Milly Steger of Wuppertal was a much-traveled artist who admired the works of Auguste Rodin and Aristide Maillol. The Nazis deemed Milly Steger's sculptures "degenerate" and expropriated them. Her works are among those featured at the new Center for Persecuted Arts in Solingen in central-western Germany.

Israeli caricaturist Michel Kichka is the son of a Holocaust survivor. He has tried to come to terms with the experiences his father had in a concentration camp by producing the graphic novel "Second Generation." The original design can be seen in the Solingen Center for Persecuted Arts.

Vaclav Havel was one of the dissidents of Czech literature. After the end of the Cold War, he became the first president of the Czech Republic. A wall with pictures tells the story of political transformation. While he was not German, he was impacted by the Soviet regime, just like his colleagues in East Germany.

"Selbst in Spiegelscherbe" (Self in a broken piece of mirror) is the title of a 1943 oil painting by German artist Carl Rabus. One year before the painter fled into exile, his works, qualified as "degenerate," had been confiscated. The painter, arrested by the Gestapo, spent most of the time until the end of the war in 1945 in prison.

"Icarus" is the title of this painting by Oscar Zügel of 1935. The Nazis recognized it for what it was: criticism of their regime. According to Greek mythology, Icarus was overly giddy after receiving a new pair of wings and flew too close to the sun, melting off the feathers. He fell into what is now the Icarian Sea.

The Solingen center also incorporates the works of poets, including Wuppertal native Else Lasker-Schüler. As a Jew, she was forced to flee Germany during the Holocaust, as her works were stigmatized as "degenerate."

After 1945, artist Carl Rabus, affected by his experience during the Nazi era, created the woodcut "Die Passion." This painting shows two men immersed in thoughtful dismay. Rabus' works were branded "degenerate" by the Nazis.

Pictured is a scene from "Elias Himmelfahrt" (the ascension of Elias) by Hans Feibusch. The Frankfurt-based painter, a student of Karl Hofer, already fled into British exile in 1933. The Nazis had declared his works "degenerate."

As ordered by Adolf Hitler himself, the Nazis arbitrarily confiscated paintings and other works of art. The expropriation order was stuck on the back of the canvas, like in the case of this work created by an unknown artist.

The Center for Persecuted Arts in Solingen was founded by the Wuppertal-based journalist Hajo Jahn, who developed the idea 25 years ago. Paintings, photos, books, and texts created by persecuted artists and writers are now exhibited in the Art Nouveau building of the Solingen Art Museum.