Racial prejudice was the main cause of mass killings during the Holocaust. Hitler murdered approximately six million Jews from different parts of Europe because of racial prejudice. He considered them an inferior race that did not deserve to live. Hitler and his army gathered Jews from all the regions he controlled. He then took them to camps where he put them in rooms and filled them with poisonous gas.
When I watched testimonies from survivors, and read Art’s book, I understood the trauma that victims of the Holocaust and their children experienced. Victims’ children were traumatized for many years because of the experiences that their parents went through. This work presents my subjective understanding of the Holocaust based on survivors’ testimonies and Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel; Maus I: A Survivor’s Tale.
Spiegelman uses animal characters to portray human beings as brutal creatures. According to him, human beings can be as dangerous as animals (Schwarz 263). He appropriately uses different animals to represent different races of human beings. Mice represent Jews, while cats represent Germans. Spiegelman uses mice to represent Jews because of the oppression they experienced while in Hitler’s concentration camps.
The mistreatment the Jews experienced is similar to what mice experience in the presence of cats. Rita Weiss explains how soldiers snatched a baby from its mother and gave it to an old woman. When the mother refused to give her baby to the old woman, they beat her thoroughly with the purpose of killing her. Weiss shades tears during her interview because of these memories (Vashem). Such actions show the brutality of Hitler’s soldiers towards the Jews. Spiegelman metaphorically uses cats to refer to Hitler’s army. This depiction shows their brutality towards Jews.
Spiegelman appropriately uses animals to point out racial and religious prejudices as some of the causes of brutality against fellow human beings (Schwarz 264). Germans killed many Jews any time they wished to kill them; this is how cats kill mice. This analogy shows that Hitler did not respect Jews. The main reason for his lack of respect was the difference in their origin and religion. The Jews never understood why Hitler and his men mistreated them. During one of the interviews with his son, Mr. Spiegel said, “About Auschwitz, nobody can understand” (Spiegelman 10).
When I read Maus I, I understood the trauma that victims of the Holocaust and their children suffered. Many of them never recovered from the post-Holocaust trauma. Some died because of this trauma while others developed psychological disorders that disturb them up to date. In the novel, Anja Spiegelman is unable to handle her trauma. She gets two nervous breakdowns; one before Hitler’s men took her to Auschwitz concentration camp, and the next one after their release.
She eventually commits suicide when she fails to handle the trauma (Spiegelman 16). Art Spiegelman, on the other hand, hires a psychiatrist to help him handle his trauma after knowing about the harsh experiences that his parents had gone through while at the concentration camp. His trauma intensifies after her mother’s death (Schwarz 264). Jackie Handali, a survivor, narrates how soldiers beat up and killed all his family members. They beat his mother using their gun butts for attempting to talk to him (Vashem).
The Holocaust left memories among the people who survived the Holocaust and their children (Schwarz 263). The few people who survived still remember every event as it happened. Rita Weiss narrates all the events that happened after their arrest. Her story demonstrates the impact the Holocaust left in her memory. For example, she explains how people who had physical impairments were thrown out of a train and left to die.
Such memories are also evident in Vladek Spiegelman, who narrates events that happened more than 40 years before. These memories became very overwhelming for his wife to bear. She, therefore, committed suicide to free herself. Weiss cries when she remembers everything that transpired; especially when she imagines that Harry died in a crematorium (Vashem).
In conclusion, the experiences of the survivors of the Holocaust have helped me understand how brutal, and prejudiced Hitler and his army were towards the Jews. They have also helped me know the magnitude of the trauma that survivors have gone through since the end of the Second World War. Some of the survivors died shortly after their release while others developed psychological disorders from their experiences and their parents’ experiences in concentration camps. I can comfortably conclude that the Holocaust occurred because of Hitler’s hatred towards the Jews, and his lack of value for human life. According to testimonies from Vladek, Weiss, and Handali, the Nazi forces did not feel pity for anyone; whether a woman, child, or a man. They mistreated them without paying attention to these factors.
Works Cited
Schwarz, Gretchen E. “Graphic novels for multiple literacies.” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy (2002): 262-265. Web.
Spiegelman, Art. Maus: A survivor’s tale. New York: Pantheon. Takaki, 1986. Web.
Vashem, Yad. “Holocaust Survivor Testimonies: Selection in Auschwitz.” Online video clip. YouTube. 2010. Web.