Art as Survival in the Holocaust

The Holocaust in art and the art of the Holocaust are two distinctly different forms of art. The former refers to any art depicting or alluding to the Holocaust. It includes works created both during and after the war, by victims as well as people not directly threatened by the event. Whereas the art of the Holocaust is limited to works created by the victims from 1939 to 1945. What is most important about the art of the Holocaust is it’s means of reflecting its time both in its subject matter and in what it reveals about the artists themselves and the condition in which they worked. These people who struggled through the most deplorable conditions risked their lives to produce art. Art became their reason to live, and they used their talents to survive.

Expressionism was the prevailing artistic force in Germany and Eastern Europe in years preceding Hitler’s rise to power. It was a movement born a round the turn of the century, in artistic and social ferment, a rebellion against the formalism and sterility of academic art, which promoted the ideas of the bourgeoisie and the German empire. The Expressionist artist was driven by “inner necessity” to expres

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The artist’s view of himself as chronicler to a future audience bespeaks an amazing optimism, a profound hope that he would someday live to show his work to people who would share his fury. By working in styles they were already familiar rather than developing new ones to portray their changed conditions, the artists were retaining their original identities.

As these works are now being unearthed and studied a highly organized feat of recording, in the form of archives set up by Emmanuel Ringelblum, was accomplished in Warsaw. The Nazi’s finding themselves with some of the worlds finest artists in captivity could not resist using this talent for their own purposes. Within each area similarities appear in works by very different artists. Brushes could be made with human hair, straw or feathers. Hoess immediately saw the propaganda potential and ordered Targosz to organize the museum. But as artists they had control, they were responsible for the tone and fiber of their creations, the focus and subject, and what they wanted to be immortalized. The Nazi’s considered art as a tool to use as a service to the Reich, and they required that it support the myth of the noble heroic German. ” (Aden 55) The functions of the old art styles, as preservers of the past culture and sustainers of the artists identities become visible upon comparing art of the Holocaust period to postwar art created by the survivors. Constant torture, mass executions, excruciating hard labor and malnutrition, we would expect, would lead to the disintegration of the victims will to survive. Leo Haas was forced to paint portraits of twins who were the subjects of Dr. Over 30,000 works survive in America, Europe and Israel, sadly the majority of these works have never been seen due to lack of interest and “artistic” merit.

Common topics in this essay:
Ernst Ludwig, Eastern Europe, Red Cross, Birkenau Mengeles, Leo Haas, Israel Lichtenstein, Zoran Music, Auschwitz Museum, Holocaust Holocaust, Peter Edel, art holocaust, artists themselves, art created, deplorable conditions, red cross, leo haas, artist materials, auschwitz artists, art art, forms art, struggled deplorable conditions, people struggled deplorable, risked lives produce, conditions risked lives, deplorable conditions risked,

Approximate Word count = 3510
Approximate Pages = 14 (250 words per page double spaced)

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