that's a great answer about Spiegelman. What I meant is that Spiegelman is German (the name). I know his comic book about the jews and the holocaust (he's world famous for it).
He is of german descent, somewhere. His bloodline is german originally. Generations ago maybe. Where he was born or lived I don't know. In Scandinavian it would be something like Speilmann :-) which sounds even more german btw. In Dutch also Spiegelman. But those names Speilman and Spiegelman aren't used as family names outside Germany. It is only a litteral translation. Like mirrorman. I don't think the family mirrorman exist in the US. It is a typical german name and solely german. I don't know what it is in Polish. All the teutonic languages look like eachother. We know the little differences in writing although it sounds the same. Therefore we know who is from which country (originally) Maybe he changed it into Spiegelman like so many jews did after the war. Maybe it used to be Spiegelstein ;-)
The name changes caused a lot of problems btw for physicians. because some diseases only occur in jews. But b/c the physicians didn't know they changed their names (parents didn't tell their children) they never looked for this rare disease, b/c they weren't jewish. In some cases it all came out b/c someone developed this rare disease.
Anyway thnx for the extended info about "MAUS" and the author.