This artifact was a method of Nazi propaganda of sorts. It taught German children to be afraid of Jews and to basically turn them in and help the cause. They wanted as many people on board as possible, and by appealing to children, they basically ensured that the future generation would be just as anti semitic as the rest of the Nazi party. In Maus, Vladek tells Art about how he was almost caught by a bunch of children who started screaming to their mother about a Jew in their yard. Vladek goes on to say “The mothers always told so ‘Be careful! A Jew will catch you to a bag and eat you!’ so they taught to their children.” The idea of children participating in something as violent and horrific as the Holocaust is disturbing to say the least. The way Vladek says this however, is almost like he really is talking to a child. He uses very simple language and it is written almost like a spooky story a little kid would tell to scare his friends. They create this image of Jews as the monster in a bedtime story that kids should run away screaming from. The Nazi’s portrayed Jews as something not human, which is evident throughout the entire book Maus, seeing as all the characters are drawn as mice. They put the idea into the minds of children that perfectly normal, good people were out to hurt them and that they needed to be protected, fostering more and more hate in their minds. As they grew up, hate was all they knew because thats what they had been taught by the people they cared most about, their parents. It almost seems unfair to have ideas like this planted in your head so young, because you don’t know enough to form an opinion, especially not about something like this.
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