Chapter Five - Mouse Holes Summary

Artie again visits his father. Vladek and Mala continue to argue about everything. Mala privately tells Artie that Vladek recently found and read one of Artie's previously-published comic books entitled Prisoner on the Hell Planet - A Case History. The comic, non-fictional and autobiographical—is presented as an in-line reprint and relates in very terse detail how Anja had committed suicide and briefly describes the emotional aftermath of her suicide. Artie also learns that his mother's diaries have still not been located. Vladek then begins to recount his life story.

In 1943 Vladek and all of the Jews of Sosnowiec are forcibly deported to Srodula, a small nearby village. The village is surrounded by barbed-wire and armed guards and serves as an initial Jewish ghetto. Vladek and his nephew Lolek work in a wood shop...