Maus and Night Blog

I read Night and Maus I and even though I preferred one of the books I do think future classes should read both books. The books are good to read together because they show two different perspectives of families affected by the Holocaust. One story showed the rich life of a successful family before and during the Holocaust, and the other book focuses on a family of more humble means and how both were affected by the Holocaust.

In Maus a rich family strives to stay alive by bribing Germans and other people to take them in after being displaced from their home. On page 62 Vladik says, “‘I was very frightened. Then we heard something to give us a little hope.’ ‘We’ve bribed the Germans to release prisoners to the homes of local Jews who will claim you as relatives.’”  Clearly Vladik is not only wealthy himself but connected to people with money and influence. This is just one of many examples where Vlakik uses his talents and riches to live another day.

In Night the family is a working class family, although the father is a highly respected Jewish leader. They are not protected by their riches and as a result they suffer more early on. The mother and Elie’s sisters are separated from the father and Elie after they left the ghetto in Sighet and first arrived at Birkenau, the reception center for Auschwitz. . “I did not know in that place, at that moment, I was parting from my mother and Tzipora forever.” (p.27) In Maus Vladek is good at finding ways to keep his wife and himself safe through the troubling times of the Holocaust. In Night the family is split early on, but despite the fact Elie’s dad can not buy protection they struggle to survive together for the rest of the book, and nearly do so.

These two books go along with each other well to show perspectives about the suffering people went through during the Holocaust. I recommend future classes reading them both.