When I started reading Maus I found close similarities between Spielgeman’s comic and
Marvel’s comic X-men, but specifically the character named Magneto because he
is also a survivor of the Holocaust. I know there is a world of difference
between a comic based on a real story and a fantastic one, however the course
of actions that the stories follow are fundamentally similar.
Magneto as Vladek was Jew; both of them lost their
families, were at Auschwitz concentration camp, survived the Holocaust, and did
something to let others know the horrors that they lived.
LOSING THE ONES YOU LOVE
- Max’s first grand lost:
Magneto was born under the name of Max Eisenhardt. His
father Jakob Eisenhardt was a WWI veteran and a proud German. Their story began
with the rise of the Nazi power, during this period Max and his family were
threaten and discriminated due to their Jewish identity. As a consequence, in the
1930’s the family decided to move to Poland looking for peace and a safe place,
however they were captured and sent to the Warsaw ghetto. They managed to
escape from there, but unfortunately, they are captured again and Max’s mother,
father, and sister, were executed. After the killing of his family Max is sent
to Auschwitz concentration camp.
- Max’s second grand lost:
Max Eisenhardt, while being at the concentration camp,
reunites with a girl he had fallen in love with during his school years, Magda.
Max and Magda escape from Auschwitz when it was liberated; they moved to Ukraine
and got married. Later, Max adopts a new name “Magnus” and Magda gives birth to
their first daughter. One day he is attacked, and the attackers burned his
house while his daughter was inside. Then, after the death of his beloved
daughter he takes advantage of his powers.
- Vladek’s grand lost:
He and Anja send away his first son Richieu to Zawierci
with another family in order to keep him alive and safe. Unfortunately, some
time later, Vladek is told that his son has passed away. Once the Gestapo decided
that they would finish that ghetto, Tosha, the Jew woman who is taking care of
the child, knows that they will be send to Auschwitz, thus she decides to kill
herself and the children poisoning them. By doing this, she makes sure they
will not die in the gas chambers.
When Anja knows what has happened she becomes
completely hysterical and begs Vladek to leave her die there, instead of doing
that Vladek tells her they must struggle together and they will survive.
SURVIVING THE HOLOCAUST
Magnus survives the Holocaust thanks to his powers,
whereas Vladek thanks to his intelligence, which in my opinion is his best
power. Moreover, Vladek survives the Holocaust because he promised Anja they
will survive together.
What kept them (Vladek and Anja) alive was the willing to see each other
again.
NEW IDENTITY
Magnus wants to begin a new life, thus he change his
name to “Erik Magnus Lehnsherr”. Later, he becomes the antihero Magneto. Creator Stan Lee stated that he "did not think of
Magneto as a bad guy. He was just trying to strike back at the people who were
so bigoted and racist.” That is why he fights to defend mutants, because they
are seen as a different race from human, just as Hitler saw Jews.
“He
was trying to defend mutants, and because society was not treating them fairly,
he decided to teach society a lesson. He was a danger of course, but I never
thought of him as a villain." Magneto (Max, Magnus, or Erik) says
he does not want mutants go through the suffering he went. He explains that he
fights to defend mutants from being treated as Jews.
On the other hand, Vladek covered his face with masks
to cover his Jewish identity, thus he also creates a new identity in order to
stay alive. He utilizes a pig mask, thus he cannot be recognized as a Jew, but
as a Pole.
Both characters created a new identity to stay alive,
Magneto to be treated as a powerful mutant and spread fear; and Vladek to be confused
with a Pole.
LETTING OTHERS KNOW
Finally,as a concluding point,I think that both Magneto and Vladek wanted to show their story because they can show the horrors they went through.
Vladek showed his story through Artie's work.
To conclude, why do you think these stories must be shown? Do you agree with the similarities I found in these comics?
I must admit, this is a really interesting topic you have here.
ResponderEliminarAnswering to your first question, I believe that not only holocaust, but any event that had had such a big impact in the world must be shown. The reason for that is that people tend to forget about those events and do not realize how the world was affected because of that. People must be conscious about the consequences of tragedies like the holocaust or, as some people say "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
About the second question, I must admit, I would never realize about how similar were Vladek and Magneto and as you said, both were Jews, were in the holocaust, they lost someone important for them and they found the way to survive, but in way, must survivors of the holocaust should have gone through that.We also see how both of them were affected by this event and how this affected their lifes in ways that they will never may overcome. What I find interesting is how mutants could represent the Jewish. Both of them are treated like monsters, socially discriminated , chased and even killed just because "they're not humans"
All of that said, this was a clever comparison in which we see how events like holocaust could affect the life of these people in such a big way.