1

LEGION OF CHRIST COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES

The Influence of World War II on Painting

Professor: Mrs. Joyner

Student: Br. Daniel Alderete, LC
Student Number: 1859
Capstone Thesis
Cheshire, 2020
 2

I. INTRODUCTION 3
a. Historical Context:
War in the Twentieth Century 4
II. BEFORE WORLD WAR II 5
a. The Artistic War: Nazis VS Art 5
III. ADOLF HITLER 6
a. The artistic side of Adolf Hitler 6
b. Hitler’s Paintings 8
IV. CONCENTRATION CAMPS 8
a. The artistic Persecution 8
b. The Great German Exposition 10
c. Degenerate Art 10
d. The Concentration Camps 11
e. Halina Olomucki (artist) 11
f. Zoran Music (artist) 13
g. Condition for Artistic Creation 15
h. Themes and Styles of the Works 15
V. PICASSO 16
a. Biography 16
b. The History of Guernica 17
c. Description of Painting, Guernica 17
VI. CONCLUSION 20
VII. COMPENDIUM OF IMAGES 22
VIII. BIBLIOGRAPHY 37
 3

I. INTRODUCTION
When the Second World War began, the Nazis started the concentration camps.
Most already know well all the suffering that happened there, but less well known are the
artworks created there, as well as those artists affected by war. This Capstone thesis is
going to present the influence of The Second World War on painting, and it is going to
look at those artists who were in the concentration camps, and two other unlikely painters
who were both connected with war: Picasso, and one other who will remain anonymous
for now.

The goal of this capstone is therefore to show the lives of some artists who
express through their art, a window into the suffering of the people in that time. This is
going to be shown with some artists in the concentration camps and with Picasso’s work
Guernica, in which he represents the consequences that war has on the world, but not in
the paintings of the third notorious figure.

Before the Second World War began, there were already some new artistic
movements emerging. These movements began to be recognized as Modern Art.

Modern artists were rejected by the French Academy, but some of these artists are
now recognized as some of the most famous painters in the world. For example: Gauguin,
his followers, and many others.

The focus of modern artists, specially Impressionism (which was the dominant
type of art before the World War I), was more based on feelings than on Realism or
Classicism. Modern artists didn’t want to show esthetics or perfection in their paintings,
but they instead wanted to portray what they feel or what others feel.

Before the Second World War started, there was a person that wanted to become
an artist but instead has become infamous in history. He tried to enter to the Academy of
Vienna a few times, but the Academy rejected him. This aforementioned notorious person
was none other than Adolf Hitler.
 4

Historical Context: War in the Twentieth Century.

Warlike conflicts have marked the modern era. The First World War (1914-1918)
plunged Europe into a tremendous economic and political decline, and as a consequence,
into a deep crisis of conscience in the face of the inability to solve its problems
peacefully. In Russia a new political form emerged, Socialism.

Europe experienced a particular industrial boom, although the 1929 financial

crisis in the United States ended by affecting Russia, and, above all, Germany. From
here, Adolf Hitler and Mussolini imposed fascism on what gave rise to the Rome-Berlin
Axis, which in the end was one of the causes of the Second World War (1950-1953). The
final result of the war was the defeat of Nazism. The United States helped with
reconstruction Europe in the post-War, and the Soviet Union also helped, which would
soon lead to the Cold War (1945-1959)

These circumstances provoked a feeling of discouragement in society that

corresponded to the thinking of the time. Between 1856-1936 psychoanalysis was
discovered, a method that explained psychic life and put the focus on the unconscious as
the region where all receptions are recorded. As many instinctive desires of man are not
realized, they become unconscious, and thus they create problems for the conscious.
However, using dreams, they send signals that it is necessary to decipher, since in them
are the real causes of human behavior. (The interpretations of the dreams, 1900).

At the same time, modern philosophical currents were arising, which

distinguished clearly between nature and the spirit. For example, Nietzsche (0844-1906)
criticizes the dogmatic philosophy, that of Platonism, for putting its accent on the other
life and not on this one, which for him is the authentic one. He denies God and exalts the
ubermensch, or superman. On the contrary, Henri Bergson (1859-1941) seeks an
experience of the divine by trying to understand scientific knowledge in order to explain
all reality starting from the word "evolution," which integrates time and consciousness.
The existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre (1908-1961) highlights the lack of meaning in life,
 5

which leads to anguish and despair since man will have no choice but to choose between
imperfect solutions.

