Vladek: Holocaust Survivor

In conclusion, the Holocaust had detrimental effects on all that survived. This was because prisoners were treated as less than human and not given enough food. They also lost many of their loved ones, many of whom were executed. And to top it all off, they were abused by their captors on a regular basis. With these things happening, it’s no surprise that survivors of the Holocaust suffered terrible

Although luck does play a role in the novel, the major factor that kept Vladek alive was his resourcefulness. Particularly, his ability to save items for the future really helped him to stay alive during the Holocaust. When Vladek was on a crowded train, Vladek used the saved thin blanket they had given him, and “climbed to somebody’s shoulder and hooked it strong” above the other passengers in the train. This helped Vladek to “rest and breathe a little,” because he did not need to fight for space to stand on the ground anymore (85). Moreover, the blanket allowed him to reach snow off of the train’s roof. The snow kept him hydrated, and he was able to trade it with other captives for sugar. In addition to the blanket acting as a spatial retreat, it

Having only the memories of loved ones that you will never see again. Being stripped of all your pride and dignity and the only person you have is yourself. Feeling like you are losing yourself in the process, these are the feelings of being in Buna concentration camp. Auschwitz survivor stated “Today in our times, hell must be like this."

Vladek shows heroism in life threatening situations when everyone else has given up. After receiving a letter from the Polish government, Vladek leaves his family to fight the war against Nazi, Germany. After facing the terrible conditions of a P.O.W. camp and the back-breaking work of the “volunteer labor assignments” (Spiegelman 54) Vladek returns home to his family only to find their situation in shambles. In Vladek’s efforts to bring in money when there is none to be made; he constantly risks his life so the Zylberberg’s can live a modest life, compared to the luxury they were used to. When the Jewish families are forced to move to Stara Sosnowiec Vladek

They have hope that the Russians will come and free them so they could return to their old lives. Their hope gave them resilience because they just went through the worst possible things they could go through and it motivated them to survive. Thirdly, resilience is seen throughout the prisoners when they show that they still have the will to live. The novel, states, “We had transcended everything—death, fatigue, our natural needs. We were stronger than cold and hunger, stronger than the guns and the desire to die, doomed and rootless, nothing but numbers, we were the only men on earth” (Wiesel 87). The prisoners knew all the horrible things that have been done to them and the knew their resilience is a way to resist. The goal of the Holocaust was to get rid of all Jews and, by remaining alive, the Jews are resisting that goal and making the Nazis fail. The prisoners used their resilience to get through the starvation, cold, and them being overworked just to show that the Jews are strong and they will remain. To conclude, the prisoners used resilience to survive all the monstrosities done to them and used it as an act of

Vladek arranges to be reunited with his wife and son by working with the Polish. Spiegelman shows Vladek wearing a pig's mask to convey his polish

Vladek exposes his strategy as he exclaims to Anja, “...To die, it’s easy...But you have to struggle for life! Until the last moment we must struggle together!” (Spiegelman 124). Family and the knowledge of existing loved ones encourages the prisoners to keep fighting for their lives and the believe that one day they will be liberated and free at last. Without the motivation from family members, many people would no longer have a purpose to continue living. Nevertheless, hunger was a crucial factor that weakens the strength of the victims, which is apparent as Vladek comforts Anja explaining, “No, it’s only wood. But chewing it feels a little like eating food” (Spiegelman 125). They did not have to eat much, they just had to eat enough to outlive the other weaker people, which relates to Darwin’s theory of the survival of the fittest. Although this may seem upsetting, it is the harsh reality of life in the camps. Prisoners in the concentration camps stimulate themselves to work harder with optimism that they might receive a reward of food from and officer. Elie actually ends up receiving food for teaching the Kapo English which reveals his ability to adapt to certain situations (Spiegelman 192). Overall, in this Socratic Seminar, the topics remained discrete and the discussion contained a wide range of details that may have gone

