Maya Yegorova
TW: This article discusses the sensitive issue of the Holocaust.
Last month, a school board in Tennessee’s McMinn County prohibited educators from including Maus, a graphic novel that cartoonist Art Spiegelman created depicting his parents’ experience in Auschwitz-Birkenau, in the eighth-grade curriculum. This alarming decision simply reminds us how excluding certain books from the classroom cements the hurtful notion that only certain time periods deserve to be highlighted, and this decision reflects the ongoing problem of poor Holocaust education in the United States.
Defending Decisions
The school board defended their decision to ban Maus, explaining that the book contains vulgar language and depicts a naked mouse. The graphic novel portrays Poles as pigs, Germans as cats, and Jews as mice.
“Difficult conversations are the conversations that are most worth having.”
Inspiration for Maus
Talented Spiegelman, a Harpur College graduate, interviewed his father and visited Auschwitz before he started working on his novel. His parents, Władysław and Andzia Spiegelman (known as Vladek and Anja in the novel) survive the camp’s atrocities. Anja committed suicide and Vladek passed away before the publication of Maus.
Conversations Worth Having
It is disappointing to hear that schools removed this Pulitzer-prize winning book from classrooms. Yes, the horrors of the Holocaust are difficult to read and it is agonising to hear what the Jewish people had to endure, but discussions about this genocide are necessary. Difficult conversations are the conversations that are most worth having.
To ban Maus is to disregard the devastating impact that World War II had on the world: the war caused 70 million deaths. Just because this cataclysmic event is in the past, it does not mean people should ignore it. People need to understand what happened during World War II and should keep learning more about this conflict to ensure that humanity does not repeat this suffering again.
It is insulting that a school board is banning this book because this action contributes to the skewed idea that only certain events are worth reading about. The school board is projecting the offensive belief that the Holocaust is not important enough to be included in book reports, classroom discussions, and course syllabi.
Dismissing this time period and having no desire to learn about it is rude to the families whose ancestors were impacted by World War II. An absence of Holocaust literature is unsettling for both Jewish students and those who are descendants of World War II survivors, whether they are civilians or soldiers, because these students are told that the struggles of their people and ancestors are not worth remembering and honouring.
The Function of Literature
Literature further functions as a tool to preserve history and ensure that readers do not forget such events. Storytelling is an excellent way to give people a voice and to inform readers about the atrocities that occurred. Prohibiting art, whether that is books, music, or dance, silences the voices that need to tell their story. Literature documents pivotal moments in history and erasing Holocaust books from courses erases an important way for readers to remain informed about world events.
American Education On The Holocaust
The banning of Maus is additionally disheartening because America’s understanding of the Holocaust is already poor. To illustrate, the American Jewish Committee and research company Taylor Nelson Sofres surveyed 1,005 Americans in 2005, and 46 percent did not know what Auschwitz, Dachau, and Treblinka referred to. According to The Guardian, a 2018 Pew Research Center study revealed that only 62% of Americans knew the definition of the Holocaust.
As if these past results were not already disappointing, ignorance is still happening in America in 2022. Television personality Whoopi Goldberg discussed the Maus ban, days after the school board made its decision, and days after International Holocaust Day on ABC’s The View. She said that the Holocaust was “not about race.”
“If a grown woman believes such things, then what incorrect information do American youth believe?”
It is troubling because her comment is factually incorrect: Hitler believed that the Germanic race was unequaled and that everyone else was subordinate. The Nazis did not regard Jews as a religious group. They classified the Jews as an inferior race that was a threat to society.
Nazis did not recognise the existence of Jews, Slavs, Roma, disabled people, and homosexuals. To Hitler, Aryans that were blonde-haired, blue-eyed and physically fit were perfect.
Goldberg’s comment reflects a poor understanding of the Holocaust. A statement that the Holocaust was not about race is quite literally inaccurate and needs to be fact-checked immediately. Saying misleading information on television is another reason why schools need to place a heavy emphasis on the Holocaust in their curriculum. If a grown woman believes such things, then what incorrect information do American youth believe?
An Unacceptable Ban
Her comments further display an urgent need for underscoring the severity of the Holocaust in classrooms, and banning Maus is just a step backward. Students are responsible for transforming into well-informed adults that are aware of past global conflicts, and sheltering them from the horrors of war will only hurt them in the future.
Banning Maus is unacceptable, as schools should welcome the chance to have uncomfortable conversations, not shy away from them.
Featured image courtesy of Faith Enck on Unsplash. No changes were made to this image. The image license can be found here.
