Luke Taicher

Mr. Padgett
English 101
10/12/15
A Survivors Tale
The holocaust was one of the worlds greatest genocides. 11 million people
whipped out, a prosperous religion almost decimated. The few survivors saw hell,
and their stories are proof of that hell to those of us today. The cartoon, A Survivors
Tale by Art Spielgman displays the story of a family during two different time
periods. The cartoon begins with a father sharing his experience during the
holocaust. The last page flashes forward to that fathers child who is now all grown
up speaking of what his father and his fathers caretakers family went through.
There was one panel that stood out the most to me, it was on page 138, and it
portrays the Jews lining up to accept their fate by the Nazi soldier. I believe that this
passage encompasses the whole passages meaning. The meaning of this visual
composition is to demonstrate the horrors of the holocaust, show the mindset of
those going through the holocaust, and to show what the Nazis thought of the Jews.
The Holocaust was a mass genocide that nearly whipped out the population
of the Jews, mentally ill, and those the Nazis felt unfit to share the Earth with in all
of Europe. The visual composition displays the horrors that the holocaust evoked. At
the top of the picture it reads, When we were everybody inside, Gestapo (German
police) with Machine guns surrounded the stadium, (Spielgman 138). The quote
shows the hostility right off the bat shown by the German police. Walking in there

must have been horrifying, children, old and young, man and women, all among
those in the crowd, just waiting to be sent to their deaths. The officer yells through a
microphone, Line up by family at the tables to register! Quickly! (Spielgman 138).
The viewer can automatically feel the emotional impact that this has on those in the
crowd. When analyzing this panel I immediately felt a sense of brute force as if I
was among those in the crowd, with no freedom, no say, and a strong sense of
helplessness. The lineups were to determine whether you were going to the death
camps or staying a little longer as we learn about later in the cartoon, when the
caretaker speaks to the survivors son of how her parents were sent to the death
camp, Auschwitz and killed. The piece indirectly shows the viewers of the
helplessness and the horrors those in the crowd are about to face.
The people in the lineup have mouse faces this. The author depicts them as
mouse because that is what the Germans thought the Jews to be. The panel
displays the Jewish people the way the Germans think of them. The author did this
because that is the way the Germans thought of the Jewish race, they treated the
Jewish people as mice. The lineup the Jewish people had to go in was not only cruel
as they were awaiting their death, it was inhumane. The author sets the stage by
introducing the Gestapo with machine guns. They viewed the Jewish people as
vermin, not worthy to live with. The lineup in the panel shows the Jewish people
accepting death or living for a little bit longer. Those that survived the Holocaust
describe themselves as being a step be lower than slaves. Not only were they
slaves to the labor camps they were less than that, they were viewed as mice.
Which I interptred as an inhumane as well as the lowest possible way the Germans
viewed the Jewish race as. This panel is a clear representation of the way Jews were
treated and viewed. Their views and opinions were not accounted and even shut

down. The viewer can see that the Jews among the crowd are shut down as well as
forced to go to a place to face their death. The Germans not only viewed the Jews as
mice they treated them like mice, separating families, forcing the Jews to go places
they absolutely do not want to go.
The Jewish race was beyond strong, they withstood hell. After reading
Hiroshima I saw a race of people wrecked by a disaster, the holocaust happened at
the same time period as well as killing more people and killing them in an inhumane
way. In the panel the viewer can quickly get an idea of the tone that the Germans
present to the Jewish people. The viewer can also feel the emotions going on during
the lineup. I felt that they were in despair not knowing what they were about to get
in to. They were all dressed up looking nice, so they looked young and healthy. If
they were unhealthy they were sent to work camps and labor camps like Auschwitz,
which the fathers care taker talks about. Reading the panels before the one on page
138 the Jewish people are nervous and scared. The grandfather contemplates not
going to the lineup and hiding out. The Jewish race had no idea what they were
about to endure. They were targeted for no specific reason and because were sent
to their deaths. They had no idea what was going to happen to them, many of them
were just living their lives just like every American. It is hard to fathom what the
Jewish people went through as well as what they were thinking during this horrific
atrocity.
There are times throughout history where we as humans question what is
justifiable and what is pure evil. The acts during the holocaust constituted as pure
evil. The meaning of this passage is to display the horrors that occurred during the
holocaust, portray how the Germans (Nazi party) view the Jewish peoples, and to
display how the Nazis viewed the Jewish people in Eastern Europe and the rest of

Europe. Today being an American citizen with the freedom to speak, the freedom to
be represented by those we chose, and to not be forced into anything, it makes me
appreciate the opportunity and freedom we have here. As being Jewish it is hard to
comprehend what my elders went through and I can never imagine what these
brave people went through. Those who have survived are the people that have
survived hell.

1. There is a thesis but you arent really taking a side to things. You should take
more of a stand in your thesis and support whatever stand you take.
2. For the most part your paper is summarizing the text so you could definitely
use more I believes and I feels to support your thesis.
3. Your paper uses a decent amount of vocabulary but could definitely use
more.
4. The flow of your paper is really good and you connecting to A Survivors
Tale through being Jewish is really good as well. I think you should definitely
expand more on being Jewish, take a stand in your thesis, and add more
analysis/close reading.