his father, Vladek. As the character Spiegelman tries to understand his father, he learns about the terrifying realities of the Holocaust. In his cartoon strip, Spiegelman uses cats to represent the Nazis and mice to Tepresent the Jews. He also recreates his father's broken Eng- lish to make the Vladek character more believable. Spiegel- man's second volume, Maus: A Survivors Tale Il: And Here My Troubles Began, excerpted throughout this entry, further details camp life and work. The author captures the lasting emotions of the Holocaust that haunt survivors and are inevitably passed onto their children. Things to Remember While Looking at the Pages from Spiegelman’s Maus: * Children of survivors become part of their parents’ struggle to recover from their concentration camp expe- ences. Spiegelman faced an unbeatable sibling rivalry with Richieu, his older brother who died as a young child during the Holocaust. Spiegelman refers to Richicu as his “ghost brother” and wonders how he can compete+ -174: spiegetman and his wife (represented by two mice) are driving to visit his father in the Catskill Mountains of New York. His father, Viadek, survived the Auschwitz concentration camp. P2232 opens with Viadek describing how he and another inmate were assigned to help dismantle the crematoriums at Auschwitz in late 1944 as massive numbers of prisoners from Hungary were arriving at the camp. During P. 234 which takes place on the porch at Viadek’s bungalow, Spiegelman’s wife wonders if Vladek is always upset or if he was particularly tense during their visit because his second wife, Mala, had just run off with his money. * Notice that in the last frame of p-2344, spiegetman ‘gasses the bugs on the porch with an insecticide—an ironic reference to the Nazis’ attitude and use of power over their Jewish victims. About the Author/IIlustrator Art Spiegelman was born in Stockholm, Sweden, to Polish- born survivors of the Auschwitz concentration camp. His older brother died during the Holocaust, three years before Spiegelman was born. Then, when Spiegelman was 20 years old, his mother committed suicide. During his early career working on underground comics in the 1970s and 1980s, Spiegelman published the Maus comic strip in various periodicals, including Raw, the maga- zine founded by Spiegelman and his wife, designer Francoise Mouly. He published his first book-length volume of Maus in 1986, achieving widespread accolades. In 1991, he completed a second volume of Maus, this one being a semiautobio- graphical account of the author's relationship with his par- ents. Spiegelman was awarded a special Pulitzer Prize in 1992, for Maus. Additional awards include a Guggenheim ship and a nomination for the National Book Critics Ci ‘Award. His work has appeared in the New York Times. Playboy, and the Village Voice, As of 1997, Spiegelman wa ving in te | What happened next... The children of Holocaust Siretvoe! have contributed destroyed in World War Il. Their unique sense of dedi is helping to restore and recreate lost art, music, literature, and theater. Second-generation interest in the Holocaust pro- pels researchers to investigate the lost Jewish culture of East- ern Europe, to distribute information, and to aid current vic- tims of antisemitism around the world Spiegelman, like many other children of survivors, has embraced art and literature to express his emotions. His mar- velously unique style allows him both to touch and to shock readers, He succeeds in the difficult task of placing the bru- talities and the horrors of the Holocaust alongside ordinary ‘human events. Even after his father's death, Spiegelman con- tinues to recover pieces of a rich family heritage. Did you know... ° The most famous attempt by Jews to resist the Nazis occurred in the Warsaw ghetto in Poland. Starting on April 19, 1943, some 750 resistance fighters managed to fend off Nazi forces for a month before suffering defeat. Members of the Warsaw Ghetto Resistance Organiza- tion in the United States persuaded their children to meet and start a second-generation organization. * Children of survivors began to organize in the late. 1960s and early 1970s. These nearly invisible groups received national attention when the article “Heirs to the Holocaust,” written by Helen Epstein, was pub- lished in the New York Times Magazine on June 19, 1977. * Survivor families in different countries share obvious commonalities, but not all of them face the tragedy of the past in the same way. In Europe, the absence of strong, united Jewish communities—combined with a stunning resurgence of antisemitism (or hatred of Jews)—has obstructed commemorative activities. And in the case of survivors who immigrated to Israel, they rep! at a minority of the larger Jewish population there. so their children seem less inclined tn identifiAbout the author ‘st Spiegelman was born Itzhak Avraham ben Zeev on 15 February 1948 in Stockholm, Sweden. His parents, Viadek and Anja (nee Zylberberg) Spiegelman, were both survivors of the Jewish Holocaust of World 939-1945). In 1951, when Art was three years old, the family moved to the United States, ely as the lighthearted and heroic stories for which comics had tra been known, Spiegelman has spent much of his professional Pportunities for budding cartoonists to publish work and explore the medium. Together with his wi notable artist and designer Francoise Mouly: Spiegelman founded RAW, a highly praised ang celebrated of chewing gum, candy and collectibles, best known fon producing baseball cards. Between 1979 and 1986 he taught at the Schoo! of Visual Arts in New York. And between 1993 and 2003, he was a staff artist and writer for The New Yorker, where he became lauded as one of the periodicals most sensational artist. ‘Today, Spiegelman lives in New York City with his wife, with whom he has two children. He has won many awards and is regarded as a Highly significant artist and writer in 2006 he was named one of Time's 100 Most influential People, and in 2011 he was awarded the Grand Prix at the Angouléme Intemational Comics Festival. Spiegelman and Mouty have co-edited three comic anthologies for Big Fat Litle {it and publish a series of children’s books presented in comic-book format, called Toon Books 'n order to differentiate between Art Spiegelman, the artisv/author of Maus, and Artie, the character representation of Art Spiegelman in Maus, we will refer to the author as Spiegelman, and the character in the novel as Ati