Art Spiegelman was born in Sweden on February 15, 1948 to Vladek and Anja Spiegelman, survivors of the Holocaust. The family emigrated to the United States, specifically New York, in 1951. "Spiegelman, having survived a nervous breakdown while living in New York, had set out for San Francisco, where by 1972 he was thriving in the underground comix scene. An assignment came for a three-page comic, and so he decided to emotionally unpack his parents’ Holocaust" (Cavna, 2016). His father never wanted to discuss the Holocaust, and his mother had committed suicide in 1968. Despite protestations, his father agreed to the interviews, and a small 3-page comic was created. Spiegelman moved back with his father, in search for more of the story. From these continued interviews and Spiegelman's extensive background in underground comix, Maus was born.