trapped

On page 157 of Maus I by Art Spiegelman, he surrounds two smaller panels with a freely drawn picture of the concentration camp in Auschwitz. Within the smaller panels, Spiegelman depicts Vladek's conversation with Anja in the truck in the midst of the chaos of being transported to the camp; the two are literally trapped by the Nazis. The openness of the picture of the camp also illustrates how the Nazis were everywhere, and how the Jews could not escape their cruelty. Additionally, the trucks shaded with vertical stripes resemble prison cells. Towards the bottom of the page, the barred windows on the back of the truck makes the similarity even more obvious. The banner going across the page says "Arbeit Macht Frei" which, after googling it, I was able to understand that it is a German saying that means "Work Sets You Free." This is ironic because the more work Jews were forced to do, the less hope for freedom they had. By blocking the banner with a caption that reads, "...and we knew that from here we will not come out anymore," Spiegelman disproves the saying, and contradicts it with his words. Lastly, this page isn't actually page 157; its number does not exist. Like the Jews were during this time, marking the pages with numbers suggests generalization, or a mere combination of individual "things" used to represent a group. As we discussed in class this week, by stripping away the numbers, Spiegelman reveals the realness of the situation and reminds readers that the story of Maus isn't just a story, but a horrifying event that happened to human beings.