Changes continued to take place in the 20th century. From this century, comes
much diversity in artistic movements. 

These changes in art occur in three successive moments: during the decade before
World War I, during the period between the wars, and during the years after World War
II.

II. BEFORE WORLD WAR II

The Artistic War: Nazis VS Art

The arrival of Adolf Hitler to power on January 30, 1933, marked the beginning
of racial and political persecution directed against all those described as non-Aryan and
against those whose points of view, both political and artistic, were not in accord with the
Nazi party. This persecution affected not only all cultural facets of pre-War Germany but
also the Fine Arts.

Initially, artists were not designated enemies of the Regime as such. The position
of the Nazi government towards modern art, however, was clearly defined in 1937 with
the organization in Munich of two major exhibitions:

 Grosse Deustche Kunstaussetellung (Great Exhibition of German Art)1

 Entarete Kunst (Degenerate Art)2

1
Compendium of images (picture 1)
2
Compendium of images (picture 2)
 6

The Great Exibition of German Art showed the kind of art that wanted to glorify the
Nazi Regime with artists like Brecker.3

Hitler had declared war with all artists who strayed from the aesthetic canon
proposed by the Nazis. Hitler’s speech at the opening of the Great Exhibition of German
Art makes his stance clear:

"…Works of art which cannot be understood in themselves but need

some pretentious instruction book to justify their existence will never
again find their way to German people". 4

In this situation, the German artists of the time had three possible options5:

1. Stay home and stop working in a style that offends the

authorities.
2. Commit to the Nazis.
3. Run away.

III. ADOLF HITLER

The artistic side of Adolf Hitler

A lot of people know that Hitler was a dictator and because of him the Second
World War started. Most of us know that Hitler was the leader of the Nazi party, but
there is something interesting about Hitler of which many are unaware.

3
Arno Breker (19 July 1900 – 13 February 1991) was a German architect and sculptor who
is best known for his public works in Nazi Germany, where they were endorsed by the authorities
as the antithesis of degenerate art. 
4
Degenerate art: why Hitler hated modernism/ by Lucy Burns/ November 10, 2013
https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias/2013/11/131106_finde_cultura_hitler_arte_degenerado
5
Barron, Stephanie. “European artists in exile: a reading between the lines” en Exiles + Emigrés.
The Flight of European Artists from Hitler. Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles,
1997.
 7

If one looks into the past of Hitler, they will see a different Hitler that we cannot
recognize today. Before Hitler started to be a dictator, he was an artist. In his early life as
an artist, he wanted to became a student of the Academy of Vienna, but he was rejected
two times by the Academy.

Hitler had a desire to become an artist, but due to the Academy’s rejection of him,
Hitler started his career path as an independent painter.

Hitler had a great passion for classical and Italian Renaissance. His style was very
calculated. When representing architecture in his paintings, he recorded what he saw with
great precision. Instead of making progress in his style by following modern trends,
Hitler was more set on copying the academic artists of the nineteenth century and other
old masters preceding him.

According to Hitler, Rudolf von Alt was, as he called him, his greatest teacher.
But the genre, his style, and the colors he used were less vivid than the paintings of
Rudolf.6

Hitler spent his time in Vienna painting postcards, and he painted houses for a
living. He had an Austrian contact through whom Hitler could sell his paintings. Also, an
Australian7 man bought many of the young Hitler’s paintings.

