Mice Chasing Cats

On the left is the picture corresponding  to chapter three.  The image itself has cats with intimidating faces  (Nazis) standing over a mouse (Vladek the Jew), alluding to all the terrible things to come hence the title name "Prisoner of War."  This is quite opposite the image on the right, a piece of Nazi propaganda, where the Star of David sits on the forehead of a large monstrous Jew munching on who are presumably German people. In this scenario the roles of the Jews and the Nazis are flipped, obviously demonstrating the Nazis' hope of portraying  Jews as evil creatures attempting to destroy the German people or even Germany itself. To the Nazis, Jews were only hurting the country, practically demons seeking Germany's demise-- or at least, this was what the Nazis wanted the German citizens to think.

If you compare the two predators of each picture, they have a much more similar appearance than one might first notice. The "Jew" to the right has sharp teeth and pointed ears much like a cat. He almost appears-animal like as he slowly crushes the people in his jaw. Even more so, the "Jew" has a large broad face like the cats in Spiegelman's drawing, connecting the final dots between the two images. Although the Jews in Nazi propaganda are portrayed as terrible creatures praying on the "good folk" of Germany,  in reality, the Nazis were the monsters praying on the Jews, much like cats on mice. Art Spiegelman chose the cat and mouse for representation to emphasize that it truly was the Jews who had fallen victim to the Nazis, and not vice versa. Much like the Nazi's portrayed Jews as monsters killing Germans, Spiegelman portrays the Nazis as cats hunting Jews, the real predator and the real pray.