CHARACTERS- just general stuff
Artie Spiegelman
His wife: Francoise
In comics business
Nephew: Lolek
Vladek Spiegelman
Polish Jew, Holocaust survivor
Father, husband to Anja, story is about him
Quit school at 14 to work
Dreamed for going to america (how he learned english)
Presently lives in Queens
Takes Nitrostat to help with bad heart
Anja Zylberberg
Artie’s mother, Vladek’s first wife, usually skinny and sickly, commits suicide
Sister: Tosha
Mala
Vladek’s current wife, knew Artie’s parents before war, also a survivor, doesn’t get along with Vladek, fights about will and finances
Lucia Greenberg
Vladek’s first girlfriend, obsessive
Richieu Speigelman
Anja and Vladek’s first son, sent to live with Anja’s sister Tosha to keep him safe,
Tosha poisons herself, her two kids, and Richieu in 1943 to save them from Auschwitz
Zylerburg Family:
Mllionaries, had hosiery factory
Mother: religious old fashioned
Uncle Persis
Good man with influence in Zawiercie
Moiek Merlin
HASKEL SPIEGELMAN (cousin)
Chief of Jewish Police, important man
Often played cards with Gestapo, lost so they would like him
A "Kombinator” schemer/crook
Has two brothers: Pesach (Kombinator- had a hotel before war scheming people) and Miloch (good guy)
Survived the war
Tosha:
Anja’s older sister, married to Wolfe, mother to Bibi.
Carries a vial of poison around neck - and kills herself and children to save them from germans.
Herman:
Anja's brother, married to Helen, father of Lolek and Lonia.
Mr. Ilzecki:
Once a great customer of V's and is the best tailor.
Jewish tailor in Sosnowiec who sells Vladek black-market cloth.
Hides Richieu in his home after war breaks out.
Fela:
Vladek's sister with four children who die when placed on the "bad side"
PLACES
Czestochowa: where V lives alone in small apartment at beginning of story
Sosnowiec: where V’s parents live, where Anja lives. Where V later moves to after engagement
Bielsko - V’s textile factory gifted by Anja’s father, where V and Anja move to at one point?\
Czechoslovakia: the sanatorium
When come back from sanatorium, learns Bielsko is robbed
PROLOGUE:
1958, summer- artie was 10-11, Roller Skating with howie and steve (who left without Artie leaving him crying) Vladek was fixing something and said they are not friends till locked in a room without food for a week
ONE-THE SHEIK
Present
Place: Rego Park, New York
Artie not very close with father, haven’t seen him in almost 2 years
Vladek not well: Wife’s suicide and two heart attacks
V angry at Mala for using wire hanger, not wooden for Artie’s coat
Mala and Vladek don’t get along
Vladek cycles because it’s good for his heart
Artie wants to write book about V’s life in Poland and war
V hesitant (would take many books, no one wants to hear them)
Past
Place: Vladek lives alone in small apartment in Czestochowa, Poland small city close to border of Germany
Parents live in Sosnowiec, Poland
His apartment is clean
Vladek in textiles buying-and-selling
Vladek young and good looking
Often compared to Rudolph Valentino
Met Lucia Greenberg through Yvlek
Took Lucia to dance
Saw each other for 3-4 years
Lucia wants engagement, but family no money
December 1935: Vladek visits family every holiday, journey of 35-40 miles
Introduced to Anja by his cousin, the two girls in same class
Vladek is 30, Anja is 24
Cousin and Anja talk in English
Vladek reveals he had to quit school at 14 to work, but took private lessons, dreamed of going to America
Anja writes Vladek letters in eloquent Polish, she sends him a photo of herself, he frames it
Lucia sees the photo, Anja isn’t very attractive. Vladek: “Looks aren’t everything”
Anja sensitive and intelligent according to her professor
Anja’s mother is religious and old-fashioned
Anja’s family is very well-off millionaires → hosiery factory, one of biggest in Poland
Vladek visits Anja’s home. Welcomed by her family. Peeks into her closet to see how organized she is, discovers her pills and writes them down
Pills because she is skinny and nervous
By the end of 1936, Vladek and Anja engaged. V moves to Sosnowiec
Before he moved, Lucia begs him not to leave. He cuts off ties with her.
