Effects of the War

The war had great consequences for Valdek. The atrocities he witnessed and the conditions he was forced to live in have scarred him forever. In an example of how lives are intertwined, the reader of MAUS sees not only the effects of the holocaust on Valdek, but also the effects it had on Art, in both daily life and in their relationship with each other.

The main effect in Valdek's life seems to be his need to save.

Valdek may have conserved before the war, but once he lived through it he decided that nothing must ever again go to waste. In an extreme example, he has Art and Francoise take him to the store so that he can return an almost empty box of cereal that Art will not finish.

This fight is characteristic of the relationship between Art and Valdek. Valdek desires to have his family around him. He feels guilt about surviving and needs to have Art support him. "Maybe your father needed to show that he was always right-that he could always survive-because he felt guilty about surviving." (II.44) This is what Art therapist, also a survivor of the war, tells him. Art complains that he can never measure up, because he did not have to go through all that his parents did. Art harbors a guilt about not being there now as well, whenever his father needs him. However, Art feels a great anger toward his father at the same time, for surviving when his mother did not.

Art feels the effects of his parents experiences in many ways. Mixed with his anger and guilt, this causes him grief. He may not have lived through the war, but he has lived through its consequences. Art says that during his childhood he could hear his father moaning each night in his sleep. The nightmares that visited Valdek, through not normal as young Art believed, are a common point of discussion in the stories of holocaust survivors. One child of a survivor says,"My father, Abram Korn, survived over five years in Nazi concentration camps and ghettos. He left the camps, but the memories never left him. He tried to block them out, but couldn't. Many years after the war, they would still come to the surface in his dreams. I remember waking to his screams in the night; I knew that he'd had another nightmare."

The war killed Art's brother, Richieu, but Art must compete with him anyway. "I didn't think about him much when I was growing up...he was mainly a large, blurry photograph hanging in my parents' bedroom...The photo never threw tantrums or got in any kind of trouble...I was an ideal kid, and I was a pain in the ass. I couldn't compete. They didn't atlk about Richieu, but that photo was kind of a reproach...It's spooky, having sibling rivalry with a snap shot."(II.15) On the same page, Art also admits other fears to Francoise, about having dreams that SS men would come into his class and take all of the Jewish children away, and fantasies about zyklon B coming out of the shower instead of water. Art himself states that he is not obsessed with these thoughts, but it is obvious the effect the war has had on him.