Vladek Spiegelman And The Holocaust

11 million people lost their lives in the Holocaust, and of those 11 million, 6 million were Jews. Among the survivors was Vladek Spiegelman. He managed to stay alive while his wife suffered from depression, his youngest son died, and his wife’s entire family was murdered by Nazis. There were many things he did to survive, and two of these include luck and skill. Both a combination of his luck and skill helped to keep Vladek alive during the Holocaust. One instance in which Vladek used his skill to stay alive was when he pretended to be a gentile to the man on the train, in order to sneak onto a train to cross the border and see his family. Vladek acted as a gentile would towards the Nazis to the train man, in order to convince him he
An example of this is when as Vladek was walking down the street, and a couple of little kids saw him and yelled that he was a Jew. Instead of running which would only confirm their accusations, he used his skill and convinced them otherwise. “Don’t be afraid little ones. I’m not a Jew. I won’t hurt you,” (Spiegelman, 149). His luck was implemented when the parents of the children believed that he was actually a gentile, and therefore did not report him. Some might say that this was just skill, because he convinced both the children and their parents that he was a gentile. However, young children are more gullible than adults, which means that just because the kids believed him, didn’t guarantee the the adults would either, but in this case he was lucky and they did. Another example of both his luck and skill used to save his life was when Vladek pretended to be a store owner so he wouldn’t be caught for trying to sell sugar on the black market. Vladek was on his was on his way to sell sugar to some shops when the Nazis stopped him. He claimed to have been taking the sugar to his store. His skill was used here because he was able to come up with this lie without hesitation and without a hint that this was false. The Nazis walked with him to the store door and when the actual owner
However, without just one of them, he could’ve easily died. Vladek escaped many life-threatening instances because of his luck. He was also able blend in well with the gentiles and escape murder by Nazis because of his skill. When there was nothing left for him to do, Vladek turned to the use of his luck, skill and a combination of both to help him survive the