Roxie's Ramblings

A Review on Chapter Five

Vledek is now in Sweden and working hard to earn money to find Anja and have a comfortable life together. After much dedication and searching, he and Anja are reunited at long last.

The interview ends and Vladek is tired and very, very weak. He accidentally calls Art by his first son’s name and drifts off to sleep.

The last image in the book is that of his father and mother’s joint grave, where they can now finally rest in peace.

A Review on Chapter Four

Vladek and a friend, Shivek, finally escape the Germans (most have retreated at this point anyway). They take refuge in a barn and eat chickens and milk, some of the first real food they’ve had in months. Their stomachs are so unused to it that they get sick for awhile.

The American soliders arrive and the two ask them to stay with them if they earn their keep. They gladly stay with them for a bit.

Vladek then pulls out photographs for Art to see. It’s of old family members, all dead. The old man then starts to have a bit of heart trouble and lays down, ending that day’s interview.

A Review on Chapter Three

The next morning, Art and Francoise drive Vladek to the grocery store. On the way, he recalls more of Auschwitz. The war was coming to an end and the Germans were retreating and bringing the Jews with them. They were forced to march for days, many collapsed from exhaustion and were trampled. Those who ran away were shot for trying.

They are then packed up in carts to Dachau, after the red cross gives them each a small package of food. The carts are filled with straw and contain lice, some of the prisoners contract typhus and many die. Vladek injures his hand drastically so that he can go to the hospital and conditions get better for him.

He befriends a french man because they both speak English and they help each other with rations.

The interview comes to an abrupt halt when Francoise allows a hitch hiker in the car. He’s a pleasant man but Vladek gets angry because he’s black and will therefore “steal something” of theirs. Art and Francoise don’t understand how he can be so racist after going through what he did.

A Review on Chapter Two

Vladek dies of heart failure on August 18th, 1982. Art is surrounded by publishers who enjoyed his work and interviewers hassle him constantly. It’s now 1987 and he and his wife are expecting a child, a blessing but another cause of stress. He visits with his therapist, a Czech Jew who also escaped the holocaust alive.

He makes Art feel much better about his work and it inspires him to go back to his old recorded interviews with his father. The second book continues.

In Auschwitz, Vladek stays on the good side of officers and barters his way with food. A Hungarian prisoner, Mancie, helps him reach his wife and he bribes his way for her to have better conditions as well. Finally they are reunited due to many bribes yet the war starts to escalate as the Russians move in. 

One day Vladek notices a large pit, he discovers it is a mass grave.

A Review on Chapter One

Art and his wife, Francoise, are vacationing in Vermont with friends. He tries to decide how to draw his wife since she is French. Yet Francoise tells him to draw her as a mouse also, since she converted to Judaism to please his father. Their vacation is short lived however, when Art receives a call from his father claiming he had had a serious heart attack.

They arrive to find that Vladek lied, his true crisis being that Mala left him and took some money as well. Art, frustrated with his father, decides to interview him some more so that the trip is not a waste.

At this point in the story, they have arrived at Auschwitz and Vladek has been separated from his wife, Anja.They are given numbers on their skin and prison uniforms. He is so depressed he thinks about ending it all, but then a priest, a prisoner as well, looks at the number on his arm.

This man knows about Jewish culture and points out that the numbers on his arm are lucky and that God has blessed him. It gives Vladek strength. He makes sure to get on the good side of officers in charge and even becomes a tin specialist through sheer luck.

The interview is cut short when Vladek wants to play bingo.

A Review on Chapter Six

Art visits his father once again but runs into Mala first. She is miserable with his father and complains about how stingy he is. He cheers them both up by showing them what he’s sketched so far of the story. 

The interview begins once again and now it is 1944. A polish woman, Mrs. Kawka, takes them in. She hooks them up with some smugglers who offer to take them to Hungary and out of Poland for good. All seems well with the smugglers until one of them leaves to make a phone call. 

An hour later the Germans take Anja and Vladek as prisoners and they are sent to Auschwitz. The smugglers betrayed them. They are separated into men’s and women’s camps.

Art asks his father if any of Anja’s diaries of this time remain. His father confesses that he burned them all after her suicide and Art storms out, furious at the loss of his mother’s memories. 

A Review on Chapter Five

Art’s father becomes increasingly antsy, and even tries to change his house’s drainpipes at seven in the morning. His frustration with his father abounds and things become worse when his father discovers the comic he wrote about his mother, Anja’s, suicide.

He needs a moment to himself, but eventually Vladek is okay to talk about those difficult times again. It is now 1943 and the jews are moved to another village. Things become worse and worse and eventually Anja agrees that Richieu should be sent to live somewhere else. Unfortunately the boy is killed later by his caretaker. The woman poisons him rather than let him go off to the camps.

At the end of 1943, almost all the Jews had been taken off to Auschwitz. Anja and Vladek hide and escape many close calls. The blend in with the Polish people as much as possible.

A Review on Chapter Four

Vladek is exercising when his son arrives and the next interview begins. Even in old age he wishes to stay alert. 

Due to the war, rations are scare and things are having to be bought on the black market. Luckily, his family is rich, but the money wont last them forever and Vladek becomes resourceful. He sells surplus cloth and also makes sure to stay friendly with the Polish people and fellow Jews. 

Jews are now being beaten and Vladek wonders if he should send his son away, yet Anja refuses. Some of his father-in-law’s friends are hanged for selling items on the black market. Yet despite this, Vladek still sells items there.

The elderly are then gathered by the German officers. They claimed that it was for health and safety, yet Vladek did not trust them. Grandparents are hidden for as long as possible, but eventually they are sent away. They were never seen again.

Art’s father is now tired and leaves the interview to rest. His stepmother, Mala, tells him of how she too witnessed the elderly being taken away. 

A Review on Chapter Three

The next time Art visits his father he witnesses Vladek and his second wife, Mala, in a fight. After things cool down, the interview continues from where it left off. During the war with the Germans, Vladek kills one man and is captured as a prisoner of war. The Jewish prisoners are treated far worse and he decides to volunteer in the labor camps to get better treatment. 

Conditions are a bit better for him, but he is still treated cruelly. One night, he has a dream that his grandfather is telling him he will escape on the Jewish Holiday of Parshas Truma. And, miraculously, he does!

He makes his way to his father’s house and discovers that some Germans had forced him to shave off his beard, a dishonor in Jewish culture. His mother is sick with cancer and dies one month after his visiting them. Somehow he finally arrives to Anja and their little boy, who is now two years old. 

The interview ends and Art leaves his fathers house in a bad mood since his father has had his jacket replaced without his knowledge. Vladek seems to always “know what’s best” for him

A Review on Chapter Two

Art once again visits his elderly father and asks to record more of his story. Vladek is counting pills and complaining of his health, yet eventually they discuss his past further. Vladek was married happily to Anja when a local seamstress was arrested for holding Anja’s communist documents. Her father bribed the seamstress to take the fall and the woman is released from prison after three months. 

Things seem like they’ll be alright and Vladek is now running a textile factory given to him by his father-in-law. They are still financially secure and happy when they welcome their first son into the world. Little Richieu was born October 1937 and the parents are thrilled. Everything seems to be going well until Anja suffers from postpartum depression, causing her to have to rest in a sanitarium. Vladek accompanies his wife and after three months she is better than ever.

When they return they discover that their factory has been robbed. It is the first occurrence of antisemitism they experience. Antisemitic riots begin downtown and the police even refuse to stop it. And then, in August 1939, Vladek is called from the reserves to war.