Hitler is quoted in the introduction of Maus, “Jews are a race but not human." Therefore, Spiegelman chooses to make his tale an allegory, using animals to symbolize various characters during the carnage of the Holocaust.

First, there are the Nazis, the National Socialist German Workers' Party, in Hiltler’s Europe who despise Jews and resent their taking space that should belong to ethnic Germans. Prejudice against Jews is referred to as anti-Semitism. Spiegelman uses menacing cats to symbolize the Nazis.

Since Hitler referred to Jews as vermin, disease carriers, and non-human, Spiegelman turns Jews into mice. The Cats play with the Mice for a time and then kill them.

Pigs are neutral; they’re not interested in consuming either the cat or the mouse. Therefore, Poles, people from Poland, become Pigs in Spiegelman’s tale. Germans disliked Poles and Polish Jews even more.

Read Maus I.