While Dictators Rage questions the relationship between a historical moment and pop culture by looking at Felix Nussbaum’s painting The Triumph of Death (1944). Nussbaum painted this work in 1944 in the attic where he hid for three years before eventually being caught and sent to Auschwitz. In the painting Western culture is depicted as a pile of ruins at the feet of dancing skeletons, celebrating the triumph of death over culture. The skeletons play various musical instruments, creating an impression of an unpleasant cacophony. There is a tune hidden in the painting, an illustration of the opening notes to “The Lambeth Walk.” It is a song taken from the musical Me and My Girl, which opened in London in 1938, taking the UK, then Europe and the US, by storm. The huge hit was actually a light and insignificant pop song, and was referenced in an article published in 1939 in the London Times, that read: “While Dictators Rage, All Europe Dances The Lambeth Walk.” It ended up becoming a symbol of British poise during the war. Helfman’s work creates an installation and a performance dedicated to this historical moment, and of course the way it relates to or mirrors the contemporary situation.