On display November 6, 2025, through May 10, 2026, in the Senator John Alario, Jr. Special Exhibition Hall
Originally created by and on loan from the Jewish Museum Milwaukee, The National WWII Museum will host the traveling exhibit Degenerate! Hitler's War on Modern Art, which examines the Nazi campaign against modern art and music and features works by artists deemed “degenerate” by the Third Reich. Blending history and art, the exhibition explores how modernist art was weaponized as a tool of Nazi propaganda and public indoctrination, and how artists and musicians responded to the escalating suppression.
The time between the end of World War I and the Nazis’ rise to power was a period of social, economic, and political upheaval in Germany as well as an era of thriving cultural and artistic experimentation. As modern art rose in popularity in German society with new movements like Dadaism, Cubism, Expressionism, and Abstraction, rigid traditions were bucked, and emphasis was placed upon freedom of expression.
Hitler and the Nazis, however, did not approve, blaming art and music they considered “un-German” or subversive for the purported moral decline of German society. As the Third Reich attempted to control culture and impose its nationalist ideals, modernist works were mockingly labeled as Entartete Kunst, or “degenerate art.” It was a subjective and ideologically driven label, and the artists targeted were often those who challenged or expressed views contrary to Nazi principles. Many artists fled as thousands of pieces were seized from museums, galleries, and private collections across Germany. The Nazi regime's campaign against “degenerate art” culminated in an infamous exhibition held in Munich in 1937, where confiscated works were displayed in a deliberately ridiculing and derogatory manner. Millions of people viewed the Nazi exhibition, which, in some cases, helped catapult the artists into fame and household recognition around the world. Later, many works were destroyed or sold to fund the war effort, while others were hidden or lost.
Degenerate! features more than 65 original works of art from public and private collections to examine the Third Reich’s use of modern art as propaganda for indoctrination to Nazi ideology. Through paintings, prints, and documents, the exhibition explores the artists, movements, events, and outcomes of being branded “degenerate” and includes works by leading figures such as Wassily Kandinsky, Max Beckmann, Emile Nolde, George Grosz, Käthe Kollwitz, Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Pablo Picasso, and Marc Chagall, as well as lesser-known artists whose careers were equally disrupted or destroyed by Nazi policies.
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Lissy, 1931, Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler. Watercolor painting. Collection of Kevin and Meg Kinney. Image courtesy of Jewish Museum Milwaukee.
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Abrechnung Folgt! (The Day of Reckoning), 1923, George Grosz. Lithograph. Collection of Kevin and Meg Kinney. Image courtesy of Jewish Museum Milwaukee.
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Sitzende mit Blumen (Seated Woman with Flowers), ca. 1920-21, Martel Schwichtenberg. Oil painting. Collection of the Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University. Gift of Marvin and Janet Fishman. Image courtesy of Jewish Museum Milwaukee.
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Der Blinde (The Blind Man), 1925, Franz Maria Jansen. Oil painting. Collection of Kevin and Meg Kinney. Image courtesy of Jewish Museum Milwaukee.
The concept of “degenerate” culture extended beyond visual art and into music (Entartete Musik). As the Nazis sought to silence musical forms considered nonconformist or influenced by so-called "non-Aryan" cultures, works by Jewish composers or genres with African American roots like New Orleans jazz faced the brunt of this suppression. Expanding upon the original exhibit, the Museum will include records, sheet music, and instruments from the era—including a tenor saxophone played by Eddie Powers and a clarinet played by George Lewis—and highlight how jazz continued to thrive underground throughout the Third Reich, embodying resilience and defiance in the face of oppressive forces. Several of these artifacts are on loan from the New Orleans Jazz Museum.
The stories of the artists and musicians who resisted oppression offer insight into an often-overlooked aspect of World War II: the Nazis’ assault on artistic expression and intellectual freedom. Degenerate! helps broaden understanding of the war’s impact—not only through the conflict’s human and political upheaval, but also in its effects on ideas, values, and the freedom to think and create.
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.