One of the first adult graphic novels I read was Maus by Art Spiegelman. This is a pretty iconic book in the graphic novel scene, but in case you don’t know about it, I’ll sum up the story. Maus tells the story of Spiegelman’s father; how he came of age and eventually was taken to Auschwitz during World War II, and how he survived. Maus also explores Spiegelman’s relationship with his father after the war, when Spiegelman is an adult, and his father is an old man.
As a young teenager, the story of Spiegelman’s father in Auschwitz impacted me more. The story of people living in the camps and how they had to survive was depicted so graphically. War is horrifying, the idea of imprisoning and taking away a person’s name and identity, and killing them is horrifying, and Spiegelman depicts the story of the Holocaust through the eyes of his father in horrifying detail.
But now that I’m older, the other part of the story resonates more with me now than it did back then. Spiegelman tells his father’s story, becomes famous by telling about the worst time in his father’s life. The death of Spiegelman’s older brother at the beginning of the war haunts him, and he feels like he is compared and judged against a ghost. His brother, though just a small child at the time of his death, experienced the war along with his parents, something Spiegelman will never understand.
In Maus, the past is brought close to the present. The family tree seems more important, and the names of those who came before are remembered and held close, because those people survived some horrible things, and we honor them by remembering. Their stories have to be told to show the world the horrors of war and to help people understand the experiences of another person. When someone in your family lived through something, like war, like the Holocaust, what else can you do but listen to their stories and tell them to other people?
Spiegelman knew about his father’s story, and the story of previous generations in his family, from a young age. For me, it feels like I am just now, or at least in the last few years, learning about my own family tree. It’s strange learning about the ghosts who haunt the branches of my family tree. They went through entire lifetimes before I was even born, and I can only know a small part of who they were and what they went through.
Reading Maus helped me to have a greater appreciation for knowing the stories of my family, even if it is painful at points. It’s good to know these stories, to be connected to the people who came before. While Spiegelman was able to make these connections to the past by speaking directly to his father, I am taking a more winding path. Learning the recipes that were made by my great-great grandmother, great grandmother, and grandmother help to bring them back to life.
Now that I have boxes to store the recipes better, I am excited to finally start transcribing and cooking some of them in the next few weeks!
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