The Art of Protest: Then and Now

An Arthur Szyk print titled “Enemies of the Third Reich.” —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, gift of Philip R. House

Polish-born artist Arthur Szyk was alarmed by the Nazi threat and used his pen and paper to call public attention to the persecution of Europe’s Jews. He depicted Hitler and the Axis powers as global menaces and drew sympathetic portrayals of the victims of their brutality. Art has long been used as a form of protest to influence social and political action.

In this digital program, Dr. Steven Luckert, senior program curator at the Museum, and Dr. Edna Friedberg, a Museum historian, discuss the power of art — then and now — to change minds and highlight our shared humanity.