It may not be so obvious in the storytelling, but Vladek and his family’s lives before and during the Holocaust were full of fear. Who wouldn’t be scared for their lives working under the radar with the threat of being killed. Who wouldn’t be frightened having to see people the community being hanged in public for a week? Vladek continued dealing in the black market even after his father-in-law’s friends were hanged for doing the same thing. Vladek and his family first thought to hide their grandparents when the Germans came searching for the elderly. But, out of fear of being punished, they ended up sending their grandparents with the Germans. Vladek had to decide weather to go to the Stadium to be registered when the Jews were called. All these decisions involved lots of fear throughout the thought process. Imagine, during the Holocaust,  what other people had going through minds when they saw mass murder every day. They needed to decide whether to steal food, escape the camp  or sometimes even to jump on the barbed wire out of fear.