Zyklon B

In frame 71.1, Vladek and Art Spiegelman make a specific point of mentioning Zyklon B as the gas that was used to kill Jewish people. Vladek describes it as a "pesticide" to say that the Nazis killed Jews the same way we spray Raid on an ant colony. The connection, however, extends even further than that. After its discovery as a commercial-grade toxin around the time of Napoleonic Wars, it had been suggested that it be used to kill enemy soldiers on the battlefield. It, however, was not yet possible to mass-produce Zyklon B, also known as prussic acid. It was first used by the French in WWI to make artillery fire even more deadly. Under Hitler's rule, it was quickly adopted, partially due to the efforts of Fritz Haber, as a pesticide. It was mainly used to kill insects and mice in large spaces, hence the connection to MAUS. It was even used in concentration camps such as Auschwitz to kill mice. After succeeding as a pesticide in the camps, the Nazis began tests on people. This historical fact is the reason why Vladek and Art Spiegelman make such a mention of it as a pesticide: it was used to kill mice. In turning the Jews into mice, Spiegelman makes it seem as though they have always been the targets of the gas and are being killed in the same way animals are.Even more ironically, prussic acid was also used as a disinfectant, and Spiegelman writes "disinfection"(70.3) on the sign leading to the gas rooms rather than "showers."

A Can of Zyklon B

Sources:

http://www.nizkor.org/faqs/auschwitz/auschwitz-faq-06.html

http://www.holocaust-history.org/auschwitz/pressac/technique-and-operation/pressac0015.shtml

http://www.holocaust-history.org/auschwitz/chemistry/iffr/report.shtml

Jews and Animals

In last night's reading of the Nightfather, Carl Friedman often mentioned animals. He introduced us to Pinky, told us about a puppy who was gassed, and described the dogs near the narrator's father's concentration camp. Friedman compares the treatment that all of these received to the treatment that the Jews received as a result the War and the Holocaust. In the first example, the Nazis show similar hatred or indifference toward the Jews and the puppy. This gives us the impression that the Nazis are almost soulless creatures that have murder in their nature. In the case of Pinky the street cat, Friedman decides that the narrator's father should have a special connection to the animal. Both of them have faced hardship; both have known hunger and have to some degree fought to stay alive. This relationship makes it clear to us that suffering is not only something the Jews had to go through but something anyone may have to go through. The reader himself must sometimes go through suffering. Finally, the Army dogs apparently receive better treatment than the imprisoned Jews, unlike the previous examples. The reader cannot see the logic here. Neither can the reader see logic in the murder of the innocent puppy, nor can he find reason in the better treatment of animals. One becomes angry at the senseless mistreatment different beings go through and sees the Nazis as a group that works through murder and on the behalf of murder and pain.