MAUS Response- Jadyn 809

I am currently reading Maus by Art Spiegelman. It's a graphic novel telling the story of the author's father, Vladek, in the Holocaust. The book switches between Art asking his father about his experiences and his story. The pictures are black and white, probably partly to show the seriousness of the story. They describe what the words don't and fill in the blanks. The words and pictures combined paint a picture in your mind and you really feel like you are with Vladek through the Holocaust. The Nazis in the story showed no mercy towards anyone at all, and did things that I can't imagine a human ever able to do.

One thing that I was shocked by was the way that Vladek described the Nazi's treatment of children. I knew that they were harsh and killed them just like their parents, but the way Vladek described it made me rethink. Vladek said, "Some kids were screaming and screaming. They couldn't stop. So the Germans swinged them by the legs against the wall. And they never anymore screamed." It surprises me that they were able to do that without any qualms. Many Nazis had children at home, and it's shocking that they could murder children that brutally. At least in the gas chambers they didn't have to watch. You have to be a robot not to feel bad about smashing a child's head against a wall to kill it.

Another part that showed me how the Nazis had no mercy was when Vladek said, "Two days ago the Nazis marched them (the Jews) to a forest and they shot all of them - they killed 600 people!" This shows to me that the Nazis were very powerful, and liked showing it. They knew that the Jews couldn't resist, and they killed them all. In WWII, Nazis sometimes made Jews dig their own graves and be shot once they were done. The Jews sometimes tried resisting, but the Nazis shot them down. The Jews were forced to do horrible things and couldn't do anything about it. 

Nazis were more powerful than anyone else in WWII, and they loved to prove it. They did things I can't imagine people doing, and didn't even blink. They were horrible to anyone and everyone.