The United States seized a number of Hitler’s paintings at the end of World War
II. The US. Government declined to show or exhibit Hitler’s paintings. Years later,
Hitler’s paintings started to be sold at auctions. The paintings of Hitler were underrated in
his time, but today his paintings cost a considerable sum of money. For the most part,
these paintings are now in the hands of the United States government.8

6
Compendium Sec. C, Image 1
7
Samuel Morgenstern
8
The Hitler’s paintings by Ulyses62, 03-24-2009
https://www.lasegundaguerra.com/viewtopic.php?t=2160
 8

We will always wonder what would have happened if the Vienna Academy of
Fine Arts had accepted Hitler, or if he had he had listened to the man who advised him to
study architecture. Perhaps he would not have been the tyrant we know today, the
infamous dictator who appears in millions of history books. Perhaps he would instead be
now known as a great painter or a great architect. In any case, we will never know this,
and we will always remember him for what he was; responsible for the deaths of millions
of victims of the Holocaust. He will remain in the collective memory, as one of the
greatest perpetrators of genocide in history.9

Hitler’s Paintings

To have an idea of the art style of Hitler there are some images of his paintings
that should be discussed. As mentioned before, Hitler dedicated his early life to trying to
be an artist. In some of his paintings, we see that his talent was more for architecture.
(Compendium Sec. C, Images 1,2)

In these paintings, it can be seen how Hitler had a very good talent for painting
buildings, but he was bad at painting people. Also in these paintings, we can see that
there is a lack of both light and vivid colors. His passion was for the Classical and Italian
Renaissance styles; but this is not clear in his paintings, given the way he painted the
faces of people. Maybe this was the very reason the Academy had rejected him.

IV. CONCENTRATION CAMPS 

The Artistic Persecution

9
Did you Konow the artistic side of Hitler.
https://revistaelingles.wixsite.com/colegioingles/post/conoc%C3%ADas-el-lado-art
%C3%ADstico-de-hitler
 9

During the Second World War there was a great persecution of the Jews by the
Nazis. When Hitler became the leader of the Nazi party, he began to persecute some
artists because they were Jews or because they were modern artists.

In July 1937, four years after coming to power, the Nazi party put on two art
exhibitions in Munich. There was an exposition, called The Great German Art
Exposition, which was designed to show works that Hitler approved of – depicting
statuesque blonde nudes along with idealized soldiers and landscapes. There was another
exposition, just down the road, showing the other side of German art (modern, abstract,
non-representational). In this exhibition, called the Exhibition of Degenerate Art the
Nazis wanted to show their people that this art was ugly and evil. 10 (Compendium Sec.
B, Image 1)

A British artist went to see the show of the expositions and he said:
“It was enormously crowed and all the pictures hung like some kind of
providential auction room where the things had been simply slapped
up on the wall regardless to create the effect that this was worthless
stuff” (Robert Medley)11

The Exhibition of Degenerate Art was an opportunity for Hitler to get his revenge against
modern art. One of the ideas of Hitler and the Nazi movement had was to destroy this
kind of art.

There was even an official Nazi art policy against modern art or “degenerated
art”. They wanted to destroy this type of art, and the way they did so was to show this art
to the people. That exposition cleverly manipulated visitors to loathe and ridicule the art

10
Degenerate art: Why Hitler hated modernism/by Lucy Burns, BBC World service/
November 6, 2013: https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24819441
11
Degenerate art: Why Hitler hated modernism/by Lucy Burns, BBC World service/
November 6, 2013: https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24819441
 10

included in this exhibition. The paintings and sculptures lost their values and status as
artworks, and the paintings were reduced to dangerous and outrageous rubbish.12

The Great German Art Exposition

One of the characteristics of Nazi art was the nude. A good example for that was
Adolf Ziegler. Ziegler was one of the favorites of Hitler. He painted The Four Elements.
(Compendium Sec. A, image 2)

Another artist who also shows the preference of the Nazis was Adolf Wissel.
Adolf Wissel was a German painter. He was one of the official artists of Nazism. Wissel,
who was born in Velber, was a painter in the genre of Nazi folk art; the idea being that
these paintings should show the simple, natural life of a farming family. (Compendium
Sec. A, figure 3)

In these two paintings we see how the Nazis wanted something more realistic, and
we are able to see that in these paintings. We also see the details that Ziegler and Wissel
had, especially when they painted the faces of people. The purpose of this type of art was
to reject modern art or “degenerate art”.

Degenerate Art

In these Exhibitions of Degenerate Art the painting of Max Beckmann, a famous

modern artist, were shown. He was also one of the artists who had experienced the
consequences of the Nazi decisions concerning modern art.

