Maus II- Chapters 1&2

In Chapter 1, Artie and Francoise are visiting and staying with some cousins in Vermont, for summer vacation. They get a phone call that Vladek has had a heart attack, when really Mala has left him and taken all of his money. Artie and Francoise go to stay with for what they thought would be a couple days. However, Vladek assumed that it would be for the whole rest of the summer. He begins to talk about his experinece in the Holocaust and starts to tell the stories of staying in Auschwitz. He talks about how they stripped him of his clothes and put him into the showers. Luckily, they really were showers and not gas chambers. They gave him new clothes, that looked like prisoners clothing, and didn't care if they fit him or not. They also did the same with shoes, which were made from wood, and were very uncomfortable if they did not fit at all. He talks about his lucky chance of how he taught English to a Kapo, and in return, he received food and a safe place to stay and keep from being taken. In the end, he is the only one from his original group who did not die during that time.

In Chapter 2, Vladek dies of congestive heart failure on August 18, 1982. Artie and Francoise have a child, Nadja Mouly Spiegelman, on May 13, 1987. His time had been taken up by interviews and business propositions about his published books of the Holocaust, but he did not want to deal with any of them. He begins to feel guilty about proving his father wrong by being successful, and feels that everything he has accomplished is nothing compared to surviving Auschwitz. Artie finally gets the courage to listen to the rest of the tapes to the finish the book, and it leaves off with Vladek working as a tinsman. Anja was sent to Auschwitz II- Birkenaw. This camp was much bigger and was simply meant for death. From a woman named Mancie, Vladek finds that Anja is still alive, yet weak, and he begins to send her food and letters. Vladek soon becomes a shoemaker, and at the same time tries to move Anja into the new barracks, which are closer to him, by bribing the guards with cigarettes and vodka.