Discussing the Dehumanization of Jews in the Second World War

This essay explores the dehumanization of Jewish people during the Second World War, with a particular focus on the historical context and the impact of Nazi Germany. The essay analyzes the events, focusing on the use of animal metaphors in Art Spiegelman's graphic novel, Maus, to illustrate the experiences of Jews during the Holocaust. It examines how the Nazi party's policies and Hitler's hatred led to the persecution, imprisonment, and mass killing of millions of Jews. The essay discusses the use of mice to represent Jews, cats to represent Germans, and pigs to represent Poles, highlighting the dehumanizing conditions and the 'Final Solution'. It also references the role of concentration camps, particularly Auschwitz, and the collaboration of Polish forces. The essay uses textual evidence and scholarly sources to support its arguments, providing a comprehensive overview of the dehumanization of Jews during World War II, and emphasizing the importance of understanding this tragic period in history.

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Dehumanization of Jews in the Second World War
The following essay will look to discuss about the dehumanization of the Jews during the
Second World War. The domination of the Nazi Party of Germany and Jewish hatred by Hitler
was the main reason for the attacks and ruthless killing that the Jewish people had to suffer. The
descriptions of this scenario have been given in the graphic novel named Maus by Art
Spiegelman (Spiegelman: 10). The experiences of the dangerous Holocaust have been discussed
in this book and all the communities have been described through the use of animal cartoons.
This is a very helpful book for the readers to understand the proceedings that went through there.
In this novel Maus by Spiegelman, the author has used several techniques of the
postmodern period that have been helpful for the readers. Historical fact lovers are also
interested to know about the issues that went on during that period in Europe. The concept of
Holocaust has been very impactful for the proper understanding of the situation. In this book, the
author has used mice to denote the Jews (Imhoff: 920). On the contrary, cats and pigs have been
used to denote the Germans and Poles respectively. The evil incidents of the Holocaust have
been discussed in this paper to show the world that Hitler’s reign and dominance of the Nazi
Germany brought about the mass killing and destruction of the Jews at the backdrop of the
Second World War (Spiegelman: 10). The relationship between the Jews and the German Nazi

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forces has been largely criticized in this book. The Jews had been taken under siege and put into
the prisons and concentration camps during the Second World War (Luna: 26).
The act of killing was done by state only. More than 6 million Jewish people were killed
in this process of mass killing and it included men, women and children also (Smith: 502). Apart
from the Nazi Germany, Polish forces also collaborated with them to gain the maximum impact
on this. According to the Germans, this was ‘the final solution to the Jewish question’. This is
why this incident is regarded as one of the most crucial incidents in the entire historical evolution
during the time of Second World War. The role of Poland was very significant in this context
also. The Nazi Germans thought the Jews to be a race and not a religious group. They realized
that the beliefs of the Jews could be harmful to them in terms of establishing their power (Tipler
and Ruscher: 220). The anti-Semitism by Hitler was the most intriguing factor in the shaping of
this mass killing. The ant-Semitism of the Nazi forces had been deeply rooted in the religious
anti-Semitism ideology. Therefore, it indicated their hatred against the religious beliefs that the
Jewish people had.
In the words of the critics, it was already noticed that Hitler’s motive was to expand his
territories all around the world and reign as the supreme race in the world. He understood that
Jews had rich heritage and traditions due to their history (Smith: 502). This was one of the most
significant reasons for him to eliminate the Jews from the world. In the view of Hitler, Jews were
a social group that polluted the society and it was indeed needed to get rid of them. This was the
only way to preserve the social order for him and he believed he had to destroy the entire Jewish
community (Muhlberger: 30). The situation was almost turned into a struggle for sustaining the
species. In this context, the book by Art Spiegelman has helped the readers a lot. In this book, the
author of the book has conducted interviews with his father Vladek that was located near the