One of the most famous paintings of Beckmann and of German Expressionism is

his painting Departure (Compendium Sec. B, figure 2). In this painting, we see the
12
Degenerate art: Why Hitler hated modernism/by Lucy Burns, BBC World service/
November 6, 2013: https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24819441
 11

influence and consequences of the Nazi persecution against all the Jewish people, and all
those who were against the Nazi Party.

The Museum of Modern Art in New York, where this painting is housed, describes the
work as follows: Beckmann painted Departure in a time of mounting terror and
uncertainty, as Adolf Hitler gained power in the artist’s native Germany. The painting
was completed over several years, during which the artist was dismissed from his
teaching position in Frankfurt and forced to move to Berlin, then to Amsterdam. The
Nazi party had deemed Beckmann’s art “degenerate,” and he was among hundreds of
artists whose work was censored for alleged immoral or anti-German qualities. While the
painting is widely considered a biographical response to this period, Beckmann asserted a
universal message: “Departure bears no tendentious meaning—it could well be applied to
all times.”13

The Concentration Camps

The concentration camps were one of the great tragedies that occurred during
World War II. Several types of people, including artists, were in these camps. These
moments in history sadly reveal all the things that the artists suffered and how the War
influenced their lives.

There were other places that the Nazis set up for the Jews, and sometimes the
Romanian people, called Ghettos. These places were small sections of towns or cities
furthering the Nazi’s exploitation.

Halina Olomucki

There was an artist named Halina Olomucki, who discovered her artistic talents at
a young age. She was of Jewish heritage, but not a practicing Jew. When the Second War
World started, she was captured and sent to the eastern part of the Warsaw ghetto, where
13
MoMA https://www.moma.org/collection/works/78367
 12

she also began drawing and painting immediately. She reports that she felt a great
strength that prompted her to draw and paint what her eyes saw, to such an extent that she
felt a need to draw.

“Rationally, I never thought I would die, but I had an incredible urge to

create. My situation was the same as that of the people around me, and I
realized that they would soon die. But I never thought that I was in that
situation myself. I was floating. I was outside the reality of existence. I
was only supposed to represent what was happening. I was a spectator.”
14
(Halina Olomucki)

Many of the artists, like Olomucki, continued to paint and to represent what they
saw around them, despite the horror of their situation, in the works they produced as
prisoners. These works of art, mostly drawings and watercolors 15, are a testimony to the
rich and intense artwork that took place during the Holocaust, while, at the same time,
they produce valuable information about the lives of the inmates.

In the drawing (Compendium Sec. D Image 4) by Halina Olomucki, Smuggled

Food, we can see one specific moment that she had while in the Ghetto of Warsaw. The
situation of Halina was extremely difficult for her. She worked inside the Ghetto, and
because of that she was able to get food for her family. The food that she brought in for
her family was clandestine. In this drawing, we see the horrible things that the people had
suffered, and, thanks to this drawing, we are able to see the experiences of concentration
camp victims.

While other artistic and cultural areas also flourished in the concentration camps,
this resource focuses on the visual arts. Against all odds, concerts were held, and plays
were written and produced on various themes. These performing-arts events are even
reflected in the paintings and drawings made by artists in the camps.

14
Arte Visual en el Holocausto by Dr. Pnina Rosenberg
http://art.holocaust-education.net/learn.asp?langid=4&submenu=3&essayid=6
15
Compendium of images (Halina Olomucki section)
 13

Zoran Music

Zoran Music was another artist who experienced tremendous suffering in the
concentration camps. Music was arrested in Venice on charges of collaborating with the
resistance, and he was transferred to a dungeon in Trieste, where he was in total isolation
for 26 days, in darkness and with water up to his ankles. After being interrogated and
tortured, he was offered the possibility of joining the regional SS or leaving as a "free
worker" for Dachau. He chose the latter option without knowing very well what awaited
him. Music describes his first impression when he arrived at the camp:

"There were bodies everywhere. I didn't count them. It was an amazing

world, a kind of landscape, mountains of corpses. Circulating among
them were those in charge of opening their mouths and retrieving their
gold teeth. There was also one who was in control. This is the one you
can see in one of my drawings, standing on a stool.” (Zoran Music) 16

Later, Music devoted himself to drawing clandestinely everything he saw there.

