Holocaust Blog #2

Maus by Art Spiegelman (pg 114 and 115)

Holocaust Poems (Tale of a Sprinter, in the Winter of 1938 by Sudeep Pagedar)

In this poem, the main character is a gifted runner. According to him,  this “Lord’s gift” supposedly helped him to win all of his races. Like any typical person would, this runner had dreams. For him in particular, his dream was to be able to work hard enough to be able to compete in the Olympics.  In Maus, Anja’s father was similar in the sense that he also had a gift. The gift of wealth. His wealth allowed him to live a privileged life as well as the ability to comfortably support his family. In addition, it gave him reassurance that he could age without having to worry about money and finances. As it turned out however, the gifts of both of these men, would be of no use to them when it mattered the most.

This was seen on page 114 and 115 of Maus. At this point in the story, Vladek, Anja, and Anja’s family had just been ratted out to the Gestapo by someone who turned out to be an informer. Even before this, the wealth of Anja’s father had been of no use as you could only buy things with special coupons, and they were constantly scarce on food. In addition, they left everything behind as they were ordered to do so by the German officers. In reality, the only source of money people really had, were the valuables they managed to hold on to.  These valuable came in handy to Vladek in the “Ghetto-within-a-Ghetto” as he was able to bribe his cousin to help escape. Eventually, Anja, Vladek, and Lolek all got out successfully. Anja’s parents however, were left behind as they were “too old” and would “never make it past the guards”.  Both died, despite the fact that they were very wealthy and had already paid Vladek’s cousin to help them. This action was pointless however as Vladek’s greedy cousin took all the valuables for himself and left due to the high risk of being caught. Page 115 ends with the words “He was a millionaire, but even this didn’t save him his life”.

For the runner in the poem, the situation was similar. The last stanza of the poem is

Yes, it is true

that I can run very fast;

But it is also true

that I am a Jew…

There’s no running, from the Holocaust.

His situation is similar to the passage in Maus in the sense that his gift of running wasn’t able to help him during the Holocaust. This was despite the fact that he could run so fast, he was a potential Olympic athlete. As he puts it, “there’s no running, from the Holocaust”. In a sense, he is “trapped” by the Holocaust the same way the window (a metaphor for the Holocaust) appears to be trapping Anja’s parents in Maus.

In addition, the runner also tells the reader that the only reason he is being targeted, is because he is a Jew. This is evident in how we says “But it is also true that I am Jew” as if it is a bad thing. In reality however, he is just an innocent person as was Anja’s father. As a matter of fact, both lived  normal lives before the Holocaust came along. The change in their lives before and after the Holocaust is clear by how the poem is divided up respectably.