Humanity In Maus: The Holocaust In The Holocaust

Humanity is “all human beings collectively: the human race” (dictionary.com). When a massive event happens like genocides or a terrorist attack the people who are involved are affected physically and mentally. This is what occurred in 1941-1945 during the Holocaust; it was a time of horror for many Jews. “About a third of all Jewish people alive at the time were murdered in the Holocaust” (http://www.factslides.com/s-Holocaust). Maus is a story about a survivor named Vladek, he survived Auschwitz, which has affected him until the day of his death. In Art Spiegelman 's Maus series, humanity is shown through situations of love and support and hatred and desperation. Maus explains how humanity is exposed by circumstances of survivor 's guilt, …show more content…
This occurred in the Maus series; the characters felt survivor 's guilt which was difficult to cope. First, Art felt guilty because he talks to Vladek about his experiences in the Holocaust but he does not know what people went through and how they felt. Artie says; “I know this is insane, but somehow I wish I had been in Auschwitz with my parents so I could really know what they lived through! ...I guess it’s some kind of guilt about having had an easier life than what they did” (Maus II 176). For someone to wish that they want to be among a situation that caused “between five and six million Jews” ( http://www.projetaladin.org ) to get murdered is an issue. This means that there is a substantial amount of guilt because there were “more than 90,000 German and Austrian Jews who fled to neighboring countries (France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Czechoslovakia, and Switzerland)” (https://www.ushmm.org) to escape and Art is wishing to be a part of an event that many people were trying to avoid. Second, Vladek felt survivor’s guilt because he survived the Holocaust but not everyone did. Vladek says; “yes, life always takes the side of life, and somehow the victims are the blame. But it wasn 't the best people who survived, nor did the best ones die. It was random” (2.2.205). It was random because the Nazis did not …show more content…
What happens in the past generally influence what occurs in the future. This is what took place in the Maus series; Vladek got affected by what his experiences in the Holocaust. He began strongly concerned about his health; he would use all the resources he had, and his experiences influenced his future relationships. First, Vladek began very concerned about his health; he started to ride his bike often when talking to Vladek about his experiences, and he would consume lots of pills to try to keep himself healthy. Vladek says; “No! You don’t know counting pills. I’ll do it after...I’m an expert at this” (1.2.32). Vladek is a specialist at counting pills because he became concerned about his health and wanted to stay healthy. This is because in the concentration camps “prisoners began to starve from insufficient nourishment” (1) and died “due to exhaustion, starvation, exposure, abuse, and lack of medical care” (1). The prisoners at the Holocaust were very affected and had a difficult time identifying “their inability to mourn or to acknowledge their suffering which led them to exhibit a variety of symptoms” (2). Vladek saw people during his time in the concentration camp that were affected physically, emotionally, and mentally which would have been hard to witness. This is why Vladek feels like he needs to take care of his health and benefit from the opportunity to care for himself and make good decisions about how he