But can’t get hold of Anja, Lucia wrote letter to her badmouthing V (Has bad reputation in Czestochowa, have a lot of girlfriends)
Married in February 14, 1937
Marriage gift from father in law: part ownership of apartment V and A now live in, gold watch
Present
V tells A not to write about this in his comic because has nothing to do with Holocaust → A reassures him it makes everything more human
V tells A not to mention such private things, instead he has other stories for him
TWO-THE HONEYMOON- julia
Present:
Place: Rego Park, New York (Vladek’s house, Artie is visiting)
Vladek counting his pills, LOTS of them - 30
Past
Place: Sosnoweic
Vladek and Anja newly married
Police unexpectedly raid to come look for communist papers
Because Anja translates and passes them on, even tho communism strictly prohibited
Anja gives to Miss Stefanska, the seamstress to hide them for her → but Stefanska caught and arrested, but let out after 3 months bcs not enough evidence against her
Anja’s father gives Vladek money to start a factory in Bielsko - textile factory.
October 1937, factory going, son Richieu was born (premature)
Artie was VERY premature -- father called him “heil hitler” as a kid
Anja stays with her family in Sosnowiec, Vladek goes to Bielsko to check on factory and to find an apartment
Vladek called to come home because Anja is suffering from Postpartum Depression
She doesn’t want to live anymore, completely breaks down
So Vladek and Anja leave for Czechoslovakia (to a sanitarium), Richieu left at home with governess
This is beginning of 1938, before the war started, but there are already Nazi flags up
Hearing stories on train about how terribly Jews in Germany were being treated, towns shoving them out, beaten, robbed, swastikas being put up.
The sanitarium was very peaceful, beautiful gardens, lots of time spent together, dancing and Anja is very happy after 3 months at sanitarium
Upon returning home
Anja is a completely different person (good)
Factory in Bielsko has been robbed → not insured, some kind of anti-semetic activity
Vladek’s father-in-law (Anja’s father) helps rebuild the factory again → within 2 months the family is quite well-off
Working factory, apartment, maid, governess, all in Bielsko
The maid, Janina, is depicted as a pig (she’s not Jewish)
Riots, threats against jews begin in Bielsko - They begin thinking about going back to Sos.
Vladek is drafted
He is part of the Polish reserves army, and govt drafts him into service
Anja, Richieu, and governess back to Sosnowiec (with some of their belongings in case they could be sold for money - this happened)
Vladek travels to the frontier to fight against Germany
On September 1st, 1939, the war came
Present
V drops pills again, complains about his cataracts
The left eye is glass already
Now the right eye has cataracts
A is sore from writing so much info down
THREE-PRISONER OF WAR - GABI
PRESENT
Artie visits Vladek.
He is offered more green beans but refuses them - Vladek insists he does - describes how this is what Vladek always did to Artie as a child but Anja would cook something he liked when Valdek wasn’t looking.
Artie compliments Mala’s dinner but Vladek insults it instead.
Artie and Vladek leave the table to continue the story.
PAST - 1939 start of september
Vladek is on the frontier, in the trenches by a river across the germans.
Present: Vladek’s team was only trained a few days before entering combat and apparently this wasn’t the first time Vladek was drafted - he was 21, drafted for 18 months and every 4 years went to Lublin for a month to train. Vladek’s father didn’t want them drafted as he was once drafted for 25 yrs in Siberia. Marcus, Vladek’s brother, was put on a starvation diet to prevent him from being drafted and the same diet was given to Vladek. Eventually he was drafted at 22.
