Before they and their families are sent to Auschwitz, Art's father is a practical young businessman, who is set up with his own factory by his prosperous and generous father-in-law. Elie's father is less practical and more of a dreamer. He is a spiritual leader of his community before the Holocaust, and as such, he often seems more concerned about his community than even his family or himself. Art's father, on the other hand, is a devoted and very demonstrative husband and father to Richieu.

Both of these types of Holocaust memoirs, despite their being much different from one another, have had very strong and profound effects on readers. Elie Weisel's book Night, a relatively short book written over 40 years ago, is considered to be one of the most powerful and influential of all Holocaust memoirs, and is still read today, worldwide. Similarly, both of the Maus books have...
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