Description of the Genocide
The genocide of the Jewish population, as well as other populations deemed undesirables by the Nazis started many years before the fighting even started. With Antisemitism barring the Jews from ever being fully integrated into certain populations, Nazis weren't deemed as evil at the beginning of the Holocaust. Art Spiegelman describes his father's account on the state of Europe, as well as the conditions that the Jews had to suffer through, from the beginning of the genocide to the end of the war.
"Right away, we went. The sanitarium was inside Czechoslovakia, one of the most expensive and beautiful in the world. ... It was the beginning of 1938-before the war-hanging high in the center of town, it was a Nazi flag," (32, panels 1, 4). With the beginning of the war, it didn't seem like Nazi Germany was a big threat to anything outside of Germany.
"One fellow told us of his cousin what was living in Germany... he had to sell his business to a German and run out from th country without even the money. It was very hard there for the Jews-terrible! ... It was many, many such stories-synagogues burned, Jews beaten with no reason, whole towns pushing out all Jews-each story worse than the other," (33, p1-5). However, Antisemitism, spread by the Nazis forced the Jews to live in fear in certain parts of Europe.
"We thought then, that Hitler wanted only the parts from Poland like Bielsko, what used to be parts from Germany before the first World War," (37, p7). Before the fighting, it seemed as if Germans just wanted to take back the territory that they lost in WW1.
"They took us to a place near Nuremberg where it was many war prisoners. The Jews they made to stand separate. 'It's all YOUR fault, this war. We should HANG you right here on this spot'," (51, p1-2). With the Jewish war prisoners, the Nazis forced them into labor and death camps.
"They marched us to the main courtyard and lined us by alphabet at tables... This the Germans did very good... always they did everything very systematic... and it was all one in one day," (59, p1-4). In systematically taking and classifying the Jews, the Nazis got the most use out of the Jews before they sent them to their deaths.
"You see, the Nazis divided Poland into piece: Protectorate and Reich, with a guarded boarder between. Reich: Annexed to Germany. Protectorate: German controlled Government," (50, p3).
"In Lublin, they took us to big tents...and there we sat. [...] 'Two days ago the Nazis marched them to a forest... and they shot all of them-they killed 600 people!'," (61, p1-3). Mass killings of Jews was not unusual--in liquidating the Jews, the Nazis aimed solve the "Jewish Problem".
"In September the German soldiers grabbed many Jews in the street ... they made us sing prayers while they laughed and beat us. And before letting us go, they cut off our beards," (65, p5-7). Because the German soldiers were in power, nothing stopped them from humiliating the Jews socially, religiously, physically, and emotionally.
"It's dangerous, though. The Nazis take you off to a work camp for breaking any minor law. 'Worse--even if you don't break any laws'," (75, p5).
Again, with the power difference between the Nazis and the Jews, anything could happen to the Jews just because the Nazis felt like it.
"Don't you know? All Jewish businesses have been taken over by 'Aryan Managers'," (76, p2). Not only did the Nazis put Jews into labor and death camps, but they also took over their businesses so they could continue producing money and goods.
"All Jews over 70 years old will be transferred to Theresienstadt in Czechoslovakia on May 10, 1942," (86, p3). The "weaker" ones were singled out first so the work force would be stronger.
"And the Poles of Srodula, we Jews had to pay to move them to our houses in Sosnowiec...and here in Srodula would be our ghetto to live ever after," (105, p6). This shows that the Jews were treated unfairly and were forced to live in ghettos--where poor living conditions further destroyed the Jews' morale.
"Each day we were taken to Sosnowiec to work in German "shops" ... Every day the guards marched us about an hour and a half to work. And every night they marched us back, counted us, and locked us in," (106, p 1-3). The workers in the labor camps were treated as slaves, forced to work with no chance of getting out.
"That spring, on one day, the Germans took from Srodula to Auschwitz over 1,000 people. Most they took were kids-some only 2 or 3 years. Some kids were screaming and screaming. They couldn't stop. So the Germans swinged them by the legs against a wall... and they never anymore screamed," (108 p5-7). This quote should speak for itself on the horrors of the genocide--and how the Nazis treated Jews like insects.
