From ancient Greece to Nazi Germany, propaganda has been used by many throughout history as a tool to alienate and influence groups of people for an ulterior motive. During the Holocaust, propaganda was used to influence people’s belief that certain races are genetically superior to others. Nazi propagandists did this by publicly identifying groups for exclusion and inciting hatred for often insignificant differences like nose and frugalness (“Defying the Enemy”). They depicted Jews specifically as inhuman, even vermin, in order to provide a scapegoat for the problems that their people encountered so they themselves would not be blamed. In the graphic novels, Maus: A Survivor's Tale and Maus: A Survivor's Tale II: And Here My Troubles Began,
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Art Spiegelman begins Maus: A Survivor's Tale with an old quote by Adolph Hitler that reads “Jews are undoubtedly a race, but they are not human.” (1986). In anti-Semitic movies, posters, and pieces of writing, a connection was made between pests and Jews in order to trick viewers into believing that they were genetically superior to Jews. In the 1940’s a poster that translates to “Rats. Destroy Them,” in occupied Denmark surfaced featuring a Jew-rat hybrid . This depiction helped to further instill the Nazis’ propaganda. This degradation would allow for the planned mass killings to appear less inhumane because the victims were not equal to an ‘actual human’ and needed to be eliminated in order to better society. Nazis reinforced this vermin-like identity by confining Jews to Ghettos, like cages, that often had inhuman conditions including limited access to food, water, and medicine (“Defying the Enemy”). As a result, the people living in these areas became sick and unhealthy looking. This fed perfectly into the propaganda that Jews were ‘dirty’ and ‘inferior’ to the Aryan race which allowed for convincing film propaganda to be produced using real footage of suffering …show more content…
This 1940’s German ‘documentary’ showed living conditions in Ghettos and compared Jews to rats that “carry contagion, flood the continent, and devour precious resources” (“Defying the Enemy”) . It is clear how viewers, who have no reason to doubt this ‘factual’ information, would feel alarmed by Jews and would agree to force them to leave their location for fear of being contaminated. In an interview, Spiegelman elaborated that the film, “made it clear to me that this dehumanization was at the very heart of the killing project” (“Why Mice”). He is able to recognize the sever impact that this anti-Semitic propaganda had on an entire nation despite its blatant falsities and racist exaggerations. Additionally, he drew inspiration for the opening of Maus: A Survivor's Tale II: And Here My Troubles Began, from a mid-1930's news article from Pomerania, Germany that read “Mickey Mouse is the most miserable ideal ever revealed … Healthy emotions tell every independent young man and every honorable youth that the dirty and filth-covered vermin, the greatest bacteria carrier in the animal kingdom, cannot be the ideal type of animal … Away with Jewish brutalization of the people! Down with Mickey Mouse! Wear the Swastika Cross!” (Spiegelman, 1991). Spiegelman’s decision in include this specific quote
Art Spiegelman begins Maus: A Survivor's Tale with an old quote by Adolph Hitler that reads “Jews are undoubtedly a race, but they are not human.” (1986). In anti-Semitic movies, posters, and pieces of writing, a connection was made between pests and Jews in order to trick viewers into believing that they were genetically superior to Jews. In the 1940’s a poster that translates to “Rats. Destroy Them,” in occupied Denmark surfaced featuring a Jew-rat hybrid . This depiction helped to further instill the Nazis’ propaganda. This degradation would allow for the planned mass killings to appear less inhumane because the victims were not equal to an ‘actual human’ and needed to be eliminated in order to better society. Nazis reinforced this vermin-like identity by confining Jews to Ghettos, like cages, that often had inhuman conditions including limited access to food, water, and medicine (“Defying the Enemy”). As a result, the people living in these areas became sick and unhealthy looking. This fed perfectly into the propaganda that Jews were ‘dirty’ and ‘inferior’ to the Aryan race which allowed for convincing film propaganda to be produced using real footage of suffering …show more content…
This 1940’s German ‘documentary’ showed living conditions in Ghettos and compared Jews to rats that “carry contagion, flood the continent, and devour precious resources” (“Defying the Enemy”) . It is clear how viewers, who have no reason to doubt this ‘factual’ information, would feel alarmed by Jews and would agree to force them to leave their location for fear of being contaminated. In an interview, Spiegelman elaborated that the film, “made it clear to me that this dehumanization was at the very heart of the killing project” (“Why Mice”). He is able to recognize the sever impact that this anti-Semitic propaganda had on an entire nation despite its blatant falsities and racist exaggerations. Additionally, he drew inspiration for the opening of Maus: A Survivor's Tale II: And Here My Troubles Began, from a mid-1930's news article from Pomerania, Germany that read “Mickey Mouse is the most miserable ideal ever revealed … Healthy emotions tell every independent young man and every honorable youth that the dirty and filth-covered vermin, the greatest bacteria carrier in the animal kingdom, cannot be the ideal type of animal … Away with Jewish brutalization of the people! Down with Mickey Mouse! Wear the Swastika Cross!” (Spiegelman, 1991). Spiegelman’s decision in include this specific quote