Maus: A Survivor's Tale is a cartoon about the Jews in a small town that were asked to be assembled in a stadium by Nazis' order. At first, they thought it might be a trick, then they all went to the stadium under pressure. When they came to the stadium, Nazis separated them into two different groups, some people got stamped on their passports, and were free to leave at the end. Some people weren't as lucky; they didn't receive stamped on passports, and they were taken to a place no one knows. Obviously, that was a trick played by Nazis, the people who didn't get stamped were taken to a camp and were killed. This was a famous time in world history, we all know what Nazis did to Jews during that time, the question is why did they do these to Jews, and how did they do these. Nazis used their trick, tried to kill the entire the race of Jews, but Jew can barely do nothing to against them. They were so hopeless that they did not who to trust, because the one who tried to kill them is their government. 

The Holocaust took place in the broader context of World War II. Still reeling from Germany's defeat in World War I, Hitler's government envisioned a vast, new empire of "living space" in Eastern Europe (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). Hitler blamed the Jews for all the misfortunes that had led to befallen of Germany and the loss of the World War I was the result of a Jewish conspiracy (Jews in Nazi Germany). Ever since Germany invaded Poland, Nazis started holocaust step by step. The Germany started with some discriminatory legislation to restrict Jewish community's activities. Then the Nazi government started reducing ration to Jews, and also Jews were curfew for a long time. Since then, some Jews' family stared suffering from poverty and hunger, but they didn't know that was just a start. Then, Nazi government started taking everything valuable from Jewish families, such as radios, cameras and bicycles. They were also forced to do some work. When the real holocaust started, the Nazis deported Jews from Germany, over 100,000 Jews left their home by that time. Upon Hitler's authorization, German authorities began systematic deportations of Jews from Germany in October 1941, even before the SS and police established killing centers ("extermination camps") in German-controlled Poland (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). Then, millions of Jews were put in camps, they lived with limited food and water, many of them died of starvation, but more of them killed by Nazi police and SS. They were killed by many cruel ways; at the beginning, Nazis killed them by shooting, and then, more Jews were killed by poison gas and drowning. In all, the Germans and their collaborators killed between 160,000 and 180,000 German Jews in the Holocaust, including most of those Jews deported out of Germany (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). Hundreds thousands of innocent Jews were killed cruelly. Survivors were not living any better, they were not only suffered the pain, either physically or mentally, but also living the life with full of insecure and the grief of loss of family and friends.

There are so many reasons that Nazis tried to exterminate Jews, like how Germany blamed the Jews for the loss of the World War I was the result of a Jewish conspiracy, in fact, the reasons of holocaust are variety. The first one is about their history, Jews have never been popular to any other races, they were always the ones who getting harmed. The second reason is about religion, people in Europe believed that Judas killed Jesus, they believed that Jews are like to Judas, they thought that Jews were dishonest and more likely to betray people. Therefore, people believed that Jews are evil, they should keep Jews out of their lives. The third reason is that they are wealthy. Hitler tried to make Germany as a strong country again before the World War II, but the fact is Germany was suffering the depression, the country was lacking money. Hitler put his hand into the Jews' pocket. Jews were rich and unprotected, taking their money became the best idea to be rich. And another reason holocaust was happened because of Nazis' sickly greed and racism, they would rather exterminate another race to revive their country, that's an important reason why Nazis massacred the Jews. What Nazis did in reality just like what they did in the Mau, they kept some Jews alive who might be useful for them, and killed the rest they thought were not useful. Nazis did holocaust step by step, all based on their interest. Taking Jews' money first, then put them in camps, and eventually killed them all. But poor Jews did not realize that until millions of their fellows get killed. 

Did Jews know what would Nazis do before the holocaust? The answer should be "Yes". In January 1933, some 522,000 Jews by religious definition lived in Germany. Over half of these individuals, approximately 304,000 Jews, emigrated during the first six years of the Nazi dictatorship, leaving only approximately 214,000 Jews in Germany proper (1937 borders) on the eve of World War II (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). Before the World War II, a lot of Jews knew something was going to happen on them, so a lot of them moved out of Germany. Like people in the cartoon, they kind knew that polices were doing not good on them, but they don't know how to defend themselves. Why did they know about all those things before those actually happened? That should be related to Jewish history. Jews have suffered a lot of unequal in the history, they were never be popular to other races. Their ancestor Judas was considered as the murderer of the Jesus, therefore all Jews aren't welcome from other races. Jew didn't have their own country or their own power to protect themselves, so they became the target people express their anger. Over the centuries, Jews learned how to survive in harsh conditions and they have good prevision of the world, but they never know that Nazis didn't just try to take their asset or threat them, Nazis tried to extinct their entire race. So even some of Jews knew that Nazi was aiming on them, they still cannot survive from the holocaust. 

And the Jews outside of the Germany also suffered holocaust.  Before World War 2, three million, three hundred thousand Jewish people lived in Poland, ten percent of the general population of thirty-three million. By the end of the war, over three million Polish Jews were dead, with only fifty to seventy thousand surviving (Conditions for Polish Jews during WWII). Many of them were killed like Jews the Maus, they were told to be in some places, and Nazis separated and killed them by groups. Jews all around the Europe get massacred, and their wounds are so hard to be cured. Many of them were watching their family, friends get killed, and the mental wounds was more hurt than physical.

Looking back the cartoon, it talked a normal story happened in the World War II, and Nazis used a simple trick to separate the Jews. That was just a simple trick but Jews' cowardice didn't help themselves to get out the way of extermination. Of course, it was not the Jews' fault for the holocaust. They should have had chance to help their fellows or help themselves. But we can understand that, because at that time they were too panic to do the right things to get themselves out of that situation. And at that time all Jews were thinking was surviving. One the other hand, Nazis' brutality should be condemned, a national renewal cannot depend on the extermination of a race or killing millions people. Nazis' holocaust was both realistic and historical thought, they do that with their purpose. But they forget the Jews were a part of Germany, they killed their compatriots for the renewal of the country, which sounds so ironic.
