Maus: Vol I, Ch. 4
Read Ch. 4. Here are your questions:
1. How is Vladek able to get by in Sosnowiec? Describe the increasingly difficult conditions in the town.
2. What happens to Anja's grandparents? What does Vladek say here about Jews's attitudes toward turning in other Jews?
3. What do we learn in the concluding scene with Mala and Art?
Due: MIDNIGHT, Thursday, May 17
1. How is Vladek able to get by in Sosnowiec? Describe the increasingly difficult conditions in the town.
2. What happens to Anja's grandparents? What does Vladek say here about Jews's attitudes toward turning in other Jews?
3. What do we learn in the concluding scene with Mala and Art?
Due: MIDNIGHT, Thursday, May 17
posted by RJS at
7:20 AM
7 Comments:
Vladek resorts to working the black market when the factory is taken over by "Aryan managers" without compensation for the family. As it is, the family is only allowed a certain small number of food coupons, so amidst the random, treacherous crackdowns on those without working papers Vladek risks quite a lot to supplement their income. Besides this, furniture is being seized (which the family attempts to hide in the house of their Polish neighbors), and eventually the Jews of Sosnowiec are ordered to move into the confines of a district ghetto. Despite the necessity of Vlad's black market job, it becomes extremely dangerous when Jews are sentenced to hang if they're caught participating. As for Anja's grandparents, they are subject to a new notice requiring all Jews over 70 years old to be transferred to a new home. Instead of allowing the grandparents to go, the family agrees to hide them from the authorities. After several incedents of officers coming to inquire about the couple, who the family says is missing, the family is threatened with death if they don't turn them in. This leads to the phenomenon of Jews turning in other Jews. Friends, families do not exist, as explained by Vlad. It becomes every man for himself. In retrospect, this explains the quote in the very introduction to this book, where the Vlad tells his young son that you can only determine who is your friend if you suffer together through life threatening situations. Then, by their actions, you can determine the depth of your friendship. In the concluding scene, Mala's side of the story is expressed. She tells not only of her frustration with her husband's nagging, but tells her own story of the holocaust, and her mother having survived for so long until finally dying at Auschwitz. This dialogue makes Mala seem much more human and lessens the reader's bias against her, I suppose. It also makes the holocaust seem more universal when testimony is heard from two different points of view. It's really an effective placement of a conversation when thought about.
By
TheBishop, at Monday, May 14, 2007 6:18:00 PM
Vladek returns to Sosnowiech to find that his factory has been taken over and food availability has gone down greatly. Vladek is forced to earn food through the black market and secret non-legal deals with business owners. S.S. crackdowns force him to work in a tin shop for cover, but by January 1, 1942, all of the Jews of the city are forced into a small ghetto. All Jews over seventy are ordered to be taken away to Czechoslovakia, forcing Vladek to attempt to hide Anja's grandparents. Here Vladek mentions the Jewish police, who turned in some other Jews in order to hopefully earn themselves or the majority of Jews some safety. Anja's grandparents are forced to go, and they went straight to the gas chambers of Auschwitz. At the end of the chapter, we learn that Mala and Vladek also have a conflict over Vladek's connection to most items he owns. Mala complains that he loves things more than people, and will not allow his things to be moved, let alone thrown out.
By
Unknown, at Thursday, May 17, 2007 5:37:00 PM
When Vladek returns to Sosnowiec, he must resort to smuggling and the black market because all Jew-owned factories have been taken over by Aryan managers. Families were forced out of their businesses and given no money for food. And furthermore, German officers feel the need to go to Jewish homes and take their valuables. Also, more and more Jews are being arrested and murdered for no reason. Conditions in Sosnowiec are growing increasingly terrifying for all Jews. They are forced into hiding and are constantly afraid of what is going to happen next.
Anja's grandparents are sent to their deaths in Auschwitz, when they were told they would be going to Theresienstadt, an elderly community in Czechoslovakia. Vladek also says that Jews would turn in other Jews because they believed by allowing the Nazis to take a few Jews, they would save other Jews and mainly themselves.
In the final scene of the chapter, we learn that Art is nothing like his father because once again he lights a cigarette inside the house(and his father, of course, scolds him) and he also leaves a mess of books on the floor (in which Mala scolds him). We discover that Mala doesn't think she can ever please Vladek, but she still tries to be a good wife.
By
taylor, at Thursday, May 17, 2007 8:40:00 PM
I was baking cookies tonight and I burnt my finger on the inside of the stove. My finger hurts but my cookies taste great.