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New York City (Spiegelman: 10) The actual purpose of this action was to maintain the
originality of the incidents that took place in this context. The interview between the father and
son goes on with several issues and it ended at the event named Holocaust in the year 1945.
Through these actions, it can be easily found out that the divisions made by the Nazis on
the basis of race were the strategy through which they inflicted the inhuman attacks on the Jews.
The experiences of the Holocaust survivors have been discussed in this book by Art Spiegelman.
The victimization of people due to anti-Semitism has been observed in the events of the book.
The relentless tortures inflicted on Jewish people were reflected by the animal metaphor. This
surely suggests that Jews were mice since they were very innocent and Germans were cats.
These cats or Germans have devoured them completely as the story suggests (Knowles: 85). The
concentration camps in Germany and Poland had been set up so the Jewish people could be
executed mercilessly. The hired mercenaries pounced on the Jews to end their lives and fulfill the
desires of Hitler to reign supreme as the superior race. One of the most devastating concentration
camps organized by Nazi Germany was Auschwitz. It opened in the year 1940 and it was the
largest concentration camp indeed. (Tipler and Ruscher: 220).
The ultimate desire of Hitler was to isolate the Jews from Germany and all other
countries that were acquired by Germany. So, it was the final death bell for Jews. When the
Soviet forces entered Auschwitz detention camp, they found piles of dead bodies lying there and
thousands of people detained (Luna: 26). These Jewish people had been subjected to
dehumanizing conditions that could only be compared to hell. The policy implemented by Hitler
to end the lives of Jews was ‘Final Solution’. Hitler thought this problem of Jews could be
solved by the use of this policy and eliminates each and every single Jew from Germany and

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surrounding countries (Knowles: 85). Cruelty and violence was administered on these poor and
innocent Jews. In the book by Art Spiegelman, he depicted the Jewish people as mice.
The cat-mouse metaphor has been used to show the oppression that these Jewish people
had to go through. Cats were dominant on the mice since they were bigger in size and mice were
their favorite food (Smith: 20). They caught the mice and detained them. This condition has been
compared with the scenario when Nazi Germans controlled by Hitler used to dominate the
Jewish people by detaining them. This kind of Nazi genocide had been recorded in this book
through the use of this cat-mouse metaphor. Polish forces were also introduced by the animal of
image of pigs. Once Hitler claimed the Jews to be rats and they were ‘vermin of mankind’.
Therefore, this book is an absolute gem to depict dehumanization of Jews through picturesque
methods of rats, cats and pigs (Smith: 430). Contemporary readers also found it easier to know
about the real story of Nazi Germany and their oppressions.
In the concluding section, it should be outlined that the book Maus has been quite
effective to show the dehumanization of the Jewish people within Germany and surrounding
regions. The conditions of the Jewish people were so pathetic that it could not be described. They
were badly beaten up and treated with utmost violence by Nazi Germans. Hitler despised the
Jews completely and wanted to eliminate them from Germany and other countries that he
controlled. The use of cat-mouse metaphor in the book correctly shows how the Jews had been
tortured and exposed to violent situations in the detention camps at Auschwitz. These factors are
well documented through the series of events in the book.

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References
Imhoff, Roland, et al. "Explaining the inexplicable: Differences in attributions for the Holocaust
in Germany, Israel, and Poland." Political Psychology 38.6 (2017): 907-924.
Knowles, Sam. "The Postcolonial Graphic Novel and Trauma: From Maus to
Malta." Postcolonial Traumas. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2015. 83-96.
Kruger, Liam. "Panels and faces: segmented metaphors and reconstituted time in Art
Spiegelman's Maus." Critical Arts 29.3 (2015): 357-366.
Luna, Aniuska M. "The components of dehumanization." Peace and Conflict Studies 22.1
(2015): 18-33.
Muhlberger, Detlef. Hitler's Followers (RLE Nazi Germany & Holocaust): Studies in the
Sociology of the Nazi Movement. Routledge, 2014.
Smith, David Livingstone. "Paradoxes of dehumanization." Social Theory and Practice (2016):
416-443.
Smith, Philip. "Spiegelman Studies Part 1 of 2: Maus." Literature Compass 12.10 (2015): 499-
508.
Smith, Philip. Reading Art Spiegelman. Routledge, 2015.
Spiegelman, Art. The complete maus. Vol. 1. Pantheon, 1991.
Tipler, Caroline, and Janet B. Ruscher. "Agency's role in dehumanization: Non‐human
metaphors of out‐groups." Social and Personality Psychology Compass 8.5 (2014): 214-
228.

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