I picked up a book I was reading at the bookstore today. Every Saturday the family goes to the local McNally Robinson; a locally owned and operated phenomenally successful bookstore. I happened by a title and author I had never heard of, Maus by Art Spiegelman. Initially set in the late 50s, the Polish Jewish son of a WWII survivor wishes to learn more about his father's past. They are mice. Most of the story thus far, as I have only read half, accounts the Polish-Jewish suffering at the hands of the Nazi-German... cats.

My first reaction was admiration in the author's ability to depict the horror that humankind is capable of inflicting upon its own kind through these creatures. This comic-in-novelette format holds back little. Looking to find out more about this innovative story, I performed a search on Google.ca where the first few hits brought to my attention the global controversy surrounding this award-winning book. From scathing rejection by Jewish-Polish priests despite the fact the author is Jewish-Polish and the story he tells true and inclusive of his own reactions to the discoveries from his father re-enacted through the characters mouse and his father in Maus, to the exact opposite expressed what I believe to be by North American students.

My first reaction in recognizing the Jewish-Polish people were represented by mice and the Nazi-Germans represented by cats was a viscous hunt of the defenceless. The flip interpretation portrayed vermin being chased out by the felines, natural protectors from the filthy disease infested mice. This latter interpretation was the one taken by the Jewish-Polish priest... I was shocked. I respect the interpretation and I am strongly inclined to follow my initial interpretation. The rest of this book will have a different feel as I read it and I am sure I will read it again by the end of this weekend.

Searching for more commentary, I found three passages that I felt described my philosophy behind my interpretation, my own interpretation and the priest's interpretation. Here below is the philosophy, and following it are the two links to the different views. Where does the money go that I spent on this book? To some neo-Nazi regime? Pro-Polish organization to reimburse the WWII survivors? Nope. The author and his publishing company. I have no objections to this purchase and I respect the opinions of any writing of history; though I cannot get my own opinion of it wrong.

Philosophy
"Whether commentary [...] is built into a structure of a history or developed as a separate, superimposed text is a matter of choice, but the voice of the commentator must be clearly heard. The commentary should disrupt the facile linear progression of the narration, introduce alternative interpretations, question any partial conclusion, withstand the need for closure [...]Such commentary may introduce splintered or constantly recurring refractions of a traumatic past by using any number of different vantage points."
Saul Friedländer, "Trauma, Transference and Working-Through," History and Memory 4 (1992): 39-55.

Robert S. Leventhal
Copyright (c) 1995 by Robert S. Leventhal, all rights reserved. This text may be shared in accordance with the fair use-provisions of the U.S. Copyright Law. Redistribution and republication of this text on other terms, in any medium, requires the written permission of the author.

found at:
http://www.iath.virginia.edu/holocaust/spiegelman.html

Pro-Maus
http://www.stmoroky.com/reviews/books/maus.htm

Con-Maus
http://www.3w3.net/polska/Antypolonizm/pages/maus.html
(the document is in Polish, but the letters are in English, near the middle of the page)