How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Page Number). Page numbers refer to The Complete Maus.
Quote #10
“Each day it was Selektions. The doctors chose out the weaker ones to go and die.” (II.2.18)
Here’s a role reversal: the doctors are used not to cure the patients, but to kill them off.
Quote #11
“Ever since Hitler I don’t like to throw out even a crumb.” (II.3.68)
Vladek’s careful hoarding during his concentration camp days is a survival tactic. But outside the concentration camp, it looks like a pathological compulsion (see Quote #8 above).
Quote #12
“Yah, this was a camp – terrible! I had a misery, I can’t tell you … here, in Dachau, my troubles began.” (II.3.81)
“And here my troubles began” is the subtitle for Book II. It’s kind of ironic, since the statement suggests that Vladek’s troubles didn’t begin in Auschwitz or during the German occupation of Poland. The statement gives us a sense of how deplorable the conditions were at Dachau.