Visitors facing the entrance to Envisioning Evil: “The Nazi Drawings” by Mauricio Lasansky are offered only one glimpse of what they can expect if they choose to enter: a decorated Nazi officer raises his arm in a Hitler salute while blood-like drops fall from his wrist and smear the page. On his head is a terrifying bestial skull that appears both fixed and projected on the man’s scalp. A close look reveals smudges, partial erasures, hard pencil strokes, and tears to the paper. This work is steeped in rage.

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View of the exhibition “Envisioning Evil: ‘The Nazi Drawings’ by Mauricio Lasansky” installed in Gallery 262, Gallery 275, and Gallery 276 at Minneapolis Institute of Art. Exhibition on view at Mia October 16, 2021 – June 26, 2022. (Image via Minneapolis Institute of Art)
Mauricio Lasansky, No. 5, 1961, “The Nazi Drawings,” Levitt Foundation © Lasansky Corporation
Mauricio Lasansky, No. 11, 1961-66, “The Nazi Drawings,” Levitt Foundation © Lasansky Corporation
Mauricio Lasansky, No. 15, 1961-66, “The Nazi Drawings,” Levitt Foundation © Lasansky Corporation

Sheer Ganor is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Minnesota. A historian of German-speaking Jewry and modern Germany, her work focuses on the nexus of forced migration, memory, and cultural identities.