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The Holocaust, And Art Spiegelman's Night And Maus

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The word Holocaust refers to the mass murder of 6 million European Jews by the German Nazi regime during World War II. It began in 1933 and ended in 1945. The ruler of Germany during this time was Adolf Hitler. He and the Nazis put the Jew in concentration camps, where thousands were killed everyday. This was one of the worst if not the worst genocides in history. Many books have been written to document survivors’ testimony of this horrific event. Elie Wiesel shares his story and Art Spiegelman shares his father’s story in the books Night and Maus. Comparisons can be drawn between Maus and Night through the author's purpose for writing , the survivor’s experiences, and the author's perspective.
Elie Wiesel’s reason for writing Night was personal, but it was also to keep the world aware of the damage that was caused. “He is a messenger to mankind”, the nobel peace committee had said as they gave him the prize. Elie doesn’t want history to repeat itself. The best way to do that is for the world to know what happened and learn from their mistakes. The personal half of his reason was that Elie wanted to protect his child. “ My son changed me. Once you bring a life into this world, you must protect it by changing the world.” These were Elie Wiesel's own words. One of Art Spiegelman’s reasons was almost the same. He was eager to share his father’s story with the world. At the beginning of Maus I, Art describes how he asked his father over and over to tell him his story. This

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