The double meaning behind Art Spiegelman’s “Maus”
Clip: 4/15/2025 | 1m 57sVideo has Closed Captions
“Maus” was about Art Spiegelman’s father’s experiences in the Holocaust and their relationship.
Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel “Maus” was about both his father Vladek’s experiences in the Holocaust and the difficult relationship they had with each other.
Support for American Masters is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, AARP, Rosalind P. Walter Foundation, Judith and Burton Resnick, Blanche and Hayward Cirker Charitable Lead Annuity Trust, Koo...
The double meaning behind Art Spiegelman’s “Maus”
Clip: 4/15/2025 | 1m 57sVideo has Closed Captions
Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel “Maus” was about both his father Vladek’s experiences in the Holocaust and the difficult relationship they had with each other.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship- "Maus" is a twin story.
So it's about Art Spiegelman's father Vladek's experience in the Holocaust.
Another thread of the book is the story of an adult cartoonist who is struggling to visualize the Holocaust in comics form and is also profoundly struggling with his relationship with his father.
(pages rustling) - On the indicia page is a quotation.
"The Jews are undoubtedly a race, but they are not human."
Adolf Hitler.
Rego Park, New York, circa 1958.
It was summer, I remember.
I was 10 or 11.
Last one to the schoolyard is a rotten egg.
I was rollerskating with Howie and Steve till my skate came loose.
Ow!
Hey.
Wait up, fellas.
Rotten egg.
Ha ha.
Wait up.
Snk, snf.
My father was in front, fixing something.
Artie.
Come to hold this a minute while I saw.
Snrk?
Why do you cry, Artie?
Hold better on the wood.
I, I fell, and my friends skated away without me.
He stopped sawing.
Friends?
Your friends?
If you lock them together in a room with no food for a week, then you could see what it is, friends.
So that sequence was there to sort of frame what happens in the rest of the book, which is a difficult relationship with my father and one in which nightmare visions drop out of nowhere into my kid life.
Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse
Video has Closed Captions
Explore the career of cartoonist Art Spiegelman and his award-winning graphic novel Maus. (2m)
Art Spiegelman interpreted the Holocaust from a child’s perspective
Video has Closed Captions
Art Spiegelman’s “Li’l Pitcher” comic depicted the Holocaust from a child’s perspective. (1m 24s)
Art Spiegelman wrote this comic about his family’s experiences on 9/11
Video has Closed Captions
Art Spiegelman later depicted the Twin Towers falling in his comic, “In the Shadow of No Towers.” (1m 21s)
How Art Spiegelman got involved in the world of underground comix
Video has Closed Captions
Art Spiegelman’s “Maus” was featured in the comic book “Funny Aminals” in 1972. (1m 40s)
One of the most important pages of Art Spiegelman’s “Maus”
Video has Closed Captions
In this segment of “Maus,” Art Spiegelman illustrated four Jewish victims hung by Nazis in Poland. (2m 6s)
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship
Support for American Masters is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, AARP, Rosalind P. Walter Foundation, Judith and Burton Resnick, Blanche and Hayward Cirker Charitable Lead Annuity Trust, Koo...