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Vladek is in many ways a baffling character. In his story of surviving World War II and the Holocaust, he is truly heroic. But in the present day, he is high-strung and disagreeable. Most notably, Vladek is extremely tight with his money. At one point, he returns opened packages of cereal and crackers to the store for a refund. Vladek credits his time in Auschwitz with his inability to waste food, but that is only part of what pushes him to never waste a thing. The miserly and greedy Jew is a common antisemitic stereotype. Though Artie worries that he is stereotyping Vladek, he depicts his father as a miser anyway. As Artie points out, even other Holocaust survivors think Vladek is stingy and high strung.
Throughout World War II and the Holocaust, Vladek proves both lucky and resourceful. He survives thanks to his consistent quick thinking and nerves of steel. It’s not that Vladek is especially skilled in any of the trades he adopts to survive. It is his confidence in his ability to figure it out as he goes, which he does. For example, when he works as a shoemaker in Auschwitz and an SS officer presents him with a repair he can’t do, he bribes a more experienced shoemaker to tell him how. Importantly, it is not through skill alone that Vladek survives. He also saves his resources, including cigarettes and chocolate, to bargain and trade.
Vladek, for all his disagreeableness, is always loyal to his family. Throughout World War II, he dotes on his wife Anja. When she suffers a breakdown after giving birth to their first son, Richieu, he goes with her to the sanitarium to help nurse her back to health. Throughout their time in Auschwitz and Birkenau, Vladek uses his resources to pass notes to Anja and get her transferred to an easier work detail. And as much as he hassles Artie and complains that he is not around enough, Vladek ends conversations with him by telling him how much he enjoys seeing him.
Maus ultimately questions whether Vladek did in fact survive. He successfully escaped the concentration camps and helped his wife escape, as well. But throughout the present-day timeline, it is clear that Vladek is a broken man, both emotionally and physically. Anja’s suicide broke his heart, and he is physically unwell at least in part due to his experience during the war. In the end, as he lies in bed dying, he mistakes Artie for Richieu, suggesting he never really escaped the Holocaust.
