DC Holocaust Museum and Spiegelman’s Novel “Maus”: Two Ways to Describe the Holocaust

Throughout world history there have been many horrible tragedies that various regions have encountered. There have been World Wars, economic hardships, and inter-continental rivalries, but none produced as many deaths then that of the Holocaust. The Holocaust, or “The Final Solution to the Jewish Problem”, was a program, led by Adolf Hitler, and the Nazi Regime, designed to create a ‘pure’, new Germany. The Nazi Regime came to power in January of 1933 and believed that the Germans were racially superior and that Jews were a threat to the German community. Before the start of the Holocaust there had been over 9 million Jews living throughout parts of Europe occupied by Germany during World War II. The “Final Solution” accounted for the extermination of nearly six million Jews by the end of the war. The Jews were the primary victims during the Final Solution, however this extermination process was aimed toward many other groups including gays, Gypsies, Russians, Poles, and even the disabled. Many of the victims exterminated during the Holocaust were killed by different methods and means. The Jews had been placed in concentration camps where they were forced into labor and, in all sense of the word, ‘worked to death’. Along with dying from exhaustion, children and older peoples were killed in gas chambers as they walked in to these concentration camps and many were killed due to immoral medical experiments. Political opponents, such as the Communists, Socialists, and Religious dissidents were killed due to incarceration and malnutrition. There were approximately eleven million murdered victims at the conclusion of the Nazi’s Reign. Many books, articles, and places attempt to tell people what happened during the Holocaust and recollect the event that took place, but none is more thorough than the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. and Art Spiegelman’s famous graphic novel, Maus: A Survivor’s Tale.     

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum located in Washington D.C. presents a narrative history using hundred of artifacts, video monitors, and theaters to explain to its visitors what occurred throughout the holocaust. The main exhibit, “The Permanent Exhibition”, is divided into three relative significant parts/ floors:  “Nazi Assault”, “The Final Solution”, and “The Last Chapter”. The first floor, “Nazi Assault”, focuses on the events in Germany that led to rise of the Nazi Party in beginning in 1933 and ending towards the commencement of World War II in September 1939. This exhibit explores how tools of a totalitarian state were implemented to allow persecution to arise using propaganda, terror, violence, and state-sponsored racism. The Nazi party used such great propaganda, that they influenced their entire state that the persecutions were for the common good of society. They were even able to influence their school system and make the children of Germany believe they were doing this for their own well-being. Germany wanted to cleanse Germany from those who did not fit their racial ideal. One such exhibit displays how scientist created a “science” of race and shows various pictures of those races and people not worthy of German heritage. Another exhibit tells us that persecution of the Jewish community began with riots against Jewish businesses and synagogues, and the desecration of Jewish scrolls called Torahs. The “Nazi Assault” Exhibit also goes into explaining Adolf Hitler’s “Euthanasia program”, where nearly 70,000 disabled Germans were gassed. Visitors throughout this floor get a first hand glimpse about how the Holocaust began and also how Americans responded to the Nazi persecutions. The second floor exhibit, “The Final Solution”, focuses on life in the Concentration Camps. This floor takes you through and explains how and why persecution escalated into a mass genocide/murder. The focus is to give you a visual tour of what those persecuted encountered in the Concentration camps. Exhibits display such things as rail-cars, in which Jewish victims were transported to camps, their lifestyles within these camps, and many videos that display scenes on the treatment received while being held there. The third and final floor entitled, “The Last Chapter”, focuses on the aftermath of the Holocaust. The quest to render justice to those responsible for carrying out the murder of millions is covered through exhibits as well as the rescue efforts, resistance, and the post-holocaust life of those persecuted.