<P> Artists had the choice of collaborating or resisting . But most people in such a predicament will normally find a middle way . Resistance was dangerous and unlikely to escape fierce punishment and while collaboration offered an easier path principled objection to it was a strong deterrent to many if not most . The other options were withdrawal, finding refuge abroad or, for many, to take the pragmatic course by simply continuing to work within the new restrictions . Hence artistic life and expression appeared light, carefree and frivolous, but was also lively . </P> <P> The German artist John Heartfield (who had been part of Dada Berlin) is an example of an artist who expressed opposition . While Hitler's popularity was growing in Germany, he consistently produced photomontages that denounced the future dictator and his party . Most of them were published in Arbeiter - Illustrierte - Zeitung (AIZ, Workers' Illustrated Newspaper), and a lot of them appeared on the cover . His artworks were like visual weapons against Nazism, a counter-power . In them, he subverted Hitler's figure and Nazi symbols . Through powerful visual juxtapositions, he revealed Nazism manipulations and contradictions, and showed the truth about them . As soon as Hitler came to power in 1933, Heartfield had to flee, finding refuge first in Prague and then in the UK . </P> <P> Otto Dix had been labelled as a "degenerate" artist . His works were removed from museums, he was fired from his teaching position, and he was forbidden to create anything political as well as to exhibit . He moved to the countryside and painted landscapes for the duration of the war . </P> <P> Many artists chose to leave Germany . But their exile did not secure their position in the art world abroad . Their personal and artistic security depended on the laws and attitude of the country of exile . Some sought collaboration with others in exile, forming groups to exhibit, such as the Free German League of Culture founded in 1938 in London . One of their goals was to show that German culture and art were not to be equated with the cultural expressions sanctioned and produced by the Nazi regime . </P>

What do you think artists depicted in the literature and art after ww1