Nazis by George Grosz

Art work details

Original Title :

Nazis

Year of production :

1954

Artist:

George Grosz

Medium :

Pen and wash drawing

Materials:

Ink, Paper, Pencil, Watercolour

Dimensions :

height: 36.7 cms; width: 27.1 cms

Credit Line :

Purchased from Gillian and Neville Jason with support from the MGC/V&A Purchase Grant Fund

Copyright :

Estate of George Grosz, Princeton, N.J. / DACS, 2013

Associated Groups :

Novembergruppe

Tags:

War, Grosz, Nazism

This drawing was made in 1954, when Grosz visited London, commissioned to produce a series of set designs for the play ‘I am a Camera’. It commemorates the infamous attack on Jewish shops and businesses in German and Austrian cities which took place at night, on November 8 and 9, 1938. Named ‘Kristallnacht’ (Crystal Night), after all the smashed glass left in the aftermath. With 91 Jews killed, over 7,500 Jewish shops and businesses destroyed and an estimated 177 synagogues torched or demolished, Kristallnacht marked a frightening escalation of Nazi persecution of the Jews.

Grosz depicts two brown-shirted Nazi Stormtroopers armed with batons guarding a smashed and looted Jewish store. One holds a placard adorned with the swastika, which reads ‘Juda Verrecke’ (Perish, Judah), ‘Heil Hitler’.