The Problems with Spiegelman’s MAUS:
Why MAUS Should Not Be Taught in High Schools
or Elementary Schools
PART #2. WHY IS PORTRAYING POLES AS PIGS OBJECTIONABLE FROM AN ETHICAL PERSPECTIVE?
Portraying
Poles as pigs is offensive. In fact, it has been acknowledged as such by
literary critics. In the biographical introduction to the excerpt from MAUS
that appears
in The Norton Anthology of American
Literature,7th edition (New York: Norton, 2007), Volume E, p. 3091, editors Jerome
Klinkowitz and Patricia B.Wallace describe Spiegelman’s representation of Poles as
pigs as “a calculated insult” leveled against Poles. A similar point was made
by Harvey Pekar, a celebrated underground comic book writer, who describes
himself as a Jew with a background similar to Art Spiegelman’s: “When he
[Spiegelman] shows them [Poles] doing something admirable and still portrays
them as pigs, he’s sending a mixed message.” (1) Characteristically, Spiegelman has dismissed Poles’ concern about
their depiction as pigs as “a squeal,” the sound pigs make.(2)
The
incessant depiction, in MAUS, of Poles as anti-Semitic “pigs” – with the highly
derisive
connotation that term carries – forms an image that cannot easily, if ever,
be erased
from the minds of young students whose knowledge of World War II
history
is minimal at best.
NB: Nazi Germany used propaganda in an effort to destroy ethnic communities in Poland, and pit them against each other. Some of that propaganda still endures to this day. The danger of propaganda is in its persistence so eventually people tend to believe it. But please beware that repetition of lies does not make the truth. It is still propaganda.
.
The mouse
and cat metaphor is fairly obvious to most readers of MAUS. It is a well-
known
fact that cats chase mice, and that the Nazis targeted Jews for destruction. The cat
imagery is generally explained by teachers and in accompanying reading materials
provided to or accessible by students. The pig imagery or “metaphor,” on the other
hand, is rarely, if ever, explained – whether in MAUS itself, or in available reading
materials. One handout provided to students states that the animals have a “symbolic
quality,” without any further explanation of the role of the pigs.(3) This begs the
question, what is their symbolic quality?
The use
of pigs to depict Poles is something that cannot be missed, especially by
impressionable
young readers, as the very word “pig” is widely used as a term of derision.
“You pig,” is universally considered to be an insult. In many cultures, pigs are
viewed as disgusting, filthy, and greedy animals. They are often considered to be vulgar
and stupid. The implication, therefore, is that there is something unsavoury
about the pig people. This is one obvious negative connotation that would not
be lost on the students, especially since that image is reinforced by the negative
stereotypes used to portray Poles, who even manage to remain fat while imprisoned
in Auschwitz. For Jews and Muslims, pigs are “unclean” animals. Jewish culture
in particular views pigs, and pork, as non-kosher, or unclean. This is very
important contextual information of which the students are not made aware.
According to the Chabad-Lubavitch Media Center,
There is probably no animal as disgusting to Jewish sensitivities as the
pig. It’s not just because it may not be eaten: there are plenty of other
animals that aren’t kosher either, but none of them arouse as much disgust as
the pig. Colloquially, the pig is the ultimate symbol of loathing; when you say
that someone “acted like a chazir [pig],” it suggests that he or she did
something unusually abominable.(4)
An
Israeli court found a Jewish woman guilty of racism for putting up posters
depicting Islam’s Prophet Mohammad as a pig. After a volatile demonstration
against immigrants from Russia, heckled as “pork eaters,” David Benziri, a
leading Sephardi rabbi and brother of an Israeli cabinet minister, said: “There
is nothing so anti-Jewish as pig.” (5)
Unfortunately,
the image of Poles as being “unclean” has a long and shameful tradition. In
prewar Poland, some Jews were known to refer to Poles as “Polish pigs”. This
went hand-in-hand with the popular image of Poles as “stupid goys (“Goy,” a
derogatory term for Christians, was commonly used by Jews to refer to Poles.)
Samuel Oliner, a respected Jewish scholar, recalled his grandmother’s lament,
“Shmulek will grow up to be a stupid goy!” “The presence of a gentile defiled
the home of a Jew,” he also recalled. (6)
We can see an allusion to that type of thinking in Vladek’s
characterization of the Polish priest who comforted him in Auschwitz: “He
wasn’t Jewish – but very intelligent. ” Moreover, the similarities between the
Nazi and traditional Jewish perception of Poles as stupid, disgusting animals
are disturbing.
NB. The world greatly discredits Poland and its people. Polish people are noble, honorable and brilliant in virtually every discipline. Poland has given the world many gifts, among them Nicolaus Copernicus, Madame Curie (nee Maria Sklodowska-Curie), Frederic Chopin, Joseph Conrad (nee Jozef Korzeniowski), referred to as "the greatest British novelist" and many more. There is a multitude of great Polish men and women in the sciences, arts, literature, and music (past and present) The list is endless..... !
