The Holocaust: Effects of Dehumanization in Art Spiegelman’s Maus

The Holocaust: Effects of Dehumanization in Art Spiegelman’s Maus
War broke out in Europe in September of 1939. Everything went downhill from then, Germans began to take over and minorities such as Jews were quickly forced to go to concentration camps, these horrible camps were stationed all over Europe. One of the main camps in Poland was Auschwitz. Opened in May 1940, it was an extermination camp located in southern Poland in a small town named Oswiecim. The camp consisted of three separate camps not far from one another so that communication could be kept between them. These three camps included: Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II–Birkenau and Auschwitz III–Monowitz. Auschwitz I was classified as the base camp where prisoners mainly worked, Auschwitz II–Birkenau was the main extermination camp where prisoners went to die in a variety of ways after being too weak to work, and Auschwitz III–Monowitz another labor camp, which held prisoners who worked at a German chemical factory, IG Farben. The killing methods ranged from being lined up at a wall and shot to being put into ‘showers’ that realized a toxic gas. Once the prisoners were dead, they were then burned in the crematoriums at the camp. Essentially the prisoners of the labor and death camps were treated as objects and not as the humans that they were. Many might even go as far as refer to the Germans as heartless for doing the things that they did to the innocent Jews and other monitories. Art Spiegelman’s Maus shows the effects of the German’s dehumanizing treatment of the Jews during the Holocaust and proves that the Germans were monsters toward everyone being victimized in the Holocaust.
Art Spiegelman is an American cartoonist who wrote Maus in the early 1900s. Maus is a cartoon depicting the Holocaust. It depicts Spiegelman interviewing his father as a Polish Jew that survived the Holocaust. Spiegelman’s father, Vladek, recalls his life before, during and after the Holocaust, he tells Art about his wife, his friends, the horrors of the camp and the hardships that he had to face in order to get out of the camp alive. While recollecting his experiences, one word comes up very often: death. A major theme of the Holocaust, the concentration camps and Maus in general is death. It is shown in numerous ways throughout the story such as, the piles upon piles of dead Jews that were in every corner of every building before they were taken to the crematorium and burned, and the fear and sense of mystery that is instilled on the Jews by the SS officials guarding the camps. One direct example of death and mystery from Maus is when Valdek says, “In the morning they, chased us to march again out who knows where…so the train was going, we didn’t know where” (Spiegelman 85-6). This shows that mystery was a tactic used by the Germans in order to control the Jews and keep them fearing for their lives because they did not know what is coming, just like death is mysterious because no one can predict the day and reason that they will die. The SS officials that marched the Jew prisoners to the train treated them like animals by putting them into train cars that were designed for horses and cows. This truly showed the Jews that they were nothing; they were just like cattle, which dehumanized those Jews, who up until this point had the slightest hope of still being treated like humans.
Through the dehumanization imposed on the Jews in the Concentration Camps, Hitler damaged them for the rest of their lives. Even decades after the war has ended, Valdek is still terrorized by his experiences in Auschwitz. This is made clear by the following statement made by Valdek: ““…ever since Hitler, I don’t like to throw out even a crumb” (Spiegelman 78). Hitler made sure that the Jews were always starving and truly cherished the little ‘food’ that they did get, although not everyone would call what the Jews ate in the Holocaust ‘food.’ Through the horrendous treatment of the Jews by the Germans, the Germans involved in the Holocaust can now be referred to as monsters. Jeffrey Jerome Cohen’s Monster Theory can be used to further support this claim. As a book that is subdivided into seven theses, Monster Theory describes monster culture and how it has evolved throughout the years; the first thesis is entitled “The Monster’s Body is a Cultural Body.” This section discusses the monster as being born only at a “crossroads”; meaning that a monster cannot be born spontaneously. In order for a monster to be born there must be a reason behind it. This reason can be anything from the events that are happening in history at that time period to the religious or just the culture in general. The section also discusses how a monster’s physical characteristics instill fear in people. Hitler became a monster in a time of war, and after changing the culture of Germany; he influenced the Germans to become just as heartless and monster-like as he did and join the Nazi party. Next, Cohen says “a monster signifies something other than itself: it is always a displacement…” (Cohen 4). This section, especially this quote, relates to the story Maus very much. The quote is saying that the monster is a symbol for something else, that it is not just a monster. This is also apparent Spiegelman’s Maus when the actions of the Nazis and Hitler are described. Although Hitler and his Nazi followers behaved like monsters, they were really so much more; they were a constant reminder of hopelessness and despair to the Jews. Every action relayed back to the theme of mystery, death and dehumanization. These actions include feeding the Jews minimal amounts of barely edible food, forcing them to work and live in unsafe, dirty conditions, and making them feel like animals by the way they were treated and looked down upon. Every morning, the Jews would wake up to misery and some even wishing they were dead in order to not have to go through the things that the Germans put them through on a daily basis. There was never any sign or hope of being set free or even of getting better food. Through dehumanizing the Jews, the Germans instilled feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness in them.
