It is one of the most known paintings of the years when Grosz lived in the United States, from 1933 to 1959, after leaving Germany, shortly after the Nazis seized power.
Hitler in this painting takes the place of Cain, the first murderer, who killed his brother Abel, in the Book of Genesis.
He is seen in an apocalyptic landscape, seated at the left, mopping his forehead with a kerchief, while a corpse lies in the mud, face down and bare-chested, behind him.
A reddish coloration dominates the canvas, coming from the flaming buildings at the background, and they give the painting an Hellish atmosphere.
"[1] At the ceremony in 2020 marking the painting's debut in the Deutsches Historisches Museum, Monika Grütters, German Minister of State for Culture, stated that "Since its creation in 1944, the work Cain or Hitler in Hell has lost none of its power ... On the contrary: George Grosz' apocalyptic vision of terror looks like an appeal, like a warning against forgetting, in view of the renewed anti-Semitism in our society.