Art Spiegelman uses the graphic novel medium to recount his father Vladek’s survival in Poland during the Holocaust. The narrative functions through an anthropomorphic allegory where Jewish people are depicted as mice and Nazis as cats. The story alternates between 1970s New York, where Art interviews his aging, stubborn father, and the 1930s, detailing Vladek’s experiences with ghettoization, resourcefulness under German occupation, and his eventual deportation to concentration camps. The text focuses on the mechanics of survival and the friction inherent in the father-son relationship.
This book serves students of history and readers of adult comics who want to understand the logistical and psychological reality of genocide. It is for those interested in the transmission of intergenerational trauma and the ways historical atrocities affect the domestic lives of subsequent generations. Readers walk away with a specific account of the Holocaust’s administrative cruelty and a look at how memories of the past can complicate family dynamics and personal identity in the present.
- Published
- 1986
- Language
- EN