Alison Mandaville wrote an article entitled "Tailing Violence: Comics Narrative, Gender, And The Father-Tale In Art Spiegelman 's Maus" which analyzes different techniques and elements used in Art Spiegelman’s Maus. Some of these techniques are used to interpret the different relationships among the characters and include the use of metaphors and the stereotypes depicted throughout the two volumes of Maus. The element that impacts Maus the most is changing the characters into animals. Changing the characters into animals dehumanizes them, and shows the reader the hierarchy of the people involved in the Holocaust. The dehumanization of Jews in the Holocaust is further demonstrated when the Mandaville discusses a 1930s article written in a German newspaper which linked Mickey Mouse to Jews and vermin. When talking about this article, it is mentioned that, “readers…would have little way to read his cartoon stereotypes of cats and mice as anything more than an expedient metaphor of predator and prey” (Mandaville 225). This proves that Spiegelman was successful in depicting the hierarchy of the relationship between the Germans (cats) and the Jews (mice) during the time of the Holocaust. As a reader, one would immediately realize the relationship as one of a predator and prey even if they did not know anything about the Holocaust. People have been taught relationships from a very young age and would be able to identify that cats prey on mice, and in turn the Germans prey on the Jews. Simplifying the characters into animals makes a serious topic such as the Holocaust a lot easier to comprehend and allows younger generations to learn about the Holocaust without all of the realistic gruesomeness. Making the characters into animals not only dehumanizes them but also strengthens stereotypes, this is apparent though the following quote: “The stereotype of Jews as passive and cowardly would seem to be reinforced by their portrayal as mice. Likewise, drawing the Germans as cats who prey on mice without conscience, and the Americans as dogs who are friendly, but essentially dumb – and not much kinder to mice than the cats they chased away – would seem to reify the stereotypes that have underwritten systematic material violence and hatred” (Mandaville 227). This quote demonstrates the stereotypes of different groups of people and allows the reader to comprehend the relationship between the different characters based on a metaphor of animals and their relations with other animals. Maus depicts the Germans as cats, which can mean that they can be mean to mice without reason because of their natural instinct. Although the Germans essentially did not have a reason to prey on the Jews, they did; which lead Spiegelman to make the Germans cats and the Jews mice. Mice are timid and small which makes them cowardly and fearful of the cats preying on them. This justifies the idea of dehumanizing the characters by turning them into animals. The final and most impactful form of dehumanization from the article is an example of Valdek saying, “They took from us our names. And they put a number” (Qtd. in Mandaville 227). This is an example of the ultimate form of dehumanization; taking away someone’s name, his or her identity and making him or her a number. From birth, a person identifies with the name that was given to them by their parents, and the Germans just took that away from the Jews. The Jews were branded with a number to be identified by, just like horses and cattle are. This shows just how little the Germans through of the Jews, turning them into the equivalent of a cow that would be slaughtered for food and other resources. Doing something like this would completely confuse a person and make them ponder about who they really are and therefore changes them. Being referred to as a number is the ultimate form of control, the ultimate form of dehumanization and making the Jews into objects.
The Germans were monsters that were very successful in their control of the Jews and other prisoners of war that were being held at concentration camps during the Holocaust. They were the ultimate kings of deception and knew exactly which buttons to push in order to get someone to fold. This is apparent through their treatment of the Jews in Auschwitz. Cohen’s Monster Theory can be applied to the Germans and their monstrous behaviors. Art Spiegelman wrote Maus keeping the stories that his father told him about the Holocaust and his father’s personal experiences in mind. He chose to depict the characters as animals to make the relationships between different groups of people easier to comprehend. The decision of making the characters animals, focusing on stereotypes, and vividly expressing the fear and mystery that the Germans instilled on the Jews helped prove how dehumanized the Jews were and how truly monstrous the Germans were during the Holocaust.
Works Cited
Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome. Monster Theory: Reading Culture. Minnesota: University of Minnesota.
Press, 1996. Seton Hall Ebrary. Web. 6 Nov. 2013
Mandaville, Alison. "Tailing Violence: Comics Narrative, Gender, And The Father-Tale In Art
Spiegelman 's Maus." Pacific Coast Philology 2 (2009): 216. JSTOR Arts & Sciences III. Web. 6 Nov. 2013.
Spiegelman, Art. Maus: A Survivor’s Tale. Vol. 2. New York: Pantheon-Random. 1986-91.
Print.

Cited: Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome. Monster Theory: Reading Culture. Minnesota: University of Minnesota. Press, 1996. Seton Hall Ebrary. Web. 6 Nov. 2013 Mandaville, Alison. "Tailing Violence: Comics Narrative, Gender, And The Father-Tale In Art Spiegelman 's Maus." Pacific Coast Philology 2 (2009): 216. JSTOR Arts & Sciences III. Web. 6 Nov. 2013. Spiegelman, Art. Maus: A Survivor’s Tale. Vol. 2. New York: Pantheon-Random. 1986-91. Print.