learntoquestion ltq discussions

Generational trauma doesn’t go away when events like wars end, but instead it gets passed to the next generation of family members that never experienced the event themselves. In Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel Maus 1 and 2, Artie experienced generational trauma from the Holocaust because of his dad even though he never experienced it himself. Based on Kolar Stanislav’s article about generational trauma on Maus 1 and 2, Stanislav claims that Art has something called postmemory. This is when even though someone’s thoughts or memories are different from someone that experienced a traumatic event like the Holocaust, they are still affected by the Holocaust regardless because of the actions their parents exhibit onto their children.

For Artie, the impact of the Holocaust is mainly about guilt. Kolar in his article says that Artie is a secondary witness, receiving history from his dad that he must reinterpret himself. Artie struggles with the thought that he is the replacement child of his ghost brother named Richieu, who died in the Holocaust. Artie believes that Richeau was the perfect child for his dad Vladek to have since Richieu never gave Vladek problems while Artie has a strained relationship with Vladek. Artie feels guilty that he lives a comfortable life post WW2 in New York while Richieu on the other hand lived a difficult life and died in the Holocaust. A piece of evidence from Maus 2 that backs his claim is when Artie shrinks in size when he talks to his therapist Pavel about the Holocaust and about his ghost brother Richeau.

Moving beyond generational trauma shouldn't happen and people should acknowledge it instead. An example of this is when Vladek burns Anja’s diaries to get rid of the memories of the Holocaust. Instead of this successfully working, it only deepens the trauma for Artie since he can no longer get to know more about his mom. In order to learn more about Artie’s family history he writes both Maus books about the Holocaust. He directly confronts the Holocaust instead of actively suppressing it and putting thoughts about Holocaust into his unconscious mind that would continue to nag him in the future. Lastly, by acknowledging events like the Holocaust, generational trauma has a harder time getting passed down to the next generation since people that do acknowledge the Holocaust aren't strongly as affected by it.

LTQ #7

Generational Trauma profoundly impacts the children of the Holocaust like Spiegelman. The most direct way that Artie is affected is through his father’s story-telling recounting his experiences in the Holocaust. Author Stanislav Kolář mentions in Intergenerational transmission of trauma in Spiegelman's Maus that “ The main vehicle of this transmission is memory channeled from the father Vladek to his son Art in the form of taped testimony whereas the mother’s memory is silenced”. Due to his mother’s death, and the lack of stories from her perspective regarding her own experiences, Artie is left to only hear his father’s, Vladek, personal account of what happened during this tragedy. However, the analyst also states that “Although the narrator-protagonist Art was not exposed to the trauma of the Holocaust directly, his identity has been profoundly shaped by the tragedy of his parents, the direct witnesses of the Nazi genocide during World War II. Despite his resistance to the total identification with the past of his parents, he inevitably becomes the intergenerational recipient of their trauma”(Kolář). As an intergenerational recipient of his parents' trauma, he uses his parent’s stories to shape his own personal identity, and who he is in relation to the Holocaust.

Throughout the book, Vladek has been terribly traumatized through all that he endured which affected the way he formed relationships with others around him, specifically with Mala and Artie, who symbolically stand as a replace for Richieu and Anja, his “true” family that the war had ultimately taken away from him. Some of the behaviors that Vladek has acquired, attributed to his trauma, are control, frugality, and skepticism, traits that irritate Artie up mostly. For example, when Artie was looking for his jacket and Vladek tells him that he threw it out, Artie is heated, but Vladek reassures him that “I have for you a warmer one. I got at Alexander’s a new jacket, and I can give to you my old one; it’s still like new”(71). His father’s past encounters, nearly meeting death, has caused him to preserve, cling on to, and reuse materials. Artie may see this as a waste as he cherished and adored his old jacket, but Vladek sees this as a luxury for his son that he most definitely never had. This further divides Artie and Vladek, not only separated by age and generation, but also through different definitions of luxury. As Vladek’s frugality is considered obsessive by someone like Artie, whereas to Vladek, he must save anything that is worth saving, as we never know when ends won’t meet, and we will have to fight for scraps, like he once did.

On the other hand, for Artie the weight of the trauma has been something difficult for him to put into words, as he had revealed in a car ride with Francoise how hard it was for him to thoroughly grasp the story-telling. On top of that, his relationship with his father made it harder for him to feel connected to his past, expressing “I mean, I can even make any sense out of my relationship with my father…How am I supposed to make any sense out of Auschwitz? Of the Holocaust?” (174). This doubt demonstrates how inadequate and unworthy one can feel with the emotional and moral burden of telling a story so heavy and serious like the Holocaust. It’s not only Artie who can feel this inner inadequacy, but many who feel that they are failing to thoroughly tell a story that should be handled with emotional maturity.

