Maus: A Survivor's Tale

Publication History

Maus was first introduced as a three-page comic in

Funny Animals in 1972 and was then serialized in the

underground comics magazine RAW between the years

1980 and 1991. With the exception of the last chapter in

Volume 2, all of the chapters of Maus first appeared in

altered versions in the magazine. It was then published

by Pantheon Press as two separate hardcover books,

then as softcover books, and finally as a boxed set. Additionally,

in 1994, Maus was released on CD-ROM

with annotations, maps, and extended video commentary

by creator Art Spiegelman on the text as well as

examples of his later work. Spiegelman’s MetaMaus,

a commentary on the making of Maus, was released

in 2011.

Plot

Maus presents two simultaneous stories, Vladek Spiegelman’s

Holocaust story and Art Spiegelman’s experiences

as the child of a Holocaust survivor. The two stories

are interwoven together, as the framework for the

narrative is a series of interviews conducted between

Art and his father, Vladek. Through these interviews,

the reader learns about Vladek’s life before the Holocaust,

his Holocaust story, and Art’s struggles to live in

the shadow of a father who seeks to control all aspects

of his life.

The first volume, My Father Bleeds History,

presents the foundation for Maus, relating the story of

Vladek’s upbringing in Poland and his courtship and

early marriage to Art’s mother, Anja. Vladek narrates

about the family business and the ways that the Jews’

lives became restricted after the Nazis took power. At

first, Vladek is able to protect his family by paying

non-Jews to hide them; however, as the situation deteriorates,

he finds it increasingly difficult to do this

and is ultimately deceived in an attempt to flee the

country. Vladek’s narrative in Volume 1 ends with his

and Anja’s deportment to the concentration camp at

Auschwitz.

In this volume, the reader also learns of the challenges

that Art has in his relationship with Vladek as

well as his guilt over his mother’s suicide some years

earlier. These issues are revealed through strained

conversations regarding Mala, Vladek’s second wife

whom he treats poorly, and Vladek’s decision to destroy

Anja’s Holocaust diaries, which Art was interested

in using as research for presenting Anja’s story

in Maus. The volume ends with Vladek confessing

that he burned the diaries in a fit of depression, which

prompts Art to call him a murderer.

The second volume, And Here My Troubles Began,

commences with Vladek and Anja in Auschwitz and

details the ways in which Vladek was able to survive

selections, work details, and marches. In Auschwitz,

Vladek was adept at making deals with kapos, prisoners

working as supervisors inside the concentration

camp, in order to get better work details for himself

and Anja and used his English-language skills to advantage.

Both survive Auschwitz, reunite in their

hometown after the war, and rebuild their lives, first in

Sweden and then in the United States.

In the present, Mala leaves Vladek because she

can no longer tolerate his verbal and financial abuse,

and Vladek pretends to have a heart attack so that Art

will call him. Art and his wife, Françoise, temporarily

move in with Vladek at his summer home to help him,

but they are quickly burdened by Vladek’s demands.

Eventually Mala returns and takes care of Vladek until

his death at the age of seventy-five. Vladek’s death is

briefly mentioned but neither shown nor described in

the text; the final page depicts Vladek and Anja’s reunion

followed by an illustration of their shared tombstone.

Volumes

• Maus I, A Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds History

(1986). Relates Vladek’s early life prior to

the Nazi invasion and his experiences during the

Holocaust, culminating with his and Anja’s deportation

to Auschwitz.

• Maus II, A Survivor’s Tale: And Here My Troubles

Began (1991). Describes Vladek’s experiences

in the concentration camp, reunion with

Anja, and life after the Holocaust.

Characters

• Art Spiegelman is not only the writer and artist of

Maus, but also one of the two main characters. He

is interested in Vladek’s Holocaust story and how

it shaped Vladek’s life, but he struggles to comprehend

why his father is stingy and intent on micromanaging

his and Mala’s lives. He is troubled

by his mother’s suicide and does not understand

why she took her life. A breaking point in his

relationship with his father comes when Vladek

admits to having burned Anja’s diaries. He wants

to present a realistic portrait of his father but is

negatively affected by his father’s actions.

• Vladek Spiegelman is a Holocaust survivor and

the second main character in Maus. In his interviews

with Art, he explains the different ways

that he saved himself and his first wife, Anja, negotiating

with people to hide them or give them

food and bribing officials to allow him to take

jobs for which he was not qualified. His ability

to save and store for the future was essential to

their survival; however, he is unable to abandon

these skills following the Holocaust, ultimately

becoming obsessive and controlling. He loved

Anja and remains fully devoted to her, even after

her suicide and his subsequent marriage to Mala,

which seems to be a marriage of convenience in

which Mala takes care of him. He is supportive

of Art’s need to express his feelings through art

but is concerned with the way that he will be presented

in the text.

• Anja Spiegelman, Vladek’s first wife and Art’s

mother, was also a Holocaust survivor. An innately

anxious and depressive person, she was

devastated when she learned that her first son,

Richieu, had died during the Holocaust. To

combat her feelings of helplessness, she becomes

involved in Art’s life to the extent that he

feels burdened by her presence. She committed

suicide prior to the writing of Maus.

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