Quiet till morning bcos shooting begins
Vladek dug deeper into his trench, got shot at, and finally shot a Nazi.
Two hours pass and the Nazis overtake them, made them war prisoners, and had them look for dead Nazi soldiers and bring them to the ambulances.
He finds the man he shot, Jan.
All the POWs are taken to a place near Nuremberg where more POWs were.
Their valuables are asked to be handed over.
They made a group of them clean a stable in 1 hour and when they couldn’t, it cost them their food.
They lived and worked at this camp for a few weeks until being moved someplace else.
The conditions at Nuremberg were harsh: it was very cold, little food, dirty.
Once a week they were allowed to write letters to whomever but only in german.
Vladek received chocolate, cigs, and jam - traded cigs for other things
Later on, the prisoners were informed they cld volunteer for labor assignments at a company or stay at this camp and Vladek and a few men opted to volunteer.
At the new bigger German company they found a nicer place to live w/ comfortable beds, a stove, and a heater.
IT HAS ONLY BEEN A LITTLE OVER 1 MONTH AT THIS POINT.
WORK: They picked up shovels and picks to dig and even out the land that had dips that were 3 or 4 yards deep.
Those who could not work well went back to the POW camps and weren’t heard from ever.
Vladek found it better to stay.
Vladek had a dream that he would be freed on the day of Parshas Truma.
Parshas Truma: Every week on sat. they read a section from the torah and on a particular saturday it was parshas truma.
He told the rabbi of this epiphany.
Weeks passed and one day, all the men were told to line up and the Gestapo and Wehrmacht (nazi forces) arrived.
The rabbi approaches Vladek in the lineup and tells him its Parshas Truma.
They were then lined up in alphabetical order and were being released - dream was right.
Present: Vladek reveals parshas truma is not only the day he was released, but on the week he married Anja and in 1948, the week Artie was born (and his bar mitzvah happens on PT).
The next morning of PT, each of them got a red cross package and were loaded on a train to Poland.
Unfortunately, they didn’t return Vladek to Sosnowiec and passed it instead.
Nazis divided Poland into two pieces - Protectorate and Reich - w/ a guarded border between.
The rabbi gets off at Warsaw and it is later learned no one in Warsaw survived.
Vladek and the remaining men get off at Lublin - in Proct.
They're taken to another location and learn that they were supposed to be killed by Nazis since the prev. released party met that fate.
International laws protected the group since they were Polish war prisoners but as a jew of the Reich - they could be killed.
They learned that they were saved through a bribe made and that they will be released into the homes of local jews who will claim them as relatives.
Vladek tries to be claimed by his friend Orbach as his cousin.
During the night, Vladek goes out to pee and is shot at.
The next morning Orbach picks him up and arrives at his house.
He learns that the jews here do not get many food coupons and it's very hard to survive.
Vladek plans to escape but he doesn't have legal papers.
Fortunately, at the train st. he pretends to be a pole and asks the polish trainman to let him go to Sosnowiec which he does and helps hide him as well.
Vladek arrives at Sos. and goes to his parents' house first.
Vladek's mother is sick with cancer and a month or two after this encounter she passed.
Vladek's father's beard is shaved, which it usually isn't because the Nazis beat them and punished them by cutting off their beards.
They've also seized his father's seltzer factory.
It is late and Vladek must go home (Anja's home) before curfew (7:00pm).
They surprise Anja and her family with Vladek's arrival and the family is reunited.
PRESENT:
Vladek reminisces on how times were very tough and the family was only ever happy when they were tgt.
He complains that this is not the case w/ him and Mala and says it wld. be diff. if Anja was here.
He says Mala always asks about money and his will.
Artie decides it's time to leave but can't seem to find his coat which he discovers has been thrown out by Vladek.
Vladek thinks it too shabby of a coat and gifts Artie his old coat that he believes is warmer.
Vladek reminds Artie to call him this week so they can call.
