“At that time it wasn’t anymore families. It was everybody to take care for himself.” Vladek Spiegelman would know first hand that friendships and family relationships were tested when lives were at stake, as a holocaust survivor he lived through many incidents where his life and the lives of others were on the line but yet only a few friends and family were willing to help. The others were opposed to helping them. In Art Spiegelman’s book Maus: My father Bleeds History he tells his father’s life from just before the war and his journey throughout Poland. He writes about his father’s schemes to survive but sometimes he is caught in a predicament and needs the help of friends, while some help him escape, others rat him out.
One such person that helps him is Mordecai Spiegelman. Mordecai Spiegelman is Vladek’s cousin, and he must have worked for the Jewish council because when the citizens of the region were going to be inspected and their and their papers were being inspected, Mordecai was at one of the inspection tables. Mordecai helped Vladek and Anja get to the good side of the stadium, and get legal papers and a passport. Mordecai was Vladek’s cousin, since he was family Mordecai helped Anja and Vladek live, he also helped Vladek’s father, but not Fela
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Before the war got worse she thought of the Spiegelman’s like family and was offended when Anja said that the “poles don’t need much stirring up when it comes to getting rid of the Jews.” When Vladek and Anja left the ghetto in Sodrula they were looking for a place to stay, but they came across Janina’s house. When they knocked, she was surprised and kicked them out, saying that they would only bring her trouble. Even though they had been very close friends, that Janina said that they “were like family”, what is most ironic is that you would expect her to willingly help them but instead, she kicks them to the