In contrast, either approach, whether moving beyond generational trauma, or it being better to live and acknowledge it isn’t necessarily better than the other, it’s all about the person and what they may think is best for their life, even if that is the best decision on their part. For those like Artie, confronting and discussing the past regarding his father’s experience helped him to get closure in a way, and strengthen his relationship with his father slightly, as his distance from his father often hindered his understanding of what occurred. Furthermore, the trauma is still very much prominent in his present life, so they were unable to truly move forward from it. One can argue that this novel was partly written as a way to combat the trauma, as well as raise awareness to this tragedy. For someone else, it might be easier for them to move on, and forget that part of their life. Trauma is highly subjective, so it’s up to that one person and their own personal judgment to decide what approach is best for them. Everyone’s outlooks on life, degree of trauma, and coping mechanisms look differently amongst one another.

Spiegelman is impacted by both the Holocaust itself, and by his father, having been impacted by the Holocaust. Spiegelman, in Kolar’s view, feels a kind of obsession with the Holocaust, as it was the event that shaped his whole family and made them who they were, but he wasn’t alive at the time to experience it, making him feel somewhat alienated. Spiegelman thinks his parents view him as a failure, in part because he was born after the Holocaust and they feel like he doesn’t value the luxuries he was given. He never feels like he can do enough to satisfy them, and is constantly compared to his deceased brother Richieu, who did live through the Holocaust. When Spiegelman is alive, he only exists as a photo which can do no wrong and is the perfect son, everything Spiegelman is not (Maus II page 16) Kolar writes, “His identification with his parents’ affliction becomes so intense that he starts imagining being in Auschwitz… he fantasizes about Zyklon B coming out from the shower of their bathroom instead of water [Maus II page 16]”. Spiegelman’s drive to learn more about the Holocaust is what led him to the many interviews with his father, and seems to be very personally driven, always pushing for more and more information, perhaps to fill his own personal void, even if he says they are to share information with the world.

I am unsure whether it is possible to move past generational trauma. Maybe, after so many generations, if the memory is not shared forward, it will go away. However, this would leave future generations with a reduced understanding of who they are and where they came from. Living with generational trauma is difficult and requires a great deal of effort to work through, and seems to be tempting to bottle up in order to not spread a burden onto others. But, by doing so, by spreading knowledge and educating about events publicly and doing personal introspection, it not only helps to bring people closer together, but also allows people to have a further understanding of their own trauma.

Art Speigleman’s graphic novel, Maus, follows not only his father Vladek Speigleman’s experience during the holocaust, but also Art’s relationship with his father through writing the story. Within this, Spiegelman indirectly shows the complexities of mass acts of violence, and how the impact can ripple throughout generations. Although Art himself did not experience the holocaust first hand, his father, mother, and step-mother were all imprisoned, criminalized, and victimized Jews of the Holocaust. Due to his background being so heavily apart of his upbringing, Art experiences Marianne Hirsh’s concept of “post-memory” by being haunted by a memory that preceded his birth.

This idea, although upsetting, is common within descendants of survivors of massive acts of violence. When Dr. Stern came to talk to us about his own families experience during the holocaust he would often refer to the liberation of Bergan-Belson as the starting of his life, even though he was born many years later and his father was only a child. This is because, although it was an event that preceded his birth, it impacted him and his family greatly. In a sort of more pessimistic and directed way, Art Spiegelman toys with this idea throughout Maus, representing how everything his father, mother, and community had gone through led him to the way he is.

The best way to see this is by understanding his relationship with Vladek, his very stubborn and distrusting father that survived the holocaust. Art and Vladek have a complicated relationship where neither person can seem to truly trust or respect the other, however, throughout their connection and shared experiences I think they understand each other on a deeper level than anyone else. There are many times throughout the novel where Vladek has to put life in perspective for Art, comparing the modern struggles Art has to face, to the horrors of the holocaust. In these moments we are reminded as the reader to truly understand the position that his familial background has put Art in.

The idea of generational trauma is also heavily tied to families experiences, including the often quick immigration either during or after such an act of violence. In my own life, I translate this idea a lot to my own families experience coming from Irish immigrants. Although of course never the same scale of the holocaust, the historical mistreatment and oppression of Irish Catholics has generationally impacted me and my family greatly. Because of this, it is always interesting to compare my own families perspective on being Irish American, compared to a friends. For example, my father specifically has taught me a lot about Irish history and culture because he deems it important to continue our roots, while other people I may know have no knowledge of any Irish history. A big part of the reason why my family has this connection, is because my neighborhood has a high population of Irish people in it, this is an important factor to understand when discussing intergenerational trauma because although one might immigrate and generations might go by, the community you are living in impacts your perspective greatly. Similarly, because the Speiglemans lived in such a strong Jewish community where many of Vladek’s friends had similar experiences than him, this really amplified the holocaust memory onto Art