While reading Maus II I really enjoyed the part where Vladek meets the Frenchman. Even though it wasn't that big of an event in Vladek's telling of what happened in Auschwitz, I found it very touching.
     As seen with some of the other events that happened, when people are starving and living in such horrible conditions, they are less likely to share things especially food. Not only did the Frenchman give Vladek food to eat he had so much that he was able to trade the extra in order to get other things he needed. Vladek's encounter with the Frenchman reminds me a lot of his statement to Artie in the beginning of the first half of Maus. He said something about being locked in a room with no food with your so called friends and see if they are still truly your friends. This being said I think the Frenchman was one of the few true friends Vladek had  in the concentration camp.
     The Frenchman was not only a help to Vladek, and was probably one of the reasons he survived, but Vladek was also a huge help to him. Before Vladek came along he had no one to talk to because no one else spoke French or English. I couldn't imagine being stuck in a place like that with no one I could talk to about the things that were happening. Not only that but to not understand what any of the Nazi guards were saying would have been even mare terrifying. At least Vladek understood German and Polish and was able to communicate with them. I think Vladek also saved the Frenchman's life and kept him from going crazy.