Nazi Germany's Treatment of Jews through Art

As we have seen from Maus, the Jewish plight in Nazi Germany can be portrayed through art via graphic novel. But besides a comic, how else have Jews been portrayed as during Nazi Germany through art? During World War II, different pieces of propaganda were made and published to blame the Jews for the war, such as this one below.

This piece of propaganda poster translates in English to "The Jew: The inciter of war, the prolonger of war." The poster itself shows angry (German) fists protesting against an evil-looking Jewish man. The Jewish man has the iconic large rounded nose, which is emphasized with the deep wrinkles. His eyes look more sinister because of the shadow caused by the prominent brow ridge. Underneath the Jewish man's face is fire burning, highlighting the need to rid the Jews. The poster leads its viewers to believe that the Jews are the reason for war, when in reality, the reason for such a mass war was that the Nazis invaded Poland. As we said in class, without popular support, a genocide cannot occur and with propaganda, such as the one above; the poster above and other similar pieces of propaganda fueled the Anti-Semantic behavior in Germany, which lead to no real opposition to Holocaust in Nazi Germany.

Degenerate art

Degenerate Art, entartete Kunst, is a Nazi term that describes all modern art. During the 1920's, Germany started becoming the center of avant-garde art, but when Hitler took over in the 1930's, he denounced all the modern art. Hitler denounced modern art because it was seen as both a symbol of Weimar culture and Jewish because many prominent modern artists were Jewish, such as Marc Chagall. The distorted, indecipherable subjects of many Expressionist* paintings were viewed by Hitler as degenerate and a symptom of "the inferior race". Hitler replaced these modern works of art with art that suited his taste, mainly works modeled after Greek and Roman art because it lacked any hint of Judaism. In 1937, many modern artists from all different countries, such as Picasso, Matisse, Ernst, Kandinksy, and Mondrian, had their art exhibited in a large collection of "degenerate art", which displayed the art in askew orientations, which meant to further confuse the German audience. The design of the exhibit was Hitler's tactic to turn the German population against modernism. Ironically, it made the art of those artists more popular outside of Germany. But in Germany, these artists, even if they were not Jewish, were considered enemies of the state because their art was labelled as Jewish propaganda. Though no non-Jewish artist was ever put to death, many went into exile because they feared for their lives.

*Expressionism was a large modern art movement centered in Germany during the 1920's and was the essential art in Weimar Germany.