FOUR-THE NOOSE TIGHTENS - GRACE
PRESENT
Artie going to Vladeks house
Vladek says he is late (Artie disagrees - said he would be here after dinner)
Leak in the drain pipe at Vladek’s
He wants Artie to fix it - Artie says to hire someone but his dad doesn’t want to
Vladek (V) doesn’t want to pay for it, and says he will do it himself - A says he will pay for a handyman
Writing things down got too hard 4 A - got a tape recorder
It was 75 bucks on sale
V says he should have got one at Korvettes for 35
PAST
1940
12 ppl were living in his father in laws house
Anja, V, Richieu, Tosha, Wolfe, Bibi, Anjas grands., her parents, and also 2 kids from anja's brother and wife (Lolek and Lonia).
His grandma cant get the same food she got before the war
Each person gets 8 ounces of bread per day, a bit of margarine, sugar, and jam per week
His father-in-law has donated a lot to the Gemeinde (Jewish Community Org.) so they get a little extra
They also use the black market
V asks his FIL (father in law) if the family has been taking good care of his Textile Factory
FIL tells him ALL Jewish businesses have been overtaken by “aryan Managers”
The rest of his family believes the war will be over “like lightning”
Ignoring it, not worrying about running out of savings
The next day, V goes to Modrzejowska Street
Basically just has secret businesses where ppl make make money
V sees Mr. Ilzecki - used to be his customer, the best tailor in Katowice
Ilzecki got an apartment here when he made uniforms for the nazis
Illzecki gives V a note that says he has worked with him so he can come visit him for needs.
V tries to get fabric to give to Ilzecki and make a profit so he goes to shops that owe him money from before the war and gets a few yards and is able to make money off Ilzecki.
Tells his FIL he made 1/2 what he actually made so they wldn't spend all of it.
When he goes to the street next, the S.S closed off whole street to inspect working papers from everyone
Took 50% of ppl away - V hid b4 they could get him
His FIL helps him get a priority work card at the tin shop so whenever he is in trouble he can run in the shop and pretend to work.
1941
FIL has new bedroom set - Germans looked to grab such furniture because it wasn’t in stores anymore
Wolfe and V put everything valuable downstairs for a polish neighbour to hide
The germans come into their home
Anjas mom has gallstones - she has to stay in bed (so germans didnt take it away)
Had no more use for the furniture they hid, so they wanted to sell it
Germans took it but didn’t pay them
One day, V went to visit Ilzecki
On the way there, he saw Jews being taken away - if they had working papers or not
Spots Ilzecki and asks for help. They make it to Ilzecki’s house and hide for a few hours - Ilz. saved his life
Illzecki says he knows a polish man who will take their children and keep them safe, V considers it.
Anja is like wtf I’ll never give up my baby
V in Present says that Illzecki and his wife didn’t survive the war but his son did, whereas V’s son did not
Arties gets mad at V for skipping ahead
Back in Past
1941 - all jews in Sosnowiec have to relocate to Stara Sosnowiec quarter by January 1 1942
All 12 of them had to live in 2.5 small rooms (most ppl got less space but his FIL and wolfe had more influence)
Able to go around town as long as they followed curfew.
V continued his black market business here
FIL’s friend Nahum Cohn and his son, Pfefer, were arrested (they dealt goods without coupons)
Cohns had a dry goods store, was very known, and gave V cloth w/o coupons often and Pfefer traded goods with V often.
They were left hanging in Modrzejowska street for a week
Present
V is crying when he thinks of them
Says there are tears coming out of his dead eye
Anja kept diaries throughout the war but they didn’t surive
She rewrote her whole story from the start - A wants those for his book
V gets mad at A for smoking
V says after the hanging he looked for another business to get into
Past
After the hanging, he started to trade gold and jewelry
It was easier to hide than clothing
Hid stuff in his kid’s stroller
He also had a food business
Szklarczyk, who owns a big grocery store makes a proposition w/ V.
