Life During The Holocaust In Art Spiegelman's Maus

In Art Spiegelman’s “Maus,” he interviews his father about his time in the war during the Holocaust. Spiegelman doesn’t just write about what his father went through. He also writes about his father’s current state, his father’s wife, his mother, and he sometimes adds how he feels about some things his father does. Throughout the interview, his father, Vladek Spiegelman, seems to be very lucky in his stories about the war. His life is always spared by the narrowest of margins. He has a run-in with the Gestapo while carrying illegal sugar. He thinks quickly and creates a lie that fools the Gestapo. He says, “I’m taking it over to my grocery store… Open up Poldek! I’ve got our sugar” (85). They believed him and he was let go without getting his

Another instance where he was very lucky was when he was almost shot for just being a Jew. He was walking around in the ghetto and a Gestapo stopped him and asked for his papers. The Gestapo said, “I see your apart of the illustrious Spiegelman family… go on your way then, and give Haskel my regards” (118). The Gestapo that stopped him was nicknamed “the shooter” because he kills Jews for fun. If Vladek wasn’t a Spiegelman, he would’ve been killed. Vladek’s money and friends seemed to get him out of sticky situations all the time. Because there were so many instances where he got lucky, it makes you question if all of it really happened. So, why was it so important to have connections and money during this time? Did Vladek really have all of these horrific experiences that he tells

He was able to receive packages from his family. He tells Art, “And one time a week we could write letters through the International Red Cross. And through this came a package. I had a sign my family was safe, and – because I never smoked – I had cigarettes to trade for food” (54). He was very smart to get things that he didn’t need but knew others would to get what he needed. He also used a friend to get out of being killed by the Germans. He tells the officers, “My name’s Spiegelman. There’s a friend of my family named Orbach in Lublin” (62). They tell him, “Fine! We’ll try to register you as his cousin” (62). Orbach came to get him and let Vladek stay with his family for a while. Other Jews weren’t as lucky as Vladek. All of them didn’t have a wealthy family or friends that were in good with some of the Germans like Vladek did. Because some of them weren’t as fortunate as Vladek, they lost their lives during the Holocaust. Knowing certain people and having money seemed to be what determined if you lived or died. Fortunately for Vladek, he had