Polish
inmates of Nazi camps were often called “Polish swine” by German officials and
kapos. (7) Poles are also referred to as
“pigs” in Jewish memorial books.(8) MAUS employs
the same imagery of the Poles as found in Nazi propaganda, where Poles were
often referred to as “pigs.” Art Spiegelman was, of course, aware of these problematic
associations when he chose to portray Poles as pigs. Are the teachers aware of
it? Are the students being informed? How else would they learn about it?
Spiegelman,
in MAUS itself, shows how carefully he selects the animals to depict the
various nationalities when he ponders how to draw his French wife. (There is more on
this later.) The choice of pigs was quite deliberate and sends a clear message
that anyone with an understanding of the cultures involved, and the times,
would appreciate. The narrative then plays into the stereotype by its relentless
focus on Poles who behave brutishly, venally, and badly.
NB. Not all Polish people during the war behaved brutishly, venally, or badly. The fact is that the Polish Underground established the Polish Council to Aid the Jews, or Zegota as it came to be known. Of the many excellent websites on the subject, I recommend the following. Please click on the link. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Zegota.html
I also recommend that you read the book, "Zegota" written by Irene Tomaszewski, and Tecia Werbowski. (Publisher: Price-Patterson, ISBN10 # 1896881157, ISBN#13 978-1896881157
In the
past, Art Spiegelman has not been forthright as to why he chose to draw Poles
as pigs. In MetaMaus: A Look Inside a Modern Classic, Maus (New York: Pantheon,
2011), Spiegelman divulges his actual reasons for portraying Poles as pigs: it
is to bash Poles. With reference to his father’s attitude towards Poles, he
quips, “So my metaphor [mice to be killed outright, and pigs to be exploited
and eaten] was somehow able to hold that particular vantage point while still
somehow acknowledging my father’s dubious opinion of Poles as a group.” (P.
122.) Despite the fact that Poland had for centuries given sanctuary to Jews persecuted elsewhere,
Spiegelman adds that, “‘And considering the bad relations between
Poles and
Jews for the last hundred years in Poland, it seemed right to use a non-
Kosher
animal.’” (P. 125.)
N.B. Apparently Spiegelman can only count up to 100. The fact is that Poles and Jews have lived in Poland as neighbors for the past 1,000 years, through turbulent eras, yes - but there were also times of peace and goodwill. King Stephen Batory continues to be regarded with great respect and admiration among the Jews of today. Among the Kings decrees, he offered protection to the Polish Jews, and denounced religious violence.
Unfortunately,
Art Spiegelman’s anti-Polish biases run deep. At an interactive meeting at
Angelo State University in February 2011, Spiegelman dismissed as “silly” the
notion that Poles and Polish Americans were offended by his pig depiction. He
told the audience that he had read a book that supposedly proved that the Poles
in Nazi-occupied Poland were in favor of the Holocaust. He alleged that Poles
objected only to having to sit back and watch while the Nazis carried out mass
murder, referring to a diary written by a Polish man that, Spiegelman claimed,
showed that most Poles resented not being able to carry out the Holocaust
themselves. Spiegelman then said he could not remember the author or the title
of the book on which he based this slanderous claim, joking awkwardly that he
has always accepted the fact that memory is imperfect. (9)
All of
this supports what Erin Einhorn, a Jewish-American author, concludes as being the
real inspiration for the pig metaphor:
... people like my grandparents,
the survivor generation, emerged from the war with a blazing hatred for the
Poles ... And they passed that hatred on to their children. It was why, I
suspected, Art Spiegelman, the son of a survivor from Sosnowiec, the town next
to the one where my mother was born, drew the Poles as pigs in his holocaust
comic book, Maus, and the Germans as comparatively pleasant cats. The
implication from our parents and grandparents was that the Germans, while evil
and calculating in the war, were basically intelligent
people who were swept catastrophically into nationalistic frenzy, while the
Poles were anti-Semitic pigs. There was a reason – I had been told many times
with a wink – that the Germans located the death camps in Poland, that the German
people never would have stood for such horror on their own land. Poles, I was
told, had welcomed the camps.
They’d embraced the chance to
see Jews die around them. Even my mother, who was saved by a Polish family,
told me the family only did it for the money. The reasonable part of me didn’t
believe this. People don’t risk their lives for money alone, and such horrible,
sweeping statements couldn’t possibly apply to an entire population without
benefit of nuance or exception. (10)
That
Spiegelman was under the influence of such biases is evident in MAUS itself. Nations
or cultures he approves of are represented by noble or respectable animals, for
example, Americans as dogs and Swedes as reindeer. However, cultures which he scorns
are symbolized negatively. When discussing with his wife, who is French, how to
draw Frenchmen, Spiegelman rejects her suggestion of bunny rabbits, as “too
sweet and gentle” to apply to a nation [France] with a deep history of anti-Semitism
and Nazi collaboration. Instead, he chose to draw Frenchmen as frogs, which
could be seen as a slimy and lowly creature. However, since the French are peripheral
to the MAUS story, their depiction as frogs plays no significant role in the book. One
cannot say the same about the Poles, who appear front and centre and, for the
most part, in a negative light. Their portrayal as pigs reinforces the notion that they
were supposedly a nation of Nazi collaborators. Their portrayal at Auschwitz
– overwhelmingly as brutal kapos – is a striking and graphic illustration of that
phenomenon.
