Herrenvolk

Herrenvolk — Joseph Leboit. 1942/43.

Medium: Woodcut on cream wove paper. Dimensions: Image: 46 × 35.1 cm (18 1/8 × 13 7/8 in.); Sheet, sight: 47.9 × 37 cm (18 7/8 × 14 5/8 in.).

Collection record: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.

Decorated but bedraggled Nazi officers surrender to an unseen opponent in a bleak, wintry landscape. The caricatured officers are attired in very unorthodox vestments, including women’s bloomers, slips, shawls, rags, and lace, attesting to their dramatic lack of preparedness for the brutal Russian winter. Such depictions of Nazi soldiers were common for the time and served both to feminize and demean them, as well as to chastise their military oversights and pillaging. Here the exaggerated facial features are rendered more brutal by the woodcut technique, which also makes the icy landscape appear more jagged and stark.

Description: © Art Institute of Chicago, original record, CC BY 4.0. HTML formatting removed; wording retained. Other artwork metadata: CC0.

Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.