He didn't do it as a documentary maker, nor as a reporter, but as an artist.
"I didn't want to illustrate, to make documents. I drew what could
interest a painter (...). I was a painter who had to do that because I
didn't know how to do anything else". (Zoran Music)17

16
Universidad Politecnica de Valencia
file:///C:/Users/TEMP.LCC.000.001.002.003.004.005.006.007.008.009.010.011.012.013.014/Do
wnloads/MOLINS%20-%20Investigaci%C3%B3n%20y%20recopilaci%C3%B3n%20de%20los
%20artistas%20que%20crearon%20obras%20de%20arte%20en%20los%20guetos%20y
%20c....pdf
17
Universidad Politecnica de Valencia
file:///C:/Users/TEMP.LCC.000.001.002.003.004.005.006.007.008.009.010.011.012.013.014/Do
wnloads/MOLINS%20-%20Investigaci%C3%B3n%20y%20recopilaci%C3%B3n%20de%20los
%20artistas%20que%20crearon%20obras%20de%20arte%20en%20los%20guetos%20y
%20c....pdf
 14

This is how Music began to draw these dying human beings, those mountains of
corpses; a whole horror story in which the artist was able to find a kind of horrible
beauty.

"The terrible beauty of all the bodies piled up like the branches of a
fire, with hands and feet sticking out. That tragic elegance fascinated
me: the skin was almost transparent, the fingers seemed so thin, so
fragile... I looked at them like a sleepwalker who had lost all normal
reaction, who had accepted the reality of the camp as if there were no
other". (Zoran Music)18

Music was liberated from Dachau in19 1945 by American troops. To these later
days belong the drawings of corpses in coffins, based on the bodily remains of those
whom the Germans burned in the crematoria. Music returned to Venice and took some
time to repaint what he had seen. He needed to forget. His first works were self-portraits
and landscapes. However, these mountains of corpses would haunt him throughout his
whole life and work. In 1970, he began his series entitled "Nous ne sommes pas les
derniers"(“We are not the last”) (Compendium Sec. E, figure 6), in which he narrates
all the tragedy experienced in the countryside. This evolved into an exhibition that began
at the Galerie de France in 1971. He then travelled extensively throughout Europe,
ending with a major retrospective exhibition at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de
Paris in 1972.
In Nous ne sommes pas les derniers he returned “to a symbolism of very personal
characters, close to Expressionism, which would come to identify the central period of
his production. He opts for a flat painting without perspective or volume, which situates

18
Universidad Politecnica de Valencia
file:///C:/Users/TEMP.LCC.000.001.002.003.004.005.006.007.008.009.010.011.012.013.014/Do
wnloads/MOLINS%20-%20Investigaci%C3%B3n%20y%20recopilaci%C3%B3n%20de%20los
%20artistas%20que%20crearon%20obras%20de%20arte%20en%20los%20guetos%20y
%20c....pdf
19
Dachau was the first of the Nazi concentration camps opened in 1933.
 15

these characters – archetypes of the innocent victim – in an indeterminate space that

allows them to be associated with any genocide in history.”20

Conditions for Artistic Creation

       In the various concentration camps, there was a wide variety of artists. Each artist
lived in different circumstances (as we saw in the last two artists), depending on where
they were located. In some cases, the paintings or drawings were commissioned by the
Jewish leaders; in other cases, by the Nazi authorities. Some artists worked clandestinely,
using materials provided by the authorities to do their work in secret.

In the Kovno Ghetto, for example, the Judenrat asked an artist named Esther
Lurie to devote part of her time to documenting life in the Ghetto through her paintings.
In some of the ghettos, such as Theresienstadt, the artists were employed in the
departments of graphic design and technical drawing, where they had access to art
materials. Works commissioned by the Nazis were done during working hours, while
works describing the daily life of the Ghetto were done in secret--knowing that if the
artist was discovered, it could cost him his life. This was the fate of the artists when the
Nazis discovered their covert activities: torture and, in some cases, execution.

Themes and Styles of the Works

The size of most of these paintings and drawings were small; realistic in style, and
with few colors. This was due to the lack of materials and because of the conditions in
which they were found. The most common materials were pencil, ink, charcoal, and
watercolor.

