maus 2

Albert Rayle
Maus reading response
Ms. Hara
10/31/07


These last couple of chapters that I read in Maus was very sad and emotional. It talks about the Nazi’s gaining a serious amount of power and how they were really beginning to hurt and restrict the Jewish community. The Nazi’s have just begun hauling people into concentration camps and are requiring Jewish families to move into concentration camps. I felt a nauseas feeling overcome me in some parts of the reading too.
I think one of the worst stories that was told in the book so far was the one about the grandparents. Vladek’s grandparents’ in-law were ordered to go to a concentration camp but decided to hide instead. They were successful in hiding for a while but the Nazi’s continuously came over asking for them. Then one day they came and took Mr. Zylberberg instead. The Nazi’s threatened that they would take his wife and children too if he didn’t tell them where his parents were so he write home telling them to come out of hiding. They did and were then taken to Auschwitz to be put in the gas chambers. I cant even imagine having to give up my grandparents to a certain death in order to protect the rest of my family.
Another terrible story that I read was when Mr. Spiegelman was separated from his daughter Fela in the stadium. The Nazi’s required the Jewish community to go to a stadium to get a stamp on their passport. The Nazi’s had two lines and only one of the lines got a stamp. If someone did not get a stamp they were then put on a train and sent to a concentration camp. When Mr. Spiegelman discovered that his daughter did not get a stamp he climbed over the fence and joined her on the train. Art goes on to sat that they were never seen again after that.
This whole time period is extremely disturbing and is full of terrible stories even worse that what I have heard so far. I can not even imagine being alive in this time period and having to wake up every morning worrying about whether this would be the day that I die. It is scary that a human can be as mean as the Nazi’s were, because in the end that’s all they were, a human.