V would sell S.'s extra food items to small shops under the counter.
One time he got caught by Nazis with 10-15 kilos of sugar
He made his delivery seem legal and he delivered it w/o them checking his papers
By now, business in Stara Sos. was low - tin shop stop allowing more jewish ppl and so V got a job at a German Carpentry shop - where Lolek and FIL already worked at for little pay but the work paper was needed.
He cld've worked with Wolfe at the Gemeinde but he didn't want to.
Notice went out saying all jews over 70 will be transferred to Theresienstadt in Czechoslovakia on May 10th, 1942
They hid Anja’s grandparents and would sneak them food
Jewish police came by to ask why they weren’t registered and they said they left without word a month ago
Jewish police - basically thought if they gave the germans a few jews they could save the rest (and themselves)
They came back a month later and said if Anjas grands. (the Karmios) don’t show up in three days they are taking FIL instead
FIL sent a notice saying they had to give up anjas grandparents otherwise they would start taking the rest of the family
Anja’s gps were given up and taken to auschwitz.
FEW MONTHS PASS:
Wednesday August 12
All jews had to register at Dienst stadium (Gemeinde announced)
Told it was a matter for inspecting documents and stamping them (protecting them as citizens of the region)
Everyone thought it was a nazi trap
The family did not have their legal papers and wanted to flee but knew that was worse.
Their cousin Mordecai was gonna be at one of the inspection tables
30,000 people showed up - Gestapo surrounded the stadium
When they are inside, they were basically told to go to the right (good) or left (bad)
Old ppl, families with lots of kids, and people without work cards were sent to the left
They got inspected by their cousin and were sent to the right because V worked at a carpentry shop
People on left didn’t get any stamp
V’s dad was told to go to the right side, but since his daughter, Fela, wasn’t, he snuck onto the bad side with her (i cried here -julia)
People on the left never came home (10,000) while the rest were able to stay in Sos.
Present
V is feeling dizzy, goes to take a nap
Mala tells A her mom was taken then
Was taken to 4 apartment houses with everyone else who was gonna be deported
Very crowded, ppl suffocated, some jumped out the windows
Her brother (mala’s uncle) was on the jewish committee and hid her in a coal cellar till the transports left
Uncle got Mala a job scrubbing the apartments and she managed to smuggle her mom out
Her mom and uncle both ended up in auschwitz eventually
A goes looking for Anja’s diaries
Mala is annoyed and says V is more attached to things than people
A is looking at all of Vs things, Mala says she doesn’t know how long she can take him (V)
FIVE-MOUSE HOLES- HANA
PRESENT:
Artie wakes up to phone call early morning to Mala yelling that Vladek is on the roof fixing the drain pipe himself
Father goes on phone wanting Artie's helps because he does not want to hire a handyman
Artie expresses how as a kid he hated fixing things around the house, Vladek loved showing how handy he was "neurotic”about fixing stuff
Artie says one reason he became an artist was because Vladek said that it was impractical and a waste of time - he didn't have to compete w/ V in this field.
