Maus

I must admit, this isn't my first reading of Maus.  Last year it was my summer reading assignment for senior GT English along with The Book Thief.  While most students congratulated me on my luck at getting to read a comic for homework, I couldn't quite share in their enthusiasm.  Just flipping through the volumes, I felt a confusing array of emotions.  A little horror and disgust for the horrible crimes committed, some excitement at having a light reading assignment, and a little apprehension over the fact that this author put the tragedy's into a format often called 'the funnies.'  Interestingly enough, Art Spiegelman owns up to the strange position he's in with the style of his piece.  "And trying to do it as a comic strip!  I guess I bit off more than I can chew... There's so much I'll never be able to understand or visualize." (16)  And isn't that true for all of us?  With an event that horrendous, there's no way we can comprehend it in its entirety.  I recently visited the National WWII museum in New Orleans and spent a full day moving through its chronological exhibits.  The images are all things we've seen in history books like flights of aircraft, Generals standing at attention, and 'Rosie the riveter' at work in the munitions factory.  But then when I came to the Pacific theatre, I was stunned by how large of a role racism played in our war against the Japanese.

Both the Japanese and Americans did their best to demonize each other as the enemy
and play off the racial prejudices each culture holds.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gruenemann/2051226628/sizes/o/in/photostream/

I know Maus covers the portion of the war dealing with Hitler and his plan to exterminate the Jews but did you know that idea originated from Japan?  The publication called "Japan und Die Japaner" was a treatise written by Haushofer from his visit to the country.  (As an interesting aside, check out this clip clip stating at 5:00 to 5:40.  It depicts Jewish movie maker Fritz Lang describing Haushofer's book.)  He claimed that their culture was so advanced and that their economy was so strong because they had a single, unified race.  This essay, combined with the already prevalent attitude of anti-semitism found in Europe, helped fuel the Nazi party's excuse for all out genocide.

This image depicts Rudolf Hess and Karl Haushofer whose political ideas helped influence Adolf Hitler.
http://www.answers.com/topic/karl-haushofer

And what an atrocity it was.  Maus doesn't go into too many of the specifics of the crimes committed in Auschwitz but the mental images it does convey are the sort that haunt you long after you've finished reading.  "And those what finished in the gas chambers before they got pushed in these graves, it was the lucky ones.  The others had to jump in the graves while they were still alive.  Prisoners what worked there poured gasoline over the live ones and the dead ones.  And the fat rom the burning bodies they scooped and poured again so everyone could burn better." (72)  In my opinion, this is the worst of the cruelties described.  It also immediately reminded me of an exhibit I saw at the Bob Bullock museum many years ago.  It was a history of Davy Crockett and one part discussed his involvement with the Native Americans.  I don't think he was ever involved with any raids against the indigenous people but there was an except from his writings that described an attack on a village.  Apparently a teepee burned down with it's inhabitants still inside.  The teepee was over a store of potatoes and since the men were starving, they ate the potatoes which had been cooked through with the human fat.

The bodies burning outside Auschwitz.
http://zioneocon.blogspot.com/2004_04_18_archive.html

Sorry, I didn't mean make a bad image worse.  I just though it was an interesting connection with our last reading of Black Elk Speaks and Maus.  As for tying in yet another culture.  I know that Bat already brought this up but Vladek is quite the racist for having suffered through similar treatment. When he sees an African American hitchhiker, he doesn't want to offer a hand and worries that the man will steal his groceries.  Art's wife is rightly outraged at is attitude.  "That's outrageous!  How can you, of all people, be such a racist!  You talk about blacks the way the Nazis talked about Jews!" (99)  It seems that even those who know the worst of racism still can't apply it to the world at large.  Is it because they had such an intensely personal experience that they can't back out to see the whole picture?

Vladek even later admits as he passes through the wrecked city that "We came away (from Nuremberg) happy.  Let the Germans have a little what they did to the Jews." (130)  I think the real issue that mankind has to overcome is the idea of revenge.  Hammurabi's code may have called for an eye for an eye but that just leaves everyone blind, so to speak.  Do we really want to see the world in terms of equal suffering and pain?  How does that sound like a place we want to live?  I think getting over the hurdle of equality of suffering will push us a long way towards a better global understanding of compassion.