Picking Apart the Propaganda

As soon as I saw this Nazi propaganda poster I knew I had to use it because it truly represented how the Nazis saw the Jews. In both Maus and this propaganda poster, the Jews are depicted as rotten mice. However, in the poster, the mouse is a morph between a human and an animal. This makes the creature look even more horrific and displeasing to the eye because not only are they an ugly animal to the Nazis, they are more accurately depicted as an ugly monster.  The image emphases the idea that the Jews did not belong anywhere or to one species; they are some awful “thing” that the Nazis were trying to exterminate.

In both pictures, the Jews are being trapped in some way by the Nazis, and there is a bigger, scarier force surrounding them. They will both be engulfed by the higher power which are the Nazis. Whether it is by the hawk, in the propaganda poster, or the big mouse trap, in Maus, they both are a symbol for defeat and suffering. Even though Mala and Vladek are about to be killed by the mouse trap, they focus on each other rather than dwelling on the idea that they could be walking into their deaths. Unlike Mala and Vladek, the other mouse appears to be terrified of the hawk above him. This could symbolize how the Nazis believed they had all the power against the Jews and that they are strong enough to make an entire population follow them. In their own propaganda poster, they are sure to show the authority they have over the rotten Jews, but that is not the case for Mala and Vladek. They represent the part of the population that will not make their lives miserable because the Nazis, and will not give up so easily.