Maus's Unique Take on Nazi Propaganda

The images are structured in a similar way, with a group of people under a flag, but they still convey drastically different messages. Both images depict the current situation from a limited perspective. For example, in the “Saved” poster, the Jews continue to look distraught even though the Americans have rescued them. Other than the word “Saved” at the top of the picture, there is nothing else in the poster that indicates that the Jews indeed were saved. The picture only considers the continuing effects of the psychological trauma on the Jews, rather than showing the physical benefits of attaining freedom. The Nazi poster also explains the effects of the war from just one perspective. The Nazi poster shows beaming faces and a bright sky, as if the country is peaceful and prospering, with little to suggest the violence and brutality of the Nazi regime.

In both pictures, the characters all have nearly identical appearances. The mice in the poster all look dejected and weary in their prisoner outfit, expressing how Auschwitz spared none of the Jews, inflicting an unimaginable degree of despair and trauma on all of them. The Jews also continue to wear the striped prisoner uniforms from Auschwitz. In the background, the portion of the American flag with stripes is above the Jews, suggesting that the Jews consider their rescue to be a different type of prison, in which they are trapped by their memories rather than abused physically and emotionally by the Germans.

The Nazi poster depicts Germans who all have nearly identical uniforms and faces of pride and joy. The poster reflects how the Germans favored their own race over all others. The Germans all wear military uniforms, and there is a castle in the background, reflecting the strength of German society. The Nazi flag is being hoisted into the sky, mirroring the rise of Germany as a world power. Even the clouds in the background are white and fluffy, a stark contrast to the lethal gases in the Auschwitz chambers.

Both images also depict a character at the forefront who seems to best embody the emotions of the people in the background. Vladek best embodies how lasting the effects of the torture in Auschwitz were; he habitually confuses the past and the present, as when he refers to Art as Richeu in the end of the novel. The man at the forefront of the propaganda poster raises the flag and leads the salute, best demonstrating Germany’s pride in their racial and military superiority and their “avid [desire] to achieve greatness for Germany” (Rinderle).

            The images are both created to send a very specific message about trauma, as in Maus, or national pride, as in the Nazi poster. Neither is focused on the realities; rather, they promote a biased view of the situation. Perhaps a more balanced view of the predicament, equally weighing the positives and negatives, would have been the best way for people to cope with the war and its aftermath.