NB. Spiegelman' s depiction that all kapos being Polish is inaccurate. The majority of kapos were Germans thugs and convicted criminals, as well as Lithuanians, Ukrainians, Russians, and even Jews. Though some claim that there were Polish kapos I am certain that most were the Volksdeutscher. (Poles of German descent)
The
bigotry and historical distortions inherent in Vladek’s perspective on Poles
are
validated
by the author. Spiegelman’s own presence within the narrative (e.g., during
the discussion between himself and his French wife about how to depict French
characters) would have allowed him, through the voice of his own mouse character,
to call attention to those flaws within his father’s views. Instead, he purposefully
supports his father’s bias against Poles. (In contrast, his own mouse character
challenges Vladek’s racism against African Americans near the end of the book.)
The claim
that the use of animals to portray nations (anthropomorphism) simply reflects
Nazi German ideology is not true, except in the case of Poles, who were often
referred to “swine.” The Nazis did not portray the Germans as cats, the French as
frogs or the Americans as dogs. In the Nazi propaganda film The Eternal Jew, Jews
are portrayed as filthy, disease-bearing rats that had to be exterminated, not as
helpless, emaciated mice. Moreover, the use of the pig metaphor is inept in showing
the Poles’ actual place in the Nazi hierarchy of nations. While it is true that cats
pursue mice, pigs are not their natural enemies: cats do not eat pigs. There is no
indication that German cats intended to slaughter Poles, as they did by the millions.
Rather, portraying Poles as well-fed pigs serves to underscore their alleged role as
crude and dull stooges. The leitmotif of Poles as Nazi sympathizers and henchmen
reinforces the false image of Poles as a nation of collaborators. In actual fact,
Poles were one of the primary victims of National Socialist racial policies.
They also
produced occupied Europe’s largest underground army to fight the German invaders.
N.B. Western media and schools give little or no information about one of the most important events in WW2 such as The Warsaw Uprising. The study of Poland is an essential part of the study of WW2 and must be included in history studies. Please click on this link for in-depth facts and stories. http://www.warsawuprising.com/
Writing
in the Comics Journal (no. 113, December 1986) from the perspective of “a
first-generation American Jew,” Harvey Pekar voiced his strong objection to Spiegelman’s
portrayal of Poles as pigs:
It undermines his moral
position. He negatively stereotypes Poles even though he portrays some hiding
Jews from the Germans. ... I do not have general objections to
anthropomorphism, but I do object to the way Spiegelman uses it. Art
stereotypes nationalities, Orwell doesn’t. Orwell’s pigs do not represent a
whole nation. They represent what comes to be the corrupt ruling class of a
nation. Orwell didn’t portray the leaders of the
animal revolution as pigs just to praise their intellects: he wanted people to view them as
coarse and greedy, which is what people usually mean when they call each
other ‘pig’.
No amount
of literary “deconstruction” of the text will undo that harmful and indelible
impression. So when students studying MAUS direct remarks like “Oink, oink,
piggies” and “you Poles killed the Jews” at fellow students of Polish origin,
as was reported in a Toronto high school in the fall of 2013 , they are
actually quite perceptive in picking up on the message – the biases and
negative stereotypes – conveyed in MAUS. The fault lies not with the students,
but with the book itself.
FOOTNOTES
1 The Comics Journal , no. 113, December 1986.
2 Joseph Witek, ed., Art Spiegelman: Conversations
(Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 2007),
193.
3 Ian Johnston, “On Spiegelman’s Maus I and II”,
Internet: http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/introser/maus.htm.
4 Internet:
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/2376474/jewish/Pigs-Judaism.htm.
5 Alan
Philps, “Pork-eating Gentiles stir outrage in Israel,” National Post (Toronto),
November
24, 1999.
6 Samuel P.
Oliner, Restless Memories: Recollections of the Holocaust Years (Berkeley,
California: Judah L. Magnes Museum, 1986), 29, 54.
7 Record of Witness Testimony No. 014, November 30,
1945, Voices from Ravensbrück,
Polish Institute of Source Research, Lund, Sweden, Internet:
http://www3.ub.lu.se/ravensbruck/interview14.
8 For example, Kosow Lacki (San Francisco: Holocaust
Center of Northern Calif
ornia, 1992), 49; and The Cieszanow Memorial Book (Mahwah,
New Jersey: Jacob Solomon Berger, 2006), 40.
9 Internet:
http://bieganski-the-blog.blogspot.ca/2012/10/protesting-maus-by-dr-linda-
kornasky.html.
10 Erin Einhorn, The Pages In Between: A Holocaust
Legacy of Two Families, One Home New York: Touchstone/Simon & Schuster,
2008), 48–49.
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"The Problems with Spiegelman's MAUS:
Why MAUS should not be taught in High Schools or Elementary Schools"
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