Artie doesn't want to go help, would rather feel guilty, too busy and Vladek was enough money to hire someone - calls Vladek saying he cant come and Vladek says Frank (neighbor) would help
A WEEK LATER IN THE AFTERNOON
Artie visits Vladek who is in the garage separating nails
Vladek doesn't want help from Artie and seems angry says everything can't be okay
Mala expresses that her nerves are "shot” living with Vladek and wants to move to condo in Miami
Mala says Vladek might be angry/depressed because of the comic strip Artie wrote about his mother (he had just seen it for the first time)
Mala says that her friend has a son who showed it to her and she knew it would upset Vladek so she kept it hidden
Artie also didn't want Vladek to see
PRISONER ON THE HELL PLANET: A CASE HISTORY
1968 mother killed herself and left no note
Father found in bathtub when home from work - wrists slashed and empty bottle of pills
Narrator was living with mother and father because he agreed to do so when released from mental state hospital months before
Had spent the weekend with girlfriend (parents didn't like) and was late getting home, there was a crowd in front of house
Cousin herds A away from crowd, takes him to doctor, doctor tells A that mother killed herself
When went home, father had completely fallen apart
That night father insisted to sleep on floor (jewish custom)
During funeral A recited to mother from TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD
A felt that guilt was overwhelming (believed others thought it was his fault and some did think so)
Remembers last time mother saw him and he pushed her away
PRESENT
Artie is surprised his father read the comic because he never does
Vladek walks in and says the comic made him cry - he always thinks about Anja (says this to Mala's face)
Mala says that Vladek always has photos of Anja around "like a shrine"
V updates A and says he can't find the diaries
Vladek wants to take artie to go to the bank with him, tells about everyday he has to walk to prevent cramps, bu for his heart he has to walk slow
PAST - 1943
After the selection in the stadium: in 1943 all Jews in Sosnowiec moved to nearby village Srodula (and had to pay for the Poles in Srodula to move into their homes in Sosnowiec)
Luckily V and Anja did find a place to live.
Each day they were marched hour and a half (by guards that were Jews with big sticks acting like germans) to Sosnowiec to work in German shops, Anja and Sister Tosha worked in a clothing factory - Vladek, and his nephew Lolek worked in woodwork shop
Everynight, marched back, counted and locked in
Uncle Persis (from Zawiercie and Wolfe's uncle) came to Vladek's house (is a big shot of the Jewish Council) wants Wolfe, Tosha, Bibi and Richeu to go live with him in Zawiercie
Claims he has influence there and can bribe Germans, Persis's father protects him, and Persis is said to be a great man in comparison to the head of the family's ghetto - Moniek Merlin who was selfish.
Ended up taking Wolfe, Tosha, and kids Bibi, Lolek's little sister Lonia and Richieu
Matka, Anja's mom didn't like this idea but she gave in.
In the spring Germans took 1000 people from Srodula to Auschwitz, shot Persis and Jewish Council
They took young children and beat them.
When Tosha was alerted of this massacre; Tosha always carried poison around her neck and decided to kill herself and her three children as a way of going out their way
Vladek found out a few months later
Wolfe did not survive; on the train to Auschwitz, he tried to escape and they shot him.
Those in Srodula made bunkers to hide bcos the germans were just taking anyone (w/ or w/o papers), Vladek's bunker was in a cellar covered with coal
As they were hiding, people were still being taken.
In June Germans Arrested all the big shots of the Jewish Council/ Judenrat
Put into different bunker in a diff house - chandelier bunker, everyone in Srodula either deported or shot
By the end of July, 10,000 jews were taken away in a week.
From the jews of Sos. only 1,000 were left.
The fam. Had to sneak food in
One night, a stranger comes into bunker claiming he has a starving baby and is hunting for scraps, they gave him food and let him go to his family
They suspected him as an informant but they let him go.
Gestapo came later (he was an informant, Vladek ends up burying him later)
Took them to a building of 200 ppl, waiting tgt.
Every weds: vans bring ppl in the building to Auschwitz
At the building, V spots his cousin Jakov.
Signs to him that he has gold hidden in prev. bunker and has some valuables on him as well as payment if he helps them.
Jakov connects them to HASKEL SPIEGELMAN - (chief of jewish police, cousin, Kombinator)
Was able to free Vladek, Lolek and Anja
V paid for inlaws to go but Haskel js took the payment yet left the in laws who were too old (taken away to die in Auschwitz)
Only about a 1000 jews left at Srodula, most were taken to work at Braun Shoe shop
Haskel says he will register Lolek and V there.
They meet Miloch (good cousin) there and he introd. them to Ben who taught them how to resole German boots.
Whenever Germans come to inspect, pretend to look busy.
