Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of representing the Holocaust in graphic novel form such as Maus II.

By Phil Hemming

           The Holocaust, an event that marks the twentieth century and echoes historically, culturally and emotionally right up to the present day, is one that demands constant reiteration to each new generation as a warning from history. However, the mode this warning is presented in is subject to debate and discussion. Is it that, in the words of Adorno, ‘to write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric’? Does he mean literally or metaphorically and is no degree of aesthetification to be permitted, that the only portrayal is from the testimonies of survivors? Cutter believes that “experiments at variety-even experiments which seem distasteful or inaccurate to others-are essential for a full understanding of the educational possibilities of the Holocaust” (Cutter 216).  Is any portrayal of the Holocaust justified to educate and inform?  A writer’s problem “is to discover the literary forms most appropriate to representing the extremities of dehumanisation and heroism that together begin to define what the Holocaust was” (Pfefferkorn 89). Spiegelman used the form of a graphic novel for his portrayal of the Holocaust, which has both aesthetic and moral ramifications and both advantages and disadvantages.

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The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team
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