The artists in the concentration camp, were interested in elaborating scenes of the
camp, with its barbed-wire fences and watchtowers; in creating portraits of the inmates
and representations of their daily activities. The content of their works centered around
20
https://www.museoreinasofia.es/en/collection/artwork/nous-ne-sommes-pas-derniers-we-
are-not-last
 16

mundane activities; such as looking for food, personal hygiene and use of the toilets;
scenes of illness, deportation, and death.

It would be complicated or impossible to put into words all that these people
experienced in these places of torment. These simple yet profound images, left to us by
these artists, tell us more than a thousand words can express themselves. The best
examples to explain the experience of these people are the drawings and watercolors
which are in the Compendium of this thesis document. (Compendium Sec. D-E)

Thanks to this artistic material, we can better realize something of what these
people experienced. Thanks to their courage to draw what they saw secretly, we have the
opportunity to see and to better understand the living conditions of those people; but also
to what the extent the evil and cruelty of human beings can reach.

V. PICASSO
 
Picasso was one of the artists who did not suffer in the concentration camps, but who
witnessed war. Picasso, in Guernica, represents the collective suffering that humanity has
experienced because of wars. (Compendium Sec F-1)

Biography

Picasso is an exceptional figure as an artist; he was the protagonist and inimitable

creator of the various currents that revolutionized the art of the twentieth century. Before
the First World War, Pablo abandoned Cubism and looked for other artistic paths21. 

21
Biography of Pablo Picasso | The great Spanish painter ....
https://edukalife.blogspot.com/2015/06/biography-of-pablo-picasso-great.html
 17

At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, Picasso strongly supported the
Republican side and symbolically accepted the direction of the Prado Museum. At the
same time, in 1937 he painted the Guernica in Paris. 

The History of Guernica

Guernica is one of the most famous paintings by Pablo Picasso, it was painted
between May and June 1937. Its title refers to the bombing of Guernica, which occurred
on April 26 of that year (1937), during the Spanish Civil War.

It was commissioned by the Director-General of the Museo de Bellas Artes22, at

the request of the Government of the Second Republic to be exhibited in the Spanish
pavilion during the 1937 international exhibition in Paris. This was intended to draw the
public's attention to the Republican cause at the height of the Spanish Civil War.

For Picasso, Guernica was not a painting to decorate a room, but an instrument of
both an offensive and defensive war against the enemy.

Description of the Painting, Guernica

It is an oil on canvas, 776.6 cm and 349.3 cm high; of mural proportion. Despite

its location and the circumstances in which it was made, there is no specific reference to
the bombing of Guernica or the Spanish Civil War. It is not a narrative painting but rather
a symbolic one.

Eleven symbols are represented in the painting: six human beings and three
animals (a bull, a horse, and a dove). From left to right, the characters are the following:

1. Bull

22
Josep Renau: Director of the Museo de Bellas Artes
 18

The Bull appears on the left side of the painting, with a dark body and a white
head. The bull seems to be nervous about everything that's happening at the scene.
According to Picasso, the bull symbolized "brutality and darkness"23

2. Mother with Dead Child

This character is located under the bull, with his face facing upwards with an
appearance of pain. According to the critics, the iconographic model of this figure
is the Pieta.

3. Dove 
This figure is located between the bull and the horse at the height of their heads. It
is not visible to the naked eye, as we only see a white stripe, the dove is the same
color as the background, and only its silhouette is outlined. It has a fallen wing,
and its head is turned upwards, with its beak open. Generally, the symbol of the
dove is considered a symbol of broken peace.

4. Dead soldier
In the painting, only the remains of a warrior appear; his head, the entire right arm
or forearm, and the left forearm. One arm is outstretched, while the other hand is
holding a broken sword and a flower. This flower symbolizes hope during all the
tragedy that is depicted in the painting.

5. Lightbulb 
The lightbulb is in the center of the painting. The meaning of the lamp is that of
technological advancement in the world, but especially in war. In the painting, the
bulb symbolizes a bomb.

6. Horse 

23
Fernández Palmeral, Ramón: «El Guernica de Picasso nada tiene que ver con el
bombardeo de Guernica.» en Letralia. Tierra de letras. Consultado el 7 de febrero de 2009.
 19

The horse is the central part of the picture. Its body is to the right, but the head,
like the bull, is turned to the left. The horse symbolizes the innocent victims of
war.

