Pg. 50 Analysis

Maus II, by Art Spiegelman, is the continuation of Spiegelman’s work Maus and follows his father’s story through Auschwitz. In chapter two Auschwitz (Time Flies), page 50, the scene is set for Vladek's first explanation of the German Appel process, where they screen for weak Jew's to eliminate from the Auschwitz work force. The first image, occupying the entire top column, portrays line after line of indistinguishable Jewish prisoners standing ready to be counted for inspection by the Gestapo. The prisoners are purposely drawn in such little detail to demonstrate the size of Auschwitz and the scale of prisoners involved. The next image zooms in on a man who starts to complain about how he doesn't "belong here with all these Yids and Polacks! I'm a German like you!" he exclaims (50 Spiegelman). The following image is now half the size of the previous two images and now only focuses on the German who is telling the Gestapo of his various affiliations with the Reich, the background is blacked out. Concurrently, the next image we see the complaining German being characterized as a cat, symbol of Germans within Maus, for the first time which validates this man’s German identity for the reader. Within the same image Spiegelman’s father narrates, explaining "It was a German prisoners also... But for the Germans this guy was Jewish!" (50 Spiegelman). This scene shows how the oppressive nature of the holocaust spared no prisoners, Jews and non-Jews alike, alluding to the fact that no one was really ever safe. The final scene zooms out, filling the bottom portion of the page, depicting a German Gestapo kicking the complaining German on the ground. Vladek contextualizes this violence when he states:

On one Appel he didn’t stand so straight and a guard dragged him away. I heard he pushed him down and jumped on his neck… Or they sent his to the gas, I don’t remember, but they finished him and he never anymore complained. (50 Spiegelman)

This final scene serves to demonstrate the violence, cruelty and undiscriminating murder at the hands of Nazi Germany. Spiegelman uses the German prisoner in Auschwitz to demonstrate the scale of those persecuted by the Nazi’s and to depict their cruelty.