NEW ORLEANS (November 6, 2025) — A special exhibit examining the Nazi campaign against modern art and music is now on display at The National WWII Museum through May 10, 2026. Originally created by and on loan from the Jewish Museum Milwaukee, Degenerate! Hitler’s War on Modern Art blends art and history to explore how modernist art was weaponized as a tool of Nazi propaganda and public indoctrination. More than 65 works by artists deemed “degenerate” by the Third Reich are included in the exhibit, which highlights targeted artists’ and musicians’ responses to the escalating suppression.

“Through the art and music the Nazis tried to erase, Degenerate! sheds light on a little-known front of World War II: the cultural war waged against modernism, creativity and individuality,” said Erin Clancey, Museum Associate Vice President of Collections & Exhibits. “It reveals how artists and musicians — many of whom paid a terrible price — continued to create in defiance of Nazi oppression.”

Germany’s Weimar Republic period from 1918 to 1933 was one of social, economic and political upheaval as well as cultural and artistic experimentation. Modern art rose in popularity, and emphasis was placed upon freedom of expression. But with the advent of the Third Reich, styles and movements that bucked rigid traditions were deemed “un-German” and blamed for the supposed moral decline of society. Artists who challenged Nazi principles were labeled as “degenerate”; works were seized from museums and collections to be hidden, destroyed or sold to fund the war effort. The campaign against modern art culminated in the infamous 1937 Entartete Kunst (“Degenerate Art”) exhibition, where millions viewed confiscated art displayed in a deliberately ridiculing and derogatory manner.

Through paintings, prints and documents from public and private collections, Degenerate! explores the artists, movements, events and outcomes of being branded as such. The exhibit includes works by leading figures such as Wassily Kandinsky, Max Beckmann, Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall, as well as lesser-known artists whose careers were equally disrupted or destroyed by Nazi policies.

Expanding on the original exhibit, The National WWII Museum will also highlight music that was suppressed the Nazi regime as they sought to silence genres considered nonconformist or influenced by so-called “non-Aryan” cultures. Works by Jewish composers or with African American roots — namely New Orleans jazz — bore the brunt of this censorship. The Museum will feature instruments from the era, including a tenor saxophone played by Eddie Powers and a clarinet played by George Lewis, as well as records and sheet music on loan from the New Orleans Jazz Museum.

Degenerate! is on display through May 10, 2026, in the Museum’s Senator John Alario, Jr. Special Exhibition Hall. This exhibit is made possible through the generous support of the Collins C. Diboll Foundation, with additional support from the Jewish Endowment Foundation of Louisiana.

The National WWII Museum tells the story of the American experience in the war that changed the world—why it was fought, how it was won, and what it means today—so that all generations will understand the price of freedom and be inspired by what they learn. Dedicated in 2000 as The National D-Day Museum and now designated by Congress as America’s National WWII Museum, the institution celebrates the American spirit, teamwork, optimism, courage and sacrifices of the men and women who fought on the battlefront and served on the Home Front. For more information on Tripadvisor’s #1 New Orleans attraction, call 877-813-3329 or 504-528-1944 or visit nationalww2museum.org.