The Guilt of Survival

The second part of Maus deeply depicts Vladek's influences from the war.  After surviving, he gains many habits, such as hoarding and preserving everything. His conservative nature leads to many arguments between him and his son, Artie.  Now, with his father gone, Artie realizes that depicting Auschwitz is a near-impossible task. He feels hopelessness and frustration because he knows that anything he accomplishes will never be as much of an accomplishment as surviving Auschwitz.  This situation also causes a type of guilt felt by Artie.  He experiences this guilt because he didn't have to go through Auschwitz and isn't able to connect with his father experiences and trauma.  His therapist then says that maybe Vladek acts the way he does because he also experiences guilt.  Different to Artie's guilt, Vladek may feel a survivor's guilt.  On an individual level, many Holocaust survivors have to cope with this guilt, the guilt that they survived the camps yet many others didn't.  All of this guilt talk leads to Artie declaring a bigger guilt. He says that the blame of the Holocaust extents beyond the Germans, and that everyone should always feel it.  This raises the question of who really was responsible for the Holocaust? Could something have been done to destroy the concentration camps?  What could the communities in Germany have done to help the Jews? Could the Allies have gone faster?  

Whoever is responsible for the Holocaust can be debated, but whether it's the result of an army or one man, raising this question shows how wrong and terrifying those times were.