Quote 25
“… I can tell you OTHER stories, but such PRIVATE things, I don’t want you should mention.”
“Okay, okay – I promise.” (I.1.25)
This is, of course, a promise that Art breaks because we get all the “private things” in <em>Maus.</em>
Quote 26
“But these things we learned only much later. In our bunkers, we heard only rumors.” (I.5.112)
Vladek can only make sense of some of the events after the fact, with knowledge he gains after the events. The story is often interrupted by such remarks when Vladek talks about other characters; when he introduces a character, he often tells us quite soon after whether the character survived the camps or not.
Quote 27
“These notebooks, and other really nice things of mother … one time I had a very bad day … and all of these things I destroyed.” (I.6.160)
It is a little extreme of Art to call Vladek a “murderer” for destroying his mother’s notebooks, but you can kind of see why. If memories are one crucial way for Holocaust survivors to preserve the lives of those who perished, Vladek has destroyed Anja’s memories, and thus she dies a second death.