"By the end of July the Nazis made to liquidate completely our ghetto- it was 10,000 Jews taken away in one week," (112, p2). This figure demonstrates the sheer numbers that were being affected--this was not an isolated event.
"I was there, and I saw it. Thousands-hundreds of thousands of Jews from Hungary... so many, it wasn't even room enough to bury them all in the ovens. But at that time, when I was there with Kawka, we couldn't know then," (146, p2). Vladek, in this quote, was speaking of Auschwitz. Auschwitz was made of two different parts; the labor camp and the death camp.
___BOOK TWO___
"They took from us our papers, our clothes and our hair. Everywhere we had to run--so like joggers--and they ran us to the sauna. In the snow they threw to us prisoners clothings. They never even looked on what size they threw," (26, p1-4). Vladek describes the conditions of the prisoners in Auschwitz and what they were forced to do when they first got to the camp.
"It was maybe 2 miles to go from Auschwitz to Birkenau there it was much more big. In Auschwitz we had, say, 20,000 prisoners, in Birkenau was at least 5 times so many. Auschwitz, it was a camp where they gave you to work so they didn't finish you so fast. Birkenau was even more bad. It was 800 people in a building made for 50 horses. There it was just a death place with Jews waiting for gas...and there it was Anja," (51, p6-11). Birkenau (or Auschwitz II), was the death camp--where prisoners went to be gassed, burnt in the ovens, and then buried. While prisoners were still forced to work, the people sent to the gas chambers never came back--in fact, the gas chambers were connected to the ovens.
"In some spots people did fight... but you can kill maybe one German before they kill fast a hundred from you. Then its everyone dead," (73, p6).
With all of this violence against the Jews, some people fought back; but as the graphic novel describes, it wasn't enough.
"Then the train started again going and going... inside we were more dying and some got crazy. They opened that we throw out the dead.. then they chased us back in the train again to die, and so the travel continued more. From all the camps of Europe they now brought back all of us inside Germany," (88, p1-6). Even at the end of the war, when the Nazis knew that they had lost, they still treated the Jews poorly--they tried to erase their tracks and did so by killing even more Jews and burying the death/concentration camps.
"Right away, we went. The sanitarium was inside Czechoslovakia, one of the most expensive and beautiful in the world. ... It was the beginning of 1938-before the war-hanging high in the center of town, it was a Nazi flag," (32, panels 1, 4). With the beginning of the war, it didn't seem like Nazi Germany was a big threat to anything outside of Germany.
"One fellow told us of his cousin what was living in Germany... he had to sell his business to a German and run out from th country without even the money. It was very hard there for the Jews-terrible! ... It was many, many such stories-synagogues burned, Jews beaten with no reason, whole towns pushing out all Jews-each story worse than the other," (33, p1-5). However, Antisemitism, spread by the Nazis forced the Jews to live in fear in certain parts of Europe.
"We thought then, that Hitler wanted only the parts from Poland like Bielsko, what used to be parts from Germany before the first World War," (37, p7). Before the fighting, it seemed as if Germans just wanted to take back the territory that they lost in WW1.
"They took us to a place near Nuremberg where it was many war prisoners. The Jews they made to stand separate. 'It's all YOUR fault, this war. We should HANG you right here on this spot'," (51, p1-2). With the Jewish war prisoners, the Nazis forced them into labor and death camps.
"They marched us to the main courtyard and lined us by alphabet at tables... This the Germans did very good... always they did everything very systematic... and it was all one in one day," (59, p1-4). In systematically taking and classifying the Jews, the Nazis got the most use out of the Jews before they sent them to their deaths.
"You see, the Nazis divided Poland into piece: Protectorate and Reich, with a guarded boarder between. Reich: Annexed to Germany. Protectorate: German controlled Government," (50, p3).
"In Lublin, they took us to big tents...and there we sat. [...] 'Two days ago the Nazis marched them to a forest... and they shot all of them-they killed 600 people!'," (61, p1-3). Mass killings of Jews was not unusual--in liquidating the Jews, the Nazis aimed solve the "Jewish Problem".
