When I went to look for something to share regarding Maus, the first thing I typed into the search box on Yahoo was “children of Holocaust survivors” because, to me, one of the most interesting things about Maus is how much the events he is writing about have shaped Art’s life. I couldn’t help but wonder if this was something that had been studied and quantified, or if it was just a general idea.

The link I came up with is research on that exact thing.

http://www.aaets.org/arts/art96.htm

It seems that many of the problems Holocaust survivors face–PTSD, depression, etc–are also found in their children. I thought this was particularly interesting in regards to the mental breakdown we know that Spiegelman had in his early adulthood. It tries to explain why this may be as well, exploring the relationship between Holocaust survivors and their children and how they tend to differ from the control group.

All in all, it adds a pretty interesting dimension to the reading of Maus from a psychological standpoint.