7. How do Anja's and Vladek's families fare during the Holocaust?

Most of their relatives died in the Holocaust. Out of Vladek's six siblings, only his brother Pinek survived, and Vladek visibly sags under the weight of so much death. The Holocaust destroyed nearly his entire family, and all that he has left are these photos. Pinek survived by deserting the Polish army and taking shelter with a family of peasant Jews. He had been traveling with their brother, Leon, but Leon eventually died of typhus. That Leon died from the same disease that Vladek contracted at Dachau once again underscores the critical role that luck played in determining who survived and who died during the Holocaust. Both brothers caught typhus; only one survived.