Historical Contexts in the Text
The Industrialization of Genocide
In Art Spiegelman's graphic novel, Maus, we see examples of a systematic persecution of people deemed undesirable by the Nazis during the Holocaust. In the aftermath of the Industrial Revolution, the working world had been revolutionized by the construction of factories. Similarly, the death camps, such as AuschwitzII (Birkenau), became factories for death. By the end of the Holocaust, concentration and killing camps were very efficient--essentially a factory for labor, killing, then recycling. In the text, Vladek, Art's father that the story revolves around, states, "They marched us to the main courtyard and lined us by alphabet at tables...This the Germans did very good... Always the did everything very systematic...and it was all done in one day," (Spiegelman 59). Vladek recounted of an instance when the Jews were being classified and counted in one of the concentration camps: in having a systematic and organized way of counting, the Nazis were able to mark and count all of the prisoners in the camp in a short amount of time. In a different point in the novel, Vladek remembers, "and the fat from the burning bodies they scooped and poured again so everyone cold burn better," (Spiegelman 72). Vladek remembers this quote from one of his co-workers while working in the tin shop. This quote demonstrates the proficiency of the death camps and how, when used for evil, a model for labor--the factory--can be turned into a swift and efficient killing machine. We can extrapolate from this, an understanding that with progress and power comes responsibility. While the Industrial Revolution was progress for the world, with technologies and innovations making labor more efficient, the Nazis demonstrated that a misuse of power can turn deadly. In the book, all of this efficiency is what lead to the killing of millions of Jews and undesirables. Through each of the step of the process--the identification, persecution, forced labor, and killing, the Nazis developed efficient methods and systems in order to make their work as quick and painless as possible.
Anti-Semitism
Throughout the text Spiegelman’s story depicts cases of anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism is the hatred of Jewish people and/or Judaism, the Jewish religion. Art, Vladek and other Jewish characters in the text are depicted as mice whereas characters of other ethnicities are depicted as other animals. The reason Spiegelman chooses mice to represent Jewish people is rooted in the Nazi Propaganda posters that were published prior to the Holocaust. According to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum website the Nazi posters expressed that Jews were a kind of disease carrying vermin they needed to exterminate. In an interview with the New York review of books Spiegelman explained, "As I began to do more detailed and more finely grained research for the longer Maus project, I found how regularly Jews were represented literally as rats. Caricatures by Fips (the pen name of Philippe Rupprecht) filled the pages of Der Stürmer; grubby, swarthy, Jewish apelike creatures in one drawing, ratlike creatures in the next. Posters of killing the vermin and making them flee were part of the overarching metaphor. It’s amazing how often the image still comes up in anti-Semitic cartoons in Arab countries today". The depiction of the Nazis as cats is also reflective of history. The people who were sent to concentration camps were often tortured and made to work themselves to death. The depiction of Nazis as cats reflects the metaphorical relationship between the calculating and devious cat and the defenseless mouse.
Concentration Camps
Some of the most horrific parts of Spiegelman's story took place in concentration camps. Although these camps were not at all unique to the Holocaust, the internment of Jews and many other marginalized groups that took place during World War II is one of the most heavily documented and recognized internments in history. The camps were built for both imprisonment and torture of groups deemed inferior by the Nazis, but also for economic growth, as many of the prisoners were forced to do manual labor for the advancement of the Nazis. It was common for the prisoners to be starved, beaten, and executed; all the while wondering what happened to their families and friends. Throughout the novel, Vladek tells Art of the incredible resilience and resourcefulness he displayed during his time at Auschwitz and Dachau. For example, sometimes contraband food could be bartered for with small tokens or odd jobs. Most starving prisoners would choose immediate gratification for their tokens and/or work, but Vladek noticed that soup was refused to any prisoner with lice on his shirt. Lice were unavoidable as the camp was infested, so many prisoners starved even more severely than they would have with the soup. Vladek decided to barter for a clean, new shirt that he changed into every time he was in the line for soup, and he was never refused again. His will to survive and ability to manipulate even the most dismal situation allowed him to survive some of the most brutal conditions in history.