Culture under duress: art and the Holocaust

Paradoxically, the Holocaust had one positive feature: it encouraged the production of art by its victims. Its significance was not fully aknowledged until the 1980s. Today only about 20% of it survives. It includes portraits, landscapes, still lifes, caricatures and abstracts. Germans would occasionally commission portraits as gifts to their families or superiors. As well, inmates often bartered art for food, clothing, better quarters or more lenient treatment, Conclusion: "Holocaust art enables us to study virtually all aspects of the Holocaust."