At first Vladek and the family are getting along normally, except the fact that they are low on food and food coupons (each person is only allowed a certain amount of food), but Vladek says the food is good anyway (I thought that was sweet of him). Thoughout the increasing Nazi control and surveillance, Vladek has to keep ducking dodging them to be able to stay in Sosnowiec. At first they just take Jews without papers. Vladek worries that his simple note from Ilzecki won't be enough to keep him from another camp, so he gets work papers. Later all the Jews are moved to what will become the Ghettos (Vladek and his 11 family members stay in 2 and a half rooms). The Nazis begin hangings and start taking elderly family members away. Such members were said to be taken to an easier living place in Czechoslovakia but ended up being taken to Aushwitz. Anja's Grandparents were safe for a bit while her family hid them in a secret chamber, but after they took Anja's father, and threatened to take her mother, Anja and her family had to turn her grandparents in where they were sent to Aushwitz and put in gas chambers. Vladek shows bitterness to the Jews collaborating with the Nazis when he's talking about the lack of protection families had, such as when his father in law was taken away in lieu of Anja's grandparents.
Mala tells Art during their conversation about her experience with Nazis during the holocaust. She (like Vladek and his father at the end of Vladek's story in this chapter) had also had problems with a parent and trying to save her. Mala worked scrubbing filth all day to buy time and smuggle her mother out of the ruddy appartments they shoved the Jews in. Later her parents were sent to Aushwitz where they died. Here you see a connection between Mala and Vladek, yet there are still high tensions between the two. (I still don't get their relationship)
By
TeganLove, at Thursday, May 17, 2007 9:15:00 PM
Vladek's facotry is taken over by Aryan managers, and his family is given no compensation in return. Becuase of this, he resorts to working the black market. THis provides a great risk of him being arrested, but it is the only way for the family to barely make ends meet.
The family attempts to hide furniture because the Jewish belongings are being seized. THey must be very discreet because their polish neighbors will tell the government everything. The government later orders the Sosnowiec Jews to move to a concentrated ghetto.
Anja's grandparents are suppose to be transferred to a new home for elderly Jews under government orders. However, the family does not want to seperate and decides to hide the grandparents in their home.
Jews are threatened with death for keeping information on whereabouts of other JEws from the police. In fear of their lives and their children's lives, JEws begin to turn eachother in.
By
SMithVictoria, at Friday, May 18, 2007 12:53:00 PM
While Vladek is in Sosnowiec he becomes involved in the Black Market in order to get money to survive. Instead of using coupons which the Nazis require the Jews to use he trades to others, lots of time using cloth or material and exchanging it for sugar, bread, soup, and other necessities. It becomes hard because there is a very high risk for getting caught because the Nazis are always patrolling in the streets looking for Jews who are breaking the laws so they can be sent away.
Anja's grandparents are sent to Auschwitz because Jews who are over the age of 70 must be transferred. Although the Nazis say they are just sending them away, they are really sent to Auschwitz and the gas chambers. Vladek does not agree with Jews turning in other Jews.
Art's conversation with Mala shows that Mala was affected by the Holocaust just as bad as Vladek. It shows a different view of that of Vladek's.
By
jackson smith, at Friday, May 18, 2007 2:18:00 PM
Vladek is able to survive in Sosnoweic by participating in the black market, working together with friends of his and secretly trading goods necessary for survival. The conditions in Sosnoweic continued to worsen as people were made "example of" and hanged in front of the town for everyone to see, riots continued to break out and tensions were high in the city. Later on, it is ordered by the German government that all Jews over the age of 70 are to be removed from Sosnoweic and sent to what seemed like a retirement area for the elderly. However, many were suspicious including Anja's parents and the family secretly hid them from the Jewish police that were actually turning in fellow Jews. Eventually Anja's family is threatened with death and are forced to turn the grandparents in--they are never seen again. Vladek realizes that people will turn in friends and family in order to survive and save their own neck, and Victoria made an excellent point in including the quote by Vladek in the beginning of the book about how you really know who your friends are when they suffer through tough times with you. In the concluding scene with Mala and Art we find that Vladek frustrates Mala very greatly and she says "he's more attached to things than to people!" meaning that she doesnt feel as if she has a personal relationship with Vladek, and she doesnt know how much longer she can deal with his actions towards her.
By
gabriael, at Monday, May 21, 2007 8:34:00 PM
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