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

The Nazis tolerated some artwork even though it was not officially ordered or sanctioned. In their free time, prisoners could do certain work that did not have to be hidden. As long as it did not have anything offensive to the Nazis (anything that was considered "degenerate" or depicted conditions of the camp or its victims and the brutality of its persecutors was considered offensive.) Therefore a large percentage of these "tolerated" works were portraits. In some cases, these were smuggled out of the camps to the inmates' families, they were assurances that their loved one's were still alive. Abstract paintings were rare, but they do exist as well. These works were seen as flights into a world of fantasy and memory, permitting the artist to escape the reality of the Holocaust. However, the portraits became precious gifts that could be useful in trading for better conditions and art materials. Many of the portraits pay careful attention to the sitters rank and number and to define the sitters current existence as a victim of dehumanization. Every effort was made to render a likeness though, idealized, that was human and individual. These portraits offered the sitter hope of permanent presence among the living, a matter of profound significance for people who existence was so fragile. And to increase the sitter's significance in life often the artist would have them sign their name on the portrait as well. The function of the portrait to preserve and immortalize continues to this day. Several survivors now in possession of such portraits stated the wish that they be "reproduced here as a way of immortalizing someone we had lost." (Lenz 74)

The Holocaust did not nurture any particular art style, because in the very act of creating, the artists were refusing to acknowledge its terrible power. They were rejecting the horrors even while they were drawing them. 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. They were keeping alive the persons they were before the war. "Artists tried to hold on to the last vestiges of the culture and civilization they once enjoyed and to connect themselves with those values rather than with the evil they saw around them." (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. The iconography of art created during the Holocaust does not conform to our notions of typical war imagery, which consists of

Artists worked for the Nazis to save lives, either their own, and those of their companions or to improve their living conditions. Whether they were employed in workshops or under private command, their art placed them in a relatively privileged physical environment and delayed the threat of deportation or death for as long as their work was in progress and the artists proved themselves to be of value. Franciszek Targosz avoided punishment for illegal drawing by convincing Rudolf Hoess, the commander of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp, to set up the Auschwitz Museum. He had been caught drawing a horse, as it was a punishable offense, Tagosz suggested that Hoess establish a museum in one of the camp's blocks. It felt it would provide a place of culture for Nazi officers stationed at Auschwitz. It would exhibit fine examples of Nazi approved art, praising German virtues and myths. Hoess immediately saw the propaganda potential and ordered Targosz to organize the museum. The building stayed open for two years and Targosz life was saved. Jozef Szajna, a courier spy, was caught and questioned at the border of Poland. Szajna, who had received no formal art training, protested the he was no a spy and invented the profession of a window display decorator for himself. The German guard thrusted a paper and pencil at Sz

Some common words found in the essay are:
Ernst Ludwig, Eastern Europe, Red Cross, Birkenau Mengele's, Leo Haas, Israel Lichtenstein, Zoran Music, Auschwitz Museum, Holocaust Holocaust, Peter Edel, art holocaust, artists themselves, art supplies, forms art, red cross, auschwitz artists, art created, leo haas, deplorable conditions, artist materials, 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)