The chapter begins with Vladek recalling his family’s conversations concerning the stranglehold of the Nazi regime. Businesses, property, personal items and household goods are seized by the Nazis – Vladek is forced to deal on the black market in order to provide for his family. Vladek then goes onto tell the story of the Cohn (Kohn) family who had a dry good store in Sosnowiec. Nachum and Meir Cohn often provided Vladek with cloth without requiring coupons in return. Vladek recounts how the Cohns were arrested by the Nazis for trading on the black market and were publicly executed in the town square of Sosnowiec.
The process of ’rounding up Jews’ was a common strategy by the Nazi regime and Nazi supporters – the essential characteristics of Nazi way was efficiency and process.
One infamous rounding up exercise, known as The Vél d’Hiv roundup began in the early hours of 16 July 1942 and, over the next two days, 12,884 Jews from the Paris region, including over 4,000 children, were taken into custody. It was biggest such mass arrest in France during the Second World War. Of these, 7,000 victims were packed into the Vélodrome d’Hiver, an indoor sports stadium. In increasingly desperate conditions they awaited shipment to the death camps in eastern Europe.
What made the event so especially shocking was not just the number of children involved, but that the operation was planned and executed by French police and civil servants. After the war, the Vél d’Hiv roundup would become a symbol of French guilt and complicity in the Holocaust.
Below is an image of the Jewish children being taken into custody – most were sent to death camps such as Auschwitz.
For more information about this horrific event, follow the link below:
The clip below recounts the experiences of those children involved in The Vél d’Hiv event.
Study Questions
- What does the initial interaction between Vladek and Artie suggest about Vladek’s view of money?
- Why do the Germans hang Nahum Cohn and his son? What effect does this hanging have on other people?
- Explain why there were Jewish policemen rounding up elderly Jews. Why did the Germans send the elderly and infirm to Auschwitz first?
- Mala says that Vladek is more attached to things than people. Why might Mala say this? Do you believe this is true?
'Maus' - A Survivor's Tail 