2. What is ‘Maus‘? An historical record, a memoir or a comic book?
MAUS defies easy definition.
It functions on three different levels:
It is the story of the Holocaust as seen through the eyes of the artist’s father, Vladek
It is the story of the fractured relationship between the artist and his father
It is the story of the relationship between the artist and his art

3. * minutiae: small, finer details

4. What Spiegelman has to say about it:
trivializing: make something seem less important than it really is.
Sentimentalizing: treat something in a sentimental way
What Spiegelman has to say about it:
* hubris: excessive pride *pretensions: a desire to do something/claim to be something that is important or impressive.

5. ‘Maus’ as a metaphor Germans = cats
Jews = mice (Nazi propaganda portrayed Jews as vermin…)
Poles = pigs (The Germans called the Poles ‘schwein’ meaning ‘pig’)
‘This metaphor is a vehicle for rendering the enormity of the Holocaust in a contained form.’

6. Setting
Poland – Vladek Spiegelman’s life in Poland, leading up to World War Two
Auschwitz, Birkenau and Dachau – life in the concentration camps
Art’s conversations with his father about his life take place mostly in their family home in New York City

7. Vladek
He is portrayed as being a dashing young man – resourceful and daring.
In his old age, he is in poor health.
How have Vladek’s Holocaust experiences contributed to who he’s become?
Vladek is sometime portrayed positively:
How he treats Mandelbaum
His relationship with Anja
But he is also portrayed negatively:
His prejudice towards the African-American
Inconsiderate, emotionally demanding father
His relationship with Mala

8. Vladek continued
Art says that ‘in some ways, [Vladek] didn’t survive.’ (p.90)
What does Art mean by this?
Why would Vladek carefully keep calendars from 1965 and cups from the hospital, but then throw away Anja’s diaries?
What are the PHYSICAL and PSYCHOLOGICAL effects of the Holocaust on Vladek?

9. Art
Art presents himself as sarcastic, bitter and ambivalent towards his father. Why do you think he is like this?
Do you think Art was correct in portraying his father with such honesty?

10. Anja Anja does not speak for herself – she is recreated from memory.
How might the story of Maus changed if Art had Anja’s diaries? Or is he could have interviewed his mother as well?

11. Auschwitz

12. Auschwitz Birkenau Entrance

13. Gas Chamber

14. Gas chamber and crematorium

15. SS Guards

16. Female SS Guards

17. Is the graphic novel acceptable for a story about the Holocaust?
It appeals to a wider range of readers. People who don’t like reading books may find a graphic novel more appealing. A graphic novel therefore opens up the Holocaust to people who don’t usually read.
It makes it easier to comprehend – it is often too harsh to see pictures or read descriptions of people being hanged or burned. However, Spiegelman depicts people as animals and this makes it easier to picture what it was like for the Jews. It also opens it up to sensitive viewers.
It is acceptable because Spiegleman has depicted everything about the Holocaust in a respectable and realistic manner – it does not detract from the seriousness of the subject matter.
A picture paints a thousand words

18. Is Art’s metaphor clever or offensive?
Depicting the Jews as mice makes it easy to identify them throughout Vladek’s story.
It is clever because it portrays the dynamic that existed between the Jews and Nazi Germany – the Jews were like mice, they had to hide away and they were the victims. The Germans were the predators, just like a cat.
It is not offensive because they are not portrayed disrespectfully – they just have mouse faces and tails.
It is not entirely original as Spiegelman states that he is using Hitler’s metaphor – where Hitler called Jews ‘vermin’. It is therefore clever as it has a direct correlation to the Holocaust and Nazi Germany and thus it is highly relevant.

19. Would you recommend it for future Grade 9s?

20. Which scene had the greatest impact on you? Why?