7. Kneeling woman 
This woman is painted in such a way that it looks like she's injured on her left leg.
It looks like the woman's leg is dislocated. In previous brush strokes, Picasso had
painted her in tears, just as he always depicted Dora Maar, his lover.

8. Lamp woman
She lights the room with a candle and stares blankly forward, as if she is in shock.
This woman is interpreted as a phantasmagorical allegory of the Republic.

9. House on fire
Each of the characters and objects has a different meaning. In the case of the
burning house, Picasso makes a new allusion to the fine arts that are being
destroyed. In this case, it is the architecture that is affected.

10. Man begging 

A man is looking up at the sky as if begging the planes to stop the bombing. This
one is inspired by Goya's painting The Third of May 1808 in Madrid. It is the
artistic way of saying that the war is over.

11. The woman with her arms to the sky

The woman with her arms to the sky. The woman on the top right has become
with the other woman a symbol of the horror of modern warfare.
 20

VI. CONCLUSION

Having seen what these wartime artists wanted to demonstrate with their work,
various conclusions can be drawn. Firstly, in the Nazi ghettos and camps, there was a
great deal of artistic activity, whether clandestine or authorized. This artistic activity
would, by the influence of World War II, have an enormous impact on all the artists who
lived in the ghettos.

Many artists were confine to ghettos and concentration camps but were able to
risk their lives to create works of art during their stay in these places of suffering.

As we have seen in this investigation, there are many artists that express in their
art the things they lived through during times of war. The first artist was Hitler, trying to
be an artist, but his dream was destroyed by the Academy.

The second artist was Adolf Ziegler who helped in The Great German Exhibition.
He was one of the artists that Hitler admired, and because of that Ziegler’s art was
important for the Nazis; but especially for Hitler.

The third artist was Adolf Wissel who also helped with The Great German
Exhibition. His paintings were very representative for the Germans of that time;
especially because he portrayed German family values.
 21

The fourth was Max Beckmann who paint Departure. In this painting we see an
important experience of war, that the artists suffered because of the Nazi persecution.

The fifth artist was Halina Olomucki. She shows in her drawings the experience
that she had, and what she had to do in order to survive.

The sixth artist was Zoran Music. He shows the experience that he had, but also
the traumatic experiences that others had as well.

The seventh, and last, artist was Picasso. He showed the consequences that war
itself has in the lives of all human beings who lived through it.

It would take a long time to expose every artist who was in the ghettos and
concentration camps, but a total of 351 works created by the artists interned by the Nazis
have been located. These artists have been classified into three categories: works that
were commissioned by the Nazis; works that show the suffering in daily life during the
stay in the ghettos and concentration camps; and works made to escape the daily horror
experienced there and to instead evoke idyllic scenes.

At the end of this investigation, at least one definitive conclusion can be reached.
All the paintings discussed in this document are a window into knowing more about the
influence that war has upon all the artists; both those who were in the concentration
camps and those who lived during the Second World War.
 22

VII. COMPENDIUM OF IMAGES

Section A
The Great Exhibition
Image 1:

Image 2

Title: Four Season

Author: Adolf Ziegler
 23

Technique: Oil on canvas

Image 3

Title: Farming Family from Kalenberg

Author: Adolf Wissel
Technique: Oil on canvas
Size: 200 x 150 cm
 24

Section B
The Degenerated Art Exhibition
Image 1:

Image 2:
 25

Title: Departure
Author: Max Beckmann
Technique: Oil on canvas, Three panels
Size: Side panels: 215.3 x 99.7 cm / Center panel 215.3 x 115.2 cm
Location: MoMA

Section C
Hitler
Image 1:

Image 2:
 26

Section D
Halina Olomucki
Image 1:
 27

Title: Three Women and one baby

Year: unknowing
Technique: Pencil
Material: Paper
Size: 20 x 13,5 cm
Location: Museum de los luchadores del Gueto, Israel

Image 2:
 28

Title: Where is my mom?