While Vladek is telling his story about his experience in the Holocaust there can also be a great emotional effect on him as well. By Vladek telling his story it can also make his mental state worse than it already is by not recognizing what really happened during the Holocaust. If Vladek were to actually realize what happened and how he got through it is mental health could actually start to recover from most of the trauma it has gained. It is true that Vladek could possibly heal himself and hurt himself at the same time by sharing his stories from the Holocaust. It is also very true that by Vladek being traumatized it can cause him to be very depressed and denial and

Although luck does play a role in the novel, the major factor that kept Vladek alive was his resourcefulness. Particularly, his ability to save items for the future really helped him to stay alive during the Holocaust. When Vladek was on a crowded train, Vladek used the saved thin blanket they had given him, and “climbed to somebody’s shoulder and hooked it strong” above the other passengers in the train. This helped Vladek to “rest and breathe a little,” because he did not need to fight for space to stand on the ground anymore (85). Moreover, the blanket allowed him to reach snow off of the train’s roof. The snow kept him hydrated, and he was able to

conditions he still seemed to keep faith. However, onew can slowly notice how Vladek becomes a martyr

We can read Maus from a historical standpoint. The Holocaust is a deeply etched fallacy that took the lives of millions of innocent people. By reading Maus we can explore the historical downfall of mankind and the side effects that such a traumatic event. Throughout both books, Vladek is portrayed as a cynical and angered individual, which can only mean that whatever happened inside the concentration camps changed the way he saw the world. It’s unfortunate that this event had to happen, but like the saying goes what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Since Vladek survived the Holocaust it’s understandable the way in which thinks and acts. The way in which Vladek acts allows for us to explore history through the eyes of someone who was actually there during this time and not by an author who wasn’t there. Because we have this opportunity to explore history through someone’s eyes, we are able to see the devastation and the torment that these individuals went

We learn early in the book that Vladek’s personality in the story comes off as arrogant, extremely frugal, self-centered and sometimes he appears to be OCD. However, what Vladek tells about the times before the war shows that he was more loving and not as self-centered especially when it came to his first wife. Vladek is a Holocaust survivor, and while telling

Wladyslaw Szpilman’s story was both tragic and inspiring in some ways. His story teaches us that human nature cannot be broken down easily without trying to fight and survive first. Szpilman had to go through many hardships for him, as a Jew, to survive in Germany. No human beings should be treated the way Jews were treated during the Holocaust. At that time Hitler was in power and he used the Jews as a scapegoat because he believed that the Jews were the main cause of many Germany’s problems such as the Treaty of Versailles. Jews were treated like animals, they were caged and had no choice but to be confined to the Warsaw ghetto where walls built around it by the order of Hitler. They were also not allowed to walk beside the Germans on the

Vladek too appears to feel guilty about having survived the Holocaust. As Spiegelman’s guilt continues he visits a man named Pavel and the two discuss the guilt and what it means to be a Holocaust "survivor." Pavel suggests that Vladek himself actually felt a sense of guilt for having survived the Holocaust whilst so many of his friends and family did not. And maybe Vladek took this guilt out on Art the "real survivor" as Pavel calls him.

During the height of the Second World War, Jews, Gypsies, Homosexuals and other minorities, so called “racial enemies” of the Reich, were systematically targeted and marked for destruction by Nazi Policy. Homosexuals in particular were targeted beginning as early as 1933, and one of the survivors of that policy is Teofil “Stefan” Kosinski, a devout Polish Catholic arrested in 1942 for homosexuality after his letters to his lover on the Eastern Front were discovered by the Gestapo. Of the close to 60,000 interviews in the USC Shoah Foundations’ database, his is one of six homosexual survivors, and the only one in the English language. Kosinski spent several years in various jails, and though he was never sent to a concentration camp, as Nazi policy particularly honed in on him for his sexuality as a moral ill that threatened society. His being targeted for his sexuality presents a special window into the small pool of gay men persecuted under the Nazi regime during the Second World War, and of life in prison camps.