MAUS

This time I picked up a book from my Eighth Grade daughter for a change. She is reading it as it comes under her school reading curriculum. 

It is a Graphic novel written by Art Spiegelman. It is a non-fiction book. The Author collected these information from his father who was a Holocaust Survivor from Poland.   



The story starts at Queens, New York and then transports you to Poland where Vladek starts his life as a textile business man. He meets his future wife and gets married. Their Luxurious life changes upside down once Germany invades Poland. 

Vladek spends his life in camps as a war prisoner and then somehow manages to reunite with his family. The real bad time starts after that.

In the German occupied Poland the Spiegelman family shatter into pieces and dragged to streets. Then they hide into barns and garbage shuts, bribe Polish authorities just to avoid gas chambers and keep themselves alive. 

The Author gives accurate information of the places in Poland where Jews are more often asked to relocate to the neighborhoods where they can be easily identified. As a next step they are dragged into concentration camps especially senior citizens and kids.

The story switches from Poland to New York more frequently and Shows present Vladek. These parts came as a relief to the readers.

Throughout the book I looked at this Vladek character in a great astonishment. He tries so hard to survive where people like us give up so easily. He transforms himself swiftly from a businessman to a soldier then a prisoner who lives in a freezing tent. Again he becomes a businessman to homeless, starving person who needs to live in a constant fear of death!!!

The book ends where Vladek and his wife gets separated in an attempt to escape to Hungary. This made reader like me anxious and wanting to read MAUS11 which was published in 1992.

This is great book to introduce (to kids) about the Holocaust. It is Subtle yet succeeds to highlight the vital information which enables you to feel the cruelty.

There are so many books, movies and documentaries available on Holocaust. This Pulitzer winner and Amazon's #1 seller sure will take you to places.

Movies that I have watched on this topic are

1. Schindler's List (1993)

2. Life is Beautiful (1997)

3. JoJo Rabbit (2019)


Meet you all soon with my thoughts of MAUS II - A Survivor's Tale and Here My Troubles Began.

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