While V was on one of his diff. jobs, he learns that the inspector was arranged to be killed by Haskel - V buries the inspector as part of his job
Present: V has a heart episode and asks A to give him his Nitrostat pill - very fragile state.
Past:
Pesach (other cousin, Kombinator) was selling cake (got ingredients from houses of people sent to auschwitz)
The fam. Had some of his cake.
Entire Ghetto became sick after because laundry soap was used instead of flour
Pesach backg info: He once had a hotel in Zakopane where he schemed.
Present: After heart eps ends, V tells A that Miloch survived the war but abt. 5 yrs ago he passed from a heart attack bcos he didn't have his pills.
Past - End of 1943: Germans were taking everyone from Srodula to Auschwitz
Haskel has plan to smuggle himself out of Srodula
Pesach and Miloch had shoe tunnel into a bunker to hide
Miloch tells V abt this plan and lets them stay in the bunker too.
When informed, Lolek (nephew) didn't want to hide and was later taken to Auschwitz.
Anja broke down - wanted to die - Vladek tells her they must struggle for life
Once ghetto was so empty, they started hiding in the bunker (12 of them there including Miloch, wife, 3 yr old son)
Pesach and others were in a diff. bunker in the store.
Nothing to do but lie and starve all day - Anja would sit writing in her notebook
At night, sneaked out to find food but there was none - chewed on wood
Time passes, Pesach came from his bunker to tell he doesn't want to lie there and starve
He bribed guards, the plan is to mix with group of Poles when they walk out of Srodula
Many said yes but Miloch and Vladek didn't trust the Germans
Advised another man Avram and his gf to do the same and they did.
Most of group ended up being shot
The few remaining waited till ghetto was completely empty, got good clothes and ID’s and mixed with Poles going to work
Everyone went diff. ways.
Vladek and Anja were left with nowhere to go so walked in direction of Sosnowiec
PRESENT
Arrived at bank, Vladek wants to sign Artie a key to his safety box, so Mala wont get it when he dies (claims she made him change his will three times)
Had gold, diamonds, cig cases, and powder case in the box that he kept with him in a bunker - he threw them down a chimney and after the camps in 1945 he took them back
Including Anjas ring that Vladek wants Artie to give to his wife
Claims all Mala wants is money
SIX-MOUSE TRAP - BRITTNEY
Hi brittney im very excited for the photos
Hi sooah me too i rlly wanna see them
Vladek only gives Mala $50 a month - treats her like a maid
PAST: 1944 in Srodula after V and Anja leave the bunker.
Vladek and Anja go back to Sosnoweic
Visits Janina, but she shoos them away
@ Anja’s old home, lives Mr. Lukowski - janitor, who agrees to hide them in the shed.
Vladek goes to scout around and look for food, finds another Jewish man who advises him to go to the black market where he finds food.
Eventually go hide on farm belonging to Mrs. Kawka
Vladek goes to town on train sitting in German car to hide
Meets polish woman, Mrs. Motonowa who sells him goods on black market and goes to hide with her
Things going well, but they get searched by Gestapo → get thrown out
Go back to town and eventually back to Mrs. Kawka’s barn
Tells them of smugglers who take Jews to Hungary
Vladek sees Mrs. Motonowa again on street and she welcomes them again
Husband doesn’t know she’s hiding them
Have to hide in cellar
Goes to Mrs. Kawka to meet smugglers, sees Abraham and family who also want to go to Hungary
Agree if Abraham sends them note from border, they can trust smugglers
Vladek hopeful, visits cousin Miloch who’s hiding in janitor’s rubbish pit
Miloch suspicious, stays at pit
Vladek directs Miloch to stay w/ Mrs. Motonowa
Vladek and Anja meet up with smugglers at train station
One disappears to make a phone call (SUS), but still goes on train
Eventually caught by Germans (tipped off by smugglers), taken to prison and then Auschwitz
At camp, they are separated
Vladek says he destroyed Anja’s notebooks