 The Spiegelmans had one other son , Rysio ( spelled " Richieu " in Maus ) , who died before Art was born at the age of five or six . During the Holocaust , Spiegelman 's parents sent Rysio to stay with an aunt , with whom they believed he would be safe . The aunt poisoned herself along with Rysio and two other young family members in her care so that the Nazis would not take them to the extermination camps . After the war , the Spiegelmans , unable to accept that Rysio was dead , searched orphanages all over Europe in the hope of finding him . Spiegelman talked of having a sort of sibling rivalry with his " ghost brother " — he felt unable to compete with an " ideal " brother who " never threw tantrums or got in any kind of trouble " . Of 85 Spiegelman relatives alive at the beginning of World War II , only 13 are known to have survived the Holocaust . 
