"To What Extent"

Matt Froese

Block: 3

“To What Extent”

            

          To a large extent, Vladek’s survival during the holocaust was based on his skills. Admittedly, there were a few moments in the story where Vladek’s survival was based on luck. For instance, he was very lucky that he found the people he did. When he was in the area where they picked people to send off for manual labor, he was lucky that he met the Kapo who needed to learn English and gave Vladek special privileges and told him where to stand to avoid being shipped off for work. He also managed to get Vladek a job as a tinsmith. Also, Vladek was very lucky that he didn’t die from typhus (which he got twice). Nevertheless, his ability to his survive was based around his skills. Vladek had an incredible intelligence which allowed him to do what most others wouldn’t think to do. He was able to think that stealing an extra shirt and washing it and keeping it preserved in paper was going to keep the lice off it so he could get soup when they did the lice check. He was also quickly able to realize that he needed a partner that was strong to help him carry the soup quickly so they wouldn’t get punished. Vladek never trusted the Germans. He had numerous opportunities to try and escape which involved trusting Germans, but he refused each one, and every time he refused one the Jews that trusted them where killed. Vladek had a very easy time adapting due to his superb memory that allowed him to fix shoes which he only saw instructions on how to do; he then paid a shoe smith a day’s ration of bread and watched carefully how he did it so he could know how to do it and save a piece of bread, which bring me to my next point; his thinking ahead strategy of hoarding rations. During countless times throughout the story, Vladek was keeping rations of his food by only eating half or not eating during that day. Even though there where some times were luck helped Vladek survive, the skills he used to survive were more significant. His overall intelligence and skills with adapting gave him the upper hand during the holocaust.