Description of the Genocide in
The Complete Maus
Basic Holocaust Facts
Other Groups Persecuted During the Holocaust Include:
Treatment of the Persecuted
The Complete Maus
Basic Holocaust Facts
- The Holocaust occurred from 1933 to 1945 and took place during World War II when Adolph Hitler was chancellor of Germany.
- The Nazis were the persecuting group, and their mission was to exterminate those who did not match up to their “Aryan” standards of what it meant to be a worthy or pure human being.
- The Holocaust was a genocide, during which an estimated 6,000,000 Jews died. Around 5,000 Jewish communities were also destroyed.
- Though the majority of those who died in the Holocaust were Jewish and this was the main group targeted by Hitler’s Nazi regime, other groups were victimized as well, bringing the total number of victims to an estimated 11 million.
Other Groups Persecuted During the Holocaust Include:
- Gypsies
- Poles and Slavs
- Persons with disabilities
- Jehovah’s Witnesses
- Members of the group known today as the LGBTQ community
Treatment of the Persecuted
- The Nazis forced Jews and other victims to live in ghettos and wear distinguishing tags or pennants to mark them as members of their given group.
- Victims were taken to concentration camps. There were different kinds and sizes of concentration camps, with some functioning more as labor camps and others reserved for exterminating victims. Gas chambers and crematoriums were common, especially in the larger concentration camps. Victims were murdered in the gas chambers and then disposed of in the crematoriums.
- Victims were sometimes used for medical experimentation in concentration camps, and Nazis also forcibly sterilized many victims who they deemed unfit for reproduction.
Additional Holocaust Information in The Complete Maus:
The book provides a sketch of the concentration camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau, as well as descriptions of the living conditions and number of people placed in these camps. Vladek states, "in Auschwitz we had, say, 20,000 prisoners, in Birkenau was at least 5 times so many" (211). The novel's images and descriptions help to provide historical context when it comes to understanding the horrible conditions that captured Jews faced. He later claims, "Auschwitz, it was a camp where they gave you work so they didn't finish you so fast" (211). Individuals in Auschwitz were put to work for the Nazis, and were not immediately sent to the gas chambers because they benefited from their labor. However, those living in Birkenau experienced even worse living conditions, for example, Vladek claims that "it was 800 people living in a building made for 5o horses" (211). These facts and images from the book help the reader to expand upon prior knowledge and develop a stronger mental image of the situation.
Blueprints of the concentration camps are also included in the book. This image is a depiction of one of the gas chambers found in Auschwitz (230).