What is the setting of The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman?

The graphic text encompasses a vast number of settings ranging through several countries and across many decades. However, within this myriad of locations three locations emerge as primarily significant.

The first primary location is Sosnowiec, Poland. Sosnowiec is described by Vladek as a fairly typical small Polish city; it lies near the German-Poland-Czechoslovakia border. Prior to the war Vladek, Anja, and Anja's extended family live in or near to Sosnowiec. After Vladek is initially captured by the Nazis Anja returns to Sosnowiec; after Vladek's parole he also returns to Sosnowiec. The extended family then remains in Sosnowiec or one of its ghettos until being deported to Auschwitz. After surviving the Holocaust, Vladek and Anja return to Sosnowiec where they meet with a few surviving relatives before emigrating to Sweden and, later, the United States of America.

The second major setting is the concentration camp of Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Birkenau. Vladek usually refers to them together by the simple name of Auschwitz, and the illustrations of Vladek's arrival and departure through the infamous gates inscribed Arbeit Macht Frei ("work shall make you free") makes it clear that Vladek was imprisoned in what is today generally referred to as Auschwitz I. He notes that Anja was imprisoned in what is often referred to as Auschwitz II or Auschwitz-Birkenau. Although Vladek does not provide dates—when Artie presses him for an exact chronology he sarcastically notes "in Auschwitz we didn't [sic] wear watches" (p. 228)—he likely arrived in Auschwitz in 1941 and was later evacuated in 1944. He notes that Anja arrived at the same time but was evacuated several days or weeks before he left.

The third prominent setting is Rego Park, New York. This is the neighborhood in Queens where Vladek and Anja settle after immigrating to America. Vladek lives in the same house in Rego Park from c. 1950 until his death in 1982. Anja commits suicide in the house and Artie grows up in the house and neighborhood. The opening prologue of the text takes place in the neighborhood of Rego Park and the opening and closing segments of nearly every chapter occur in that setting.