Maus: A Survivor's Tale Events Quotes

“Friends? Your friends? If you lock them together in a room with no food for a week…Then you could see what it is, friends! …” (I.vi)

“It would take many books, my life, and no one wants anyway to hear such stories.” (I.1.14)

“It was many, many such stories – synagogues burned, Jews beaten with no reason, whole towns pushing out all Jews – each story worse than the other.” (I.2.35)

“International laws protected us a little as Polish war prisoners. But a Jew of the Reich, anyone could kill in the streets!” (I.3.63)

“Don’t you know? ALL Jewish businesses have been taken over by ‘Aryan managers’…” (I.4.78)

“We walked in the direction of Sosnowiec – but where to go?” (I.5.127)

 “They marched us through the city of Bielsko. We passed by the factory what once I owned … We passed the market where always we bought to eat, and passed even the street where we used to...

“I speak German as well as Polish – That’s why I’m a Kapo. Otherwise I’d be a nothing like you … Now the Allies are bombing the Reich. If they win this war, it will be worth something t...

“And the fat from the burning bodies they scooped and poured again so everyone could burn better.” (II.2.62)

“We lay on top of the other, like matches, like herrings. I pushed to a corner not to get crushed … High up I saw a few hooks to chain up maybe the animals.” (II.3.75)

“So, only my little brother, Pinek, came out from the war alive … from the rest of my family, it’s nothing left, not even a snapshot.” (II.4.106)

“The Poles went in. They beat him and hanged him … For this he survived.” (II.5.122)