Maus: A Survivor's Tale, And My Troubles

World War II, along with the Holocaust, is one of the most historically meaningful periods in history. The Nazi soldiers, under the direction of Adolf Hitler, were responsible for the genocide of millions of Jews and other undesirables in Poland and the death camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau. Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, I: My Father Bleeds History and Maus: A Survivor’s Tale, II: And Here My Troubles Began, are graphic novels written my Art Spiegelman. Chronicling the story of the Holocaust through the eyes of his father, Vladek, Maus I and II depicts humans drawn in animal form to tell the story of the struggles and horrors suffered by the Polish Jews at the hands of the Nazis. A recurrent theme throughout both novels is the idea of race and nationality, …show more content…
Race, religion and nationality created a sense of essential belonging, or conversely exclusion, among the groups. There was a solidarity determined by birthplace and loyalty. There is also a level of guilt that goes along with a national identity, for both the Jews and the Germans. In Maus, Art Spiegelman feels guilty about portraying himself as a true mouse. Since he did not personally live through the Holocaust, he feels somewhat of an imposter mouse. Having not suffered the horrors of his parents and the others, he feels no right to identify with the same national identity as those who did suffer. The same could be said for Germans of later generations, they may not have been present during the Nazi reign, but still feel the guilt associated with the genocide of millions of people at the hands of their ancestors. Germans continue to be criticized for first allowing Adolf Hitler to attain so much power, and later for creating the division within Germany with the erection of the Berlin Wall in the 1960’s. With the cold war over, Germans are beginning to establish a new identity separate from the past circumstances. Many Jews continue to harbor resentment towards Germany