art is now on his summer vacation he's spending it with his wife Francoise and their friends in Vermont look at those two love birds chatting away how adorable surely nothing could interrupt their summer Bliss but even the best laid plans don't work out suddenly vladic phones he's had a heart attack oh no art must phone his father right away wait a second why isn't vladic at the hospital sneaky vladic he hasn't had a heart attack at all he just needed to make sure that art would call him back manipulative much but the news still isn't
great Marla vladek's second wife has left him she just couldn't stand him anymore you'll remember from volume 1 that they were not a happy couple vladek thought Marla was only after his money and Marla thought vladic was a stingy fussy old man he wouldn't even give her money for a new hairbrush now Marla has taken off to Florida to start a new chapter in her life can we blame her well this pulls the plug on Art and Francois romantic holiday in Vermont now they both have to go stay with vladic and help him get his
bearings so off to the cat skills they go art hopes it will only be a short stay he feels sorry for his dad but at the same time vladic drives him up the wall art and Francoise have a long drive ahead of them which gives them plenty of time to chat art opens up about a few things that have been on his mind when art was a kid he used to think about all sorts of strange things although he never experienced the Holocaust he often thought about it sometimes he wondered which of his parents he'd
save from the ovens if the Nazis forced him to choose he'd always choose his mother Anya remember Anya tragically killed herself back in 1968. the ghost of his brother Ritu also loomed large over art Ritu didn't survive the war but art remembers how a photo of the Angelic toddler hung in his parents bedroom they never talked about Ritu but they idolized him to Art Ritu was this mysterious brother he could never be as good as art knows this is an odd thing to say but he wishes he could have been with his parents in Auschwitz
it's a place far worse than he can imagine and at this point he feels like giving up on his creative project how on Earth will he do justice to his father's story in a comic strip when art and Francois arrive in the Catskills it's clear that vladek is not in a good state but the sight of his son and daughter-in-law brightens his mood the next morning however vladek is back to his fussy old habits he complains about little things like salt containers and his precious wooden matches until finally art loses his patience he goes out
for a smoke but Arts break doesn't last long Mrs Carp from the neighboring Bungalow seizes the opportunity to speak with art she drags him back to her Bungalow where she and her husband Edgar interrogate him it seems that even they can't stand vladic they ask Art about whether he has plans to take vladic to live with him gee can vladic get along with anybody luckily Francoise comes looking for art so he has a good excuse to leave but they aren't free for long vladek needs help with some paperwork that involves tricky sums soon enough art
and vladic are at each other's throats so Francoise takes over the operation while father and son go for a walk together to cool off art uses this opportunity to ask his father about what happened to him and Anya at Auschwitz before we dive into that let's recap on what led them there it's 1944 and Anya and vladix plan to risk it all and leave sosnowitz for a better life in Hungary had not gone to plan Mrs motanavar was right they should have just stayed with her nilock and his family did and they were safe vladek
should never have trusted those people Smugglers they sold vladek and Anya out to the Nazis so that's how they ended up in Auschwitz and since the Nazis separated the men and the women they had to face it alone how would they cope without each other luckily vladek wasn't completely alone he still had his friend mandelbaum with him right away the cruelty of the Nazis was on full display the Nazis took their ID papers clothes and shaved their heads you could feel the fear in the air fortunately the Nazis weren't ready to send vladek to the
gas chamber yet they needed him to work then it was off to the freezing showers but that wasn't as bad as what came next the guards couldn't care less if the prisoner's uniforms fit them right down to the mismatched wooden shoes next vladek had to get registered and have his number tattooed onto his arm yikes everywhere in Auschwitz stank of burning rubber and fat it was the stench of the ovens where many people were incinerated this was a place worse than hell wait a second who was running towards mandelbaum it was Abraham mandelbaum's nephew what
was he doing here wasn't he supposed to be in Hungary his letter was the whole reason why vladek Anya and mandelbaum thought it was safe to go it turns out the Smugglers dictated the letter to Abraham while the Gestapo held a gun to his head the Smugglers didn't win in the end though when the Nazis didn't need them anymore they sent them to Auschwitz too vladek felt hopeless he was trapped out of nowhere a man gave him the hope he needed he was a Polish priest and told vladic that the numbers on his arm were
lucky he would survive Auschwitz so whenever vladek felt lost he looked at the number on his arm for courage although it was hard for vladic it was even harder for mandelbaum he used to be a very rich man but now he was a mess his uniform didn't fit him at all which was miserable for him he couldn't even walk properly because he had to hold pieces of it together poor guy mandelbaum and vladic shared a bid because all the prisoners were crammed in like sardines people even had to sleep on the floor to make matters
worse their supervisor or Capo was a bully he terrorized vladic and his fellow prisoners all day every day with back-breaking exercises until people literally dropped dead it was brutal one day the Capo wanted to know who could speak English because he wanted to learn for himself vladek could speak English and polish so he got the job now vladic got special treatment when the Nazis came to take more prisoners away the supervisor told vladek how to avoid selection but the special treatment didn't stop there vladek also received special meals like the time he was offered an
entire table full of food but wait there's more the supervisor also gave vladdock a uniform that fitted perfectly complete with leather shoes he looked like a million bucks vladdock also went out of his way to get poor old mandelbaum a belt and shoes that fit for mandelbaum this was a miracle sadly mandelbaum's happiness didn't last a few days later the Germans took him away and vladek never saw him again luckily the supervisor still needed vladic to teach him English so he hid vladic in his room for two whole months he surely would have been taken
away otherwise vladek couldn't hide forever though the supervisor knew that skilled workers received better treatment vladek was a jack of all trades and could fit right in back in the Catskills vladek leads Artie into a resort wait what's vladic doing here they're sneaking in to use the facilities for free classic vladic he especially loves playing bingo he has a knack for good luck but he can also be generous one time he won a game and gave his winning card to the young lady sitting behind him so how did Vlad X luck work for him in
Auschwitz stay tuned to find out [Music] we hope you enjoyed this schooling online production for more easy lessons check out our other videos
