Maus II Chapter 3-5

Maus II Chapters 3-5

The concluding three chapters are indeed the most powerful ones readers encounter while reading Maus. In these three chapters alone the readers have to read about how Vladek is released from Auschwitz, how they are saved by the Americans, how he is reunited with Anja, how Artie finally comes to peace with his father and in the end, when Vladek dies.

Chapter three however, begins with Vladek talking about how the Nazis, after hearing that the Americans were closing in, vacated Auschwitz and forced the Jewish prisoners to walk for several days and hundreds of miles. They also destroyed Auschwitz to cover up any evidence of what they had done. Vladek describes this march as a horrible death walk as the Germans shot anybody who even attempted to run away or the ones who did not march quickly enough. Then the prisoners were forced onto a train ride where even more died after being suffocated, starved, and crushed to death by the hundreds of prisoners crowded onto a train made to transport cattle. Even if they survived this, they Nazis refused to give the prisoners any food if there were lice on their clothes, something that was virtually impossible to avoid. Even the ever lucky Vladek almost dies as he is stricken with a common prisoner disease—typhus fever. Miraculously though he regains his strength and is able to be exchanged as a prisoner of war. Although we see Vladek once again escape death on several occasions in this chapter, it does nothing to change the kind of man he is in present day. As Francois, Artie, and Vladek are driving home from the grocery store Vladek is enraged that Francois picks up a black African-American. This shows that no matter how harshly the Jews were treated in the Holocaust because of racism, Vladek still discriminates people unjustly.

Chapter four is a joyous one as Vladek is finally liberated and meets the Americans for the first time. But before this happens he is forced to escape from the Nazis one last time and hide in a barn while a battle rages on outside. It is here that the Americans find him and his friend. Vladek says that the Americans treat them very nicely, always calling him “Willie” and giving him chocolates and lots of food. The chapter ends in a sad note, though, as Vladek shows Artie several pictures of his family and then sadly describes how most of them were killed in Auschwitz.

Chapter Six is the final chapter of the Maus series and it really does end in a bittersweet manner, just as I thought it would. Artie receives a phone call from Mala saying that Artie is very sick. After transferring from different hospitals Vladek is finally released and is allowed to go home with Artie. It is here that Artie finishes his tale after being liberated and saved by the Americans. Vladek describes that after the Americans saved him he transferred from town to town until he found out that Anja was still alive and living in Sosnowiec. Vladek rushes to Sosnowiec and is finally reunited with his wife after being separated for almost a year. The book ends here though as Vladek says that he is done talking and goes to sleep. The entire book ends with a gravestone showing Anja and Vladek buried next to each other, reunited eternally at last.

I really did enjoy reading this book on the Holocaust. I can never even imagine having to go through one day of what Vladek had to endure for several years. The constant fear of being captured, constantly seeing death all around you at Auschwitz, and starving for 10 months straight are things I will only be able to read about in books because I will never understand it firsthand. This really was a powerful book for me and it put a lot of things in perspective as to what is really important in life. It taught me that like should never be taken for granted and that I should cherish my family above all else because they are the ones that will stand by me through thick and thin. The Holocaust was a terrible, horrible time for everyone. I think by reading about it we are helping not only those who had to live in this cruel time period, but ourselves as we learn what we should really value in our lives.

Maus II Chapter 1-2

Maus II Chapter 1-2 Summary

Chapters one and two of Maus II dive even deeper into the relationship with Artie and his father Vladek. We also get our first glimpse of what life is like inside of the concentration camp, Auschwitz and how Vladek and Anja struggle daily to survive. It seems as if relations with Artie and his father are getting worse at an even greater rate as Vladek cons Artie and his wife Francoise into living with them after Mala has allegedly “stole his money and left him.” We get a real glimpse into why Artie has such negative feelings toward his father on his way there. He says that he feels as if he can never live up to his ghost-brother, Richeiu’s, reputation as Richieu is only remember in a photograph, a perfect, flawless photograph. Artie describes out underachieved he feels in comparison to his father as everything that Artie accomplishes is nothing in comparison to Vladek’s surviving the Holocaust. It seems that everything that Artie does while living with his father sets him off. From not eating enough food to using more matches than necessary, Vladek shows just how stingy of a man the Holocaust has made him. Finally though, Vladek continues his story after he and Anja had been sent to the concentration camp, Auschwitz and how Vladek miraculously found different ways to survive. It all starts off as Vladek uses his lingual skills to tutor the kapo, an official who assists the Nazi’s with the prisoners, in teaching him English. This really ends up benefitting Vladek on numerous occasions as he gets to have full meals to eat, a warm place to stay in, better clothes for himself and his friend, and most importantly, the kapo tells him how to survive random selections. After this, Vladek takes up a job as a tinsmith because kapo can no longer protect him with Vladek being his tutor. Vladek takes this job, never having any experience before, but picks it up very quickly. It is in this time that Vladek describes how the food given to the prisoners was never good and it was just enough so that if you ate it you would die more slowly. Fortunately for Anja and Vladek, they find someone who goes to both of the camps so Vladek and Anja are able to communicate to each other through letters until Vladek is transferred to the bigger version of Auschwitz so he can be with Anja. It is here that Vladek picks up a new profession as a shoe maker, one that allows him to stay indoors and work instead of being outside in the cold weather. Then, Vladek described how the gas chambers worked and the brutality of how the Nazis would mercilessly slaughter the prisoners. He also described that some prisoners were burned alive with dead corpses to make the burying easier. Artie is of course horrified by the brutality of how the prisoners were terminated. The entire chapter really gives you a good personal glimpse not only into the terrors of prison life in Auschwitz but the personal struggle that Art Spiegelman had in creating Maus. We as the readers learn that the entire story is from a true, first person view as Art Spiegelman is Artie in the actual story. In this section of the story we see the personal struggles that Art Spiegelman has with writing Maus, and how no matter how hard he tries, he still cannot get a full grasp of what the Holocaust was like. This is why he sees a psychiatrist to council him about the pressures he is under in telling his and his father’s story and to get a better grip on the Holocaust as his doctor too is a survivor.

These two chapters do a lot to advance the story, both in the concentration camp and in Artie’s personal life with his father. What I like so much about this Holocaust story is it actually tells the day-to-day struggles some of the survivors face after the imprisonment. Normally we would not think about things such as this but Maus lets its readers know just how difficult it is to “survive the survivors.” I have really enjoyed reading it thus far and I am excited to see how the story concludes.