In 1933, the Nazis raised their blood-red flag across Germany, infiltrating every aspect of public life—including the country’s museums. Modernist art, seen as a threat to German “purity,” was systematically purged. In 1937, Joseph Goebbels organized “Entartete Kunst” (Degenerate Art) in Munich, an exhibition designed to mock and discredit art that was not nationalistic and traditional. Six hundred and fifty works by artists such as Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, and Max Beckmann were crammed into the gallery at odd angles, a presentation meant to suggest madness and moral decay. In the following years, 20,000 works—including pieces by Picasso, Van Gogh, and Marc Chagall—were confiscated, sold, lost, or destroyed. This exhibition examines the Nazis’ devastating assault on art. —Elena Clavarino