"In September the German soldiers grabbed many Jews in the street ... they made us sing prayers while they laughed and beat us. And before letting us go, they cut off our beards," (65, p5-7). Because the German soldiers were in power, nothing stopped them from humiliating the Jews socially, religiously, physically, and emotionally.
"It's dangerous, though. The Nazis take you off to a work camp for breaking any minor law. 'Worse--even if you don't break any laws'," (75, p5).
Again, with the power difference between the Nazis and the Jews, anything could happen to the Jews just because the Nazis felt like it.
"Don't you know? All Jewish businesses have been taken over by 'Aryan Managers'," (76, p2). Not only did the Nazis put Jews into labor and death camps, but they also took over their businesses so they could continue producing money and goods.
"All Jews over 70 years old will be transferred to Theresienstadt in Czechoslovakia on May 10, 1942," (86, p3). The "weaker" ones were singled out first so the work force would be stronger.
"And the Poles of Srodula, we Jews had to pay to move them to our houses in Sosnowiec...and here in Srodula would be our ghetto to live ever after," (105, p6). This shows that the Jews were treated unfairly and were forced to live in ghettos--where poor living conditions further destroyed the Jews' morale.
"Each day we were taken to Sosnowiec to work in German "shops" ... Every day the guards marched us about an hour and a half to work. And every night they marched us back, counted us, and locked us in," (106, p 1-3). The workers in the labor camps were treated as slaves, forced to work with no chance of getting out.
"That spring, on one day, the Germans took from Srodula to Auschwitz over 1,000 people. Most they took were kids-some only 2 or 3 years. Some kids were screaming and screaming. They couldn't stop. So the Germans swinged them by the legs against a wall... and they never anymore screamed," (108 p5-7). This quote should speak for itself on the horrors of the genocide--and how the Nazis treated Jews like insects.
"By the end of July the Nazis made to liquidate completely our ghetto- it was 10,000 Jews taken away in one week," (112, p2). This figure demonstrates the sheer numbers that were being affected--this was not an isolated event.
"I was there, and I saw it. Thousands-hundreds of thousands of Jews from Hungary... so many, it wasn't even room enough to bury them all in the ovens. But at that time, when I was there with Kawka, we couldn't know then," (146, p2). Vladek, in this quote, was speaking of Auschwitz. Auschwitz was made of two different parts; the labor camp and the death camp.
___BOOK TWO___
"They took from us our papers, our clothes and our hair. Everywhere we had to run--so like joggers--and they ran us to the sauna. In the snow they threw to us prisoners clothings. They never even looked on what size they threw," (26, p1-4). Vladek describes the conditions of the prisoners in Auschwitz and what they were forced to do when they first got to the camp.
"It was maybe 2 miles to go from Auschwitz to Birkenau there it was much more big. In Auschwitz we had, say, 20,000 prisoners, in Birkenau was at least 5 times so many. Auschwitz, it was a camp where they gave you to work so they didn't finish you so fast. Birkenau was even more bad. It was 800 people in a building made for 50 horses. There it was just a death place with Jews waiting for gas...and there it was Anja," (51, p6-11). Birkenau (or Auschwitz II), was the death camp--where prisoners went to be gassed, burnt in the ovens, and then buried. While prisoners were still forced to work, the people sent to the gas chambers never came back--in fact, the gas chambers were connected to the ovens.
"In some spots people did fight... but you can kill maybe one German before they kill fast a hundred from you. Then its everyone dead," (73, p6).
With all of this violence against the Jews, some people fought back; but as the graphic novel describes, it wasn't enough.
"Then the train started again going and going... inside we were more dying and some got crazy. They opened that we throw out the dead.. then they chased us back in the train again to die, and so the travel continued more. From all the camps of Europe they now brought back all of us inside Germany," (88, p1-6). Even at the end of the war, when the Nazis knew that they had lost, they still treated the Jews poorly--they tried to erase their tracks and did so by killing even more Jews and burying the death/concentration camps.