Holocaust reflected in Vladek's, Art's, everyone's lives
People display the past in the way they live their lives in the present. They act as mirrors reflecting the events of an earlier time. An event such as the Holocaust has profound effects on the people it touches, but the relationship between past and present cannot always be seen directly. Art speculates that some of Vladek's behavior can be attributed to his experiences during the Holocaust. Many of Vladek's Holocaust memories center around possessions and food. When he became friends with the Frenchman in Dachau, for example, the focus of the story was not the friendship but the sardines, biscuits, and chocolate the Frenchman gave him that saved his life. Even as Vladek lay in the infirmary, too weak to eat, he hoarded stale bread in his bed. Art mused that he thought the war made Vladek the way he is. Mala responded angrily, "All our friends went through the camps. Nobody is like him!" (Book I, 131) Is this behavior the Holocaust reflected in him, or is it merely him? The same question can be asked of Anja. Her story is more difficult to decipher because the information the reader learns about her life is removed from her as the source by two people and time. The statistics are clear that Holocaust survivors have a high suicide rate. Her breakdown before the war, however, shows that she may have had a tendency towards emotional instability. Since Vladek destroyed her notebooks, it is difficult to tell what effect the Holocaust had on her.
Visitors to Auschwitz today attempt to relive some of the emotions that their relatives may have felt. A Jewish visitor described the experience in a letter to her cousin. Although this was only a short trip, the Holocaust had a profound effect on her and is reflected in her behavior after the experience. She visited Auschwitz with a group that discussed their emotions afterwards.
Some of the recurring themes were:
The overall feeling of gratitude to have been able to do this in a supportive group, particularly this group, and most said they wouldn't have done it alone. This has to be passed on to the future generation, and people should be encouraged to make their own journey to pay homage. Anger at man's inhumanity. Those who had not lost relatives have been permanently affected by the Holocaust.
David expressed eloquently what some of us must have been thinking, but were not able to articulate. "Was my grandmother's hair in that pile? Did I see her spectacles there?"
Some very raw emotions were revealed and made us feel so close to one another. . .
After undergoing a mood swing from rock bottom to almost euphoria I have felt strangely disconnected and very weary since returning home, and haven't really wanted to talk about the trip to anyone who wasn't there with us. Hopefully I've been able to convey some of the experience in this page out of my diary, which I am now sharing with you.
This letter shows how the Holocaust affects people many years removed from it. Spiegelman examined how the Holocaust affected his life; it was most profoundly reflected in the relationship between him and his parents. Spiegelman dedicates Art's longest monologue to this issue. The focus of his speech was not the Holocaust in general but its personification in the form of Richieu (see Vladek's Reflections: Anja). This ghost brother, hanging in a frame on his parents' bedroom wall, was his constant competition. Richieu would have been everything that Art was not. The Holocaust was imprinted on Art's, Vladek's, and Anja's minds in the unspoken memory of Richieu. Spiegelman shows the importance of his presence in the final frame of MAUS. Vladek finishes telling his story to Art and sleepily says, "I'm tired from talking, Richieu, and it's enough stories for now. . ." (Book II, 136) Although his parents did not talk about Richieu, as Art told Francoise earlier, his memory, like the memory of the Holocaust, is permanently reflected in their lives.