Year: 1943
Technique: Pencil
Material: Paper
Size: 16 x 12,6 cm
Location: Yad Vashem, Jerusalem

Image 3:
 29

Title: Women in the Ghetto

Year: 1943
Technique: Pencil
Material: Paper
Size: 20,3 x 13,4 cm
Location: Unknown
 30

Image 4:

Title: Smuggled food

Year: 1943
Technique: Pencil
Material: Paper
Size: 218,5 x 12 cm
Location: Yad Vashem, Jerusalem

Section E
Zoran Music
 31

Image 1:

Title: Dachau
Year: 1945
Technique: Pencil
Material: Paper
Size: 21 x 29,7 cm
Location: Centre Geroges Pompidou, Paris

Image 2:
 32

Title: Dachau
Year: 1945
Technique: Pencil
Material: Paper
Size: 21 x 29,90 cm
Location: Centre Geroges Pompidou, Paris

Image 3:
 33

Title: Der V Krematorium (The Crematorium V)

Year: 1945
Technique: Pencil
Material: Paper
Size: 21,35 x 29,70 cm
Location: Centre Geroges Pompidou, Paris

Image 4:
 34

Title: Dachau
Year: 1945
Technique: Ink
Material: Paper
Size: 42,30 x 29,60 cm
Location: Centre Geroges Pompidou, Paris

Image 5:
 35

Title: Dachau
Year: 1945
Technique: Pencil
Material: Paper
Size: 21 x 29,70 cm
Location: Centre Geroges Pompidou, Paris

Image 6
 36

Title: Nous ne sommes pas les derniers (We are Not the Last)
Technique: Acrylic on canvas
Size: 200 x 267 cm

Section F
 37

Picasso
Image 1:

Title: Guernica
Year: 1937
Technique: Cubism
Material: Oil in canvas
Size: 776,6 x 349,3 cm
Location: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, España

VIII. BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 38

 Manual básico de Historia del Arte / Mª Pilar de la Peña Gómez. — Segunda

edición. — Cáceres: Universidad de Extremadura, Servicio de Publicaciones,
2008 200 pp; 17x24 cm. — (Manuales UEX, ISSN 1135-870-X;49) ISBN 84-
7723-716-6 1. Arte-Historia. I. Título. II. Universidad de Extremadura, Servicio
de Publicaciones, ed. III. Serie 7 (091) 
https://www3.unex.es/publicaciones/files/1562Manual%20b%C3%A1sico
%20de%20Historia%20del%20Arte%20(2018).pdf
 Picasso, el arte de convertirse en un genio/ By Claudia Kalb/ 03 de septiembre de
2019 https://www.nationalgeographic.com.es/mundo-ng/grandes-
reportajes/picasso-arte-convertirse-genio_12643/1
 Un artista controvertido Pablo Picaso/ by Zerath Morgane Dupeyrat Stephaie/
Marzo 2005 https://www.guao.org/sites/default/files/biblioteca/Un%20artista
%20controvertido%20Pablo%20Picasso.pdf
 Pablo Picassi/ Biografias y Vidas la encyclopedia biografica en linea/
https://www.biografiasyvidas.com/monografia/picasso/
 Las aventuras del joven artista Adolf Hitler by Miguel Calvo Santos
https://historia-arte.com/articulos/las-aventuras-del-joven-artista-adolf-hitler
 Conocias el lado artistico de Hitler?/ by Felcini , Renzo/ 27 de julio de 2018/
https://revistaelingles.wixsite.com/colegioingles/post/conoc%C3%ADas-el-lado-
art%C3%ADstico-de-hitler
 Las pinturas de Adolf Hitler/ by ulyses65/ 24 de marzo 2009
https://www.lasegundaguerra.com/viewtopic.php?t=2160
 Art in Nazi Germany/ Khan Academy/
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/german-art-between-the-
wars/nazi-visual-culture/a/art-in-nazi-germany
 Arte Visual en el Holocausto (ensayo preliminiar)/ by Dr. Pnina Rosenberg,
Curadora de Arte, Beit Lohamei Haghetaot/ http://art.holocaust-
education.net/learn.asp?langid=4&submenu=3&essayid=6
 Art during the Holocaust by Pnia Rosenberg/
https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/art-during-holocaust
39