Hello, historians. I'm a student in 10th Grade World History, and has to write a paper on the parallels between current ISIS and the Nazism of the old Germans. No, this is not a post asking you to do the essay for me, that's my job; I'm just asking about a semi-specific area for the Nazi Party that has a good source attached to it.
I know that the Nazis tried to introduce this idea of Germans being the master race, but did they ever try to destroy any artifacts in German museums at the time of other major cultures? I'm sorry if it's worded badly; I just need to know if destruction of non-German cultural items was prevalent, and a good source to go along with it.
The Nazi's came to power during a very interesting and dynamic time in the modern art movement. Western art, in particular painting, had become less representational and more abstract. Hitler, who considered himself an artist, was a fierce opponent of this type of art, and it was suppressed to varying degrees during the Nazi regime. The Nazi regime termed this as "degenerate art". Ironically, much of the art was confiscated, but not actually destroyed - it could be profitably auctioned.
It is also well known that when the Nazis would invade and occupy other nations, they would often loot the museums of valuable art, much of which made it into the personal vaults of high ranking Nazi leaders. Hermann Goering was particularly notorious in this regard. That may not be relevant for your essay, but it does shed considerable background on the venality and greed of some of the Nazi leaders.
The Nazi regime viewed the arts as a propaganda tool, and suppressed art that did not directly agree with and support their ideology. They tended to prohibit and suppress modern art, not classical works, and they did so for political and aesthetic purposes. Obviously, works by Jewish artists were particularly suppressed.
ISIS have destroyed works of ancient art on religious grounds, and perhaps also as a form of publicity seeking, knowing there would be a strong reaction and media coverage of their deeds. They interpret Islam as forbidding any work that represents a living thing as idolatry. Please note this is not a mainstream view of most Islamic thought, it is an extreme and very minority view.
Here are some sources on the Nazi policies for "degenerate art":
Here are some sources on the theological ideas behind ISIS's destruction of "idolatry":
Contrasting historical Christian iconoclasms with modern Islamic fundamentalism: