Robert Edsel's Blog
May 11th, 2010 | 2:23 pm
Robert M. Edsel speaking at 65th Anniversary of "V-E Day" hosted by Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum. Photo Courtesy of Robert M. Edsel Collection
This weekend I was honored to be one of two speakers at the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, Kansas on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe, known as “V-E” Day or Victory in Europe. The other speaker was Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who took the opportunity to make a major policy statement about the urgent need for Defense Department budget cuts citing warnings from General Eisenhower years ago about controlling the costs of post-war military spending.
Secretary of Defense Dr. Robert Gates speaking at the 65th "V-E Day" Anniversary hosted by Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum. Photo Courtesy of Robert M. Edsel Collection.
The campus like setting is beautiful with the museum and library buildings adjacent to Ike’s family home where he lived until leaving home for West Point. There is a small chapel where Ike and his wife Mamie are buried alongside their son Doud who died at the age of 4. In fact, one of the most touching moments of the weekend was seeing acclaimed political observer David Gergen make a point of visiting the chapel – the only member of a large media contingent to do so. He understood no doubt the historical importance of this great man and wanted to pay his respects.
From L to R: Robert M. Edsel; Karl Weissenbach, Director of Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum; Allen Cullum, Trustee, Monuments Men Foundation. Photo Courtesy of Robert M. Edsel Collection
Director Karl Weissenbach and his great team organized a fantastic celebration which began with my lecture Friday night. On Saturday he provided our group with a full tour of the archive and museum. It was an honor to be surrounded by reminders of this great leader’s historic achievements – as a soldier, Supreme Allied Commander, President, and as a family man and friend. The archives are overwhelmingly impressive with millions of documents involving all facets of Ike’s life and career and more than a half million photographs! A researcher’s delight awaits.
Robert M. Edsel standing in front a statue of General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Photo Courtesy of Robert M. Edsel Collection.
General Eisenhower’s leadership saved our world from the greatest threat of the 20th century – perhaps ever. To be a part of honoring him and the millions of soldiers who fought to win the peace in Europe was an honor and experience I will forever cherish.
Tags: Abilene Kansas, David Gergen, Defense Department, Director Karl Weissenbach, Eisenhower Presidentail Library and Museum, General Eisenhower, John Eisenhower, Mamie Eisenhower, Monuments Men, Robert Edsel, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, West Point
Posted in Amazing Stories, Art, General, History, Interviews, Media, Military, Monuments Men, Robert Edsel, Travel and Museum Hints, World War II | No Comments »
May 7th, 2010 | 10:36 am
(Nazi General Alfred Jodl (between Major Wilhelm Oxenius to the left and Generaladmiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg to the right) signing the German Instrument of Surrender at Reimes, France, 7 May, 1945.)
The most destructive war in history formally ended this date 65 years ago. May 8 forever became known as “V-E” Day; Victory in Europe. More than 60 million people were killed many during World War II, many murdered by the Nazis. Property of all kinds, in particular cultural items — books, church bells, sculpture, and paintings to name but a few — were stolen as part of Hitler and the Nazis’ premeditated looting plans. It was the greatest theft in history, one that lasted almost eight years.
We continue to live with the altered legacy of Hitler and the Nazis. Consider the painful memories of families that never knew their loved ones who perished during the war, perhaps in battle or at a concentration camp; who WASN’T born that might have been, who DIDN’T live the life they were destined to live but for the murderous consequences of Hitler’s ambition? A scientist who might have discovered an alternative fuel to hydrocarbons? A doctor who perhaps could have pioneered our understanding of medicine and discovered cures for diseases? An artist or writer whose work might have transcended all ages and provided insights or happiness to people of our generation?
Life’s fragile realities play out in the obituary sections of newspapers everywhere. Not a day passes that we’re not reminded of the loss of the incredible generation of men and women who saved civilization as we know it from the gravest threat of the 20th century, and perhaps ever. When they are gone, this will no longer be “living history”. Today should be a day of celebration, the date this great war in Europe ended. Sadly, there is little mention of the day’s significance by our media and even less discussion among the public. That is a shame.
I think of my father today, a World War II veteran of the Pacific, who died in January two years ago. We miss you Dad. Thank you and the men and women who served along side you for saving our world.
Tags: Allies, Americans, Axis, Europe, France, Germans, Hitler, Nazis, Reims, Surrender, V-E Day, VE Day, Victory, World War II, World War II Veterans
Posted in Amazing Stories, General, History, Media, Military, Monuments Men, World War II | 1 Comment »
May 6th, 2010 | 10:52 am
One of the many joys of serving as a trustee of the National World War II Museum is the occasional touching email I received which grabs the heartstrings and reminds all people of good will why we honor these heroes who contributed to winning World War II.
This story was written by persons unknown. If anyone does know who wrote it please let us know and we’ll more specifically credit the piece.
Bill Mauldin stamp honors grunts’ hero.
The post office gets a lot of criticism. Always has, always will.
And with the renewed push to get rid of Saturday mail delivery, expect complaints to intensify.
But the United States Postal Service deserves a standing ovation for something that’s going to happen this month: Bill Mauldin is getting his own postage stamp.
Mauldin died at age 81 in the early days of 2003. The end of his life had been rugged. He had been scalded in a bathtub, which led to terrible injuries and infections; Alzheimer’s disease was inflicting its cruelties. Unable to care for himself after the scalding, he became a resident of a California nursing home, his health and spirits in rapid decline.
He was not forgotten, though. Mauldin, and his work, meant so much to the millions of Americans who fought in World War II, and to those who had waited for them to come home. He was a kid cartoonist for Stars and Stripes, the military newspaper; Mauldin’s drawings of his muddy, exhausted, whisker-stubbled infantrymen Willie and Joe were the voice of truth about what it was like on the front lines.
Mauldin was an enlisted man just like the soldiers he drew for; his gripes were their gripes, his laughs were their laughs, his heartaches were their heartaches. He was one of them. They loved him.
He never held back. Sometimes, when his cartoons cut too close for comfort, his superior officers tried to tone him down. In one memorable incident, he enraged Gen. George S. Patton, and Patton informed Mauldin he wanted the pointed cartoons — celebrating the fighting men, lampooning the high-ranking officers — to stop. Now.
The news passed from soldier to soldier. How was Sgt. Bill Mauldin going to stand up to Gen. Patton? It seemed impossible.
Not quite. Mauldin, it turned out, had an ardent fan: Five-star Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, supreme commander of the Allied forces in Europe . Ike put out the word: Mauldin draws what Mauldin wants. Mauldin won. Patton lost.
If, in your line of work, you’ve ever considered yourself a young hotshot, or if you’ve ever known anyone who has felt that way about himself or herself, the story of Mauldin’s young manhood will humble you. Here is what, by the time he was 23 years old, Mauldin had accomplished:
He won the Pulitzer Prize. He was featured on the cover of Time magazine. His book “Up Front” was the No. 1 best-seller in the United States .
All of that at 23. Yet when he returned to civilian life and he grew older, he never lost that boyish Mauldin grin, he never outgrew his excitement about doing his job, he never big-shotted or high-hatted the people with whom he worked every day.
I was lucky enough to be one of them; Mauldin roamed the hallways of the Chicago Sun-Times in the late 1960s and early 1970s with no more officiousness or air of haughtiness than if he was a copyboy. That impish look on his face remained.
He had achieved so much. He had won a second Pulitzer Prize, and he should have won a third, for what may be the single greatest editorial cartoon in the history of the craft: his deadline rendering, on the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, of the statue at the Lincoln Memorial slumped in grief, its head cradled in its hands. But he never acted as if he was better than the people he met. He was still Mauldin the enlisted man.
During the late summer of 2002, as Mauldin lay in that California nursing home, some of the old World War II infantry guys caught wind of it. They didn’t want Mauldin to go out that way. They thought he should know that he was still their hero.
Gordon Dillow, a columnist for the Orange County Register, put out the call in Southern California for people in the area to send their best wishes to Mauldin; I joined Dillow in the effort, helping to spread the appeal nationally so that Bill would not feel so alone. Soon more than 10,000 letters and cards had arrived at Mauldin’s bedside.
Even better than that, the old soldiers began to show up just to sit with Mauldin, to let him know that they were there for him, as he, long ago, had been there for them. So many volunteered to visit Bill that there was a waiting list. Here is how Todd DePastino, in the first paragraph of his wonderful biography of Mauldin, described it:
“Almost every day in the summer and fall of 2002 they came to Park Superior nursing home in Newport Beach , California , to honor Army Sergeant, Technician Third Grade, Bill Mauldin. They came bearing relics of their youth: medals, insignia, photographs, and carefully folded newspaper clippings. Some wore old garrison caps. Others arrived resplendent in uniforms over a half century old. Almost all of them wept as they filed down the corridor like pilgrims fulfilling some long-neglected obligation.”
One of the veterans explained to me why it was so important:
“You would have to be part of a combat infantry unit to appreciate what moments of relief Bill gave us. You had to be reading a soaking wet Stars and Stripes in a water-filled foxhole and then see one of his cartoons.”
Mauldin is buried in Arlington National Cemetery . This month, the kid cartoonist makes it onto a first-class postage stamp. It’s an honor that most generals and admirals never receive.
What Mauldin would have loved most, I believe, is the sight of the two guys who are keeping him company on that stamp.
Take a look at it.
There’s Willie. There’s Joe.
And there, to the side, drawing them and smiling that shy, quietly observant smile, is Mauldin himself. With his buddies, right where he belongs. Forever.
Tags: Art, Artist, Bill Maudlin, California, Newport Beach, Soldier, US Postal Service, USPS, Veteran, World War II, World War II Veteran
Posted in Amazing Stories, Art, General, History, Military, Monuments Men, Monuments Men Book, Monuments Men Foundation, World War II | No Comments »
May 5th, 2010 | 3:43 pm
“Art” comes in many forms, especially today with technology offering avenues artists over the centuries couldn’t even have imagined. But an age old question remains: “what is art?”
The remarkable slide show you are about to see depicts how art can be used to transform the mundane and functional to something beautiful. It speaks to the power of art to inspire, transcend, overcome. Enjoy – turn off your brain, turn up the sound and revel in man’s creative nature!
PowerPoint Slide show about Stockholm’s Subway
If anyone can correctly identify who assembled this slide show, we will gladly credit that person and give him/her a free copy of “The Monuments Men”.
Tags: Art, Monuments Men, prize, Stockholm Subway, What is Art
Posted in Art, General, Travel and Museum Hints | No Comments »
May 3rd, 2010 | 3:32 pm
As part of the 65th Anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE-Day) celebration at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum in Abilene, Kansas, I will be discussing my new book, The Monuments Men and presenting a completely revised presentation that focuses on General Eisenhower’s role concerning protection of the arts during World War II. Ike’s policies were implemented by the Monuments Men. In conjunction with the presentation I will be bringing with me one of the “Hitler Albums” which will be on display during the weekend. The presentation starts at 7pm in the Visitors Center Auditorium, with audience Q&A to follow. On Saturday, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates will be the other keynote speaker beginning at 1pm.
If you would like to attend the events, please click on the following link for more information: Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum: VE-Day 65th Anniversary
Tags: Abilene, Dr. Robert Gates, Eisenhower, Eisenhower Presidentail Library and Museum, Europe, Kansas, Secretary Gates, Speaking Engagement, The Monuments Men, VE Day
Posted in Art, General, History, Interviews, Media, Military, Monuments Men Book, Monuments Men Foundation, Travel and Museum Hints, World War II | No Comments »
April 21st, 2010 | 12:11 pm
Anyone that lives in the New York City area and wants to hear Robert Edsel talk about his latest book “The Monuments Men”. their fascinating story, and their relevance today, you are in luck. He is speaking at IFAR (International Foundation for Art Research) on Monday, April 26 from 6:00 – 8:00pm. The title of his talk is “The Invisible Heroes: The Monuments Men”. Reservations are needed and is filling up fast, so don’t hesitate. The presentation is guaranteed to be entertaining, informative and thoroughly enjoyed by all that attend. Please click on the link below for more information and to make your reservations.
Details
Title: “The Invisible Heroes: The Monuments Men”
Date: Monday, April 26, 2010
Time: 6:00 – 8:00pm
Location: The Union League Club
38 East 37th Street (at Park Avenue), New York
Please Note: Reservations and pre-payment required. Also note: The Union League Club has a dress code; traditional business attire required.
Tags: IFAR, Monuments Men, New York City, NYC, Speaking Engagement, The Union League Club
Posted in General, Media, Monuments Men, World War II | No Comments »
April 19th, 2010 | 4:41 pm
James A Leach (Photo Courtesy of NEH)
One sure sign of demonstrable progress is the ongoing public recognition by key government officials of our efforts to recognize and preserve the legacy of the Monuments Men. Last week the recently appointed Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, a great friend and supporter of the Monuments Men Foundation, Jim Leach, spoke at a conference on cultural heritage at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. One key aspect of his speech concerned the work of the Monuments Men and the role of the Foundation in making their story broadly visible. Below is an excerpt of that portion of his remarks. Those wishing to read the full text of his speech may do so by clicking on the following link: http://www.neh.gov/whoweare/speeches/04102010.html
As preservationists know, one of the most respectful cultural moments in our history came at a signal moment at the end of World War II when a small cadre of American military officers came to be cultural heroes. Subsequently dubbed the “Monuments Men,” they led in cataloguing and returning works of looted art from Nazi hands to countries of origin. It is only in the last dozen years or so that historians and filmmakers—one supported by the NEH—have begun to bring perspective to the unprecedented displacement of cultural artifacts that the Second World War precipitated. Unlike other nations that have too frequently absconded with art treasures as booty of war, the American military wisely recognized that cultural objects belonged to original owners rather than conquering armies. It would have been a public insult of unpardonable dimension to have taken a culturally punitive tack.
As chairman of a House Committee with jurisdiction over banking matters, I held four years of hearings in the mid-1990s on the greatest mass theft in history, a subject which for decades had been historically slighted because Nazi avarice was so overwhelmed by its accompaniment with the greatest mass murder in history. What we unearthed in stories of victims and from perspectives applied by historians and philosophers to the shadowy corners of the Holocaust where greed reined was an axiom about the nature of evil: The genesis of evil may begin with perpetrators of violence and injustice, but complicity too frequently lies beyond the perpetrator with those who cloak themselves in the legitimacy of private business and genteel society. Indifferent to the most unpardonable ramifications of human prejudice, many of the seemingly best and brightest in civilization’s most advanced cultures manipulated with little compunction manifestly oppressive circumstances in furtherance of self-interest.
Our Congressional hearings helped galvanize many European parliaments to hold comparable reviews and led to an international conference which I chaired at the State Department on Holocaust era displacement of art. These hearings and the art conference, as well as the work of an extraordinary Under Secretary of State, Stuart Eizenstat, sparked increased attention not only to the war-time role of international banks and insurance companies where symbolic additional victim compensation packages were developed, but led to the drawing up of new national and international art provenance standards for museums.
Tags: James Leach, Monuments Men, National Endowment for the Humanities, NEH, Preservation of Art, Robert Edsel, Rutgers University
Posted in Amazing Stories, General, Media, Monuments Men, Monuments Men Foundation, Restitutions, Robert Edsel, The Rape of Europa, Travel and Museum Hints | No Comments »
April 14th, 2010 | 2:24 pm
Back in February, I had to cancel my lecture at the University of Pennsylvania Law School due to heavy snowstorms all along the eastern seaboard which made traveling, either by air or by land, impossible. This is still the only speaking engagement I’ve had to cancel (out of more than 50!).
Happily, I am pleased to announce that this lecture was rescheduled and will be held on April 21 from 4:30 – 5:30 in S-240A and is open to everyone. I will be discussing my current book, “The Monuments Men” which details the extraordinary experiences this small group of Allied soldiers encountered in protecting, saving and returning Europe’s priceless artistic treasures. This lecture is sponsored by Penn Law Association in the Arts. A reception and book signing is to follow. For more information, please click on the link.
University of Pennsylvania Law presents lecturer Robert M. Edsel
Tags: Lecture, Monuments Men, Monuments Men Book, Robert Edsel, Speaking Engagement, University of Pennsylvania Law, UPENN Law
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
April 12th, 2010 | 4:27 pm
Left to Right: Generals Bradley, Patton, and Eisenhower (Photo Courtesy of National Archives)
Having heard about the extraordinary discovery of most all of Nazi Germany’s gold reserves and paper currency, along with its vast cultural wealth from Berlin’s greatest museums and libraries, in a salt mine in Merkers, Germany, Generals Eisenhower, Patton and Bradley left SHAEF headquarters in Rheims, France and made a several day visit to see it firsthand. As the Monuments Men, led by George Stout, were urgently crating the works of art for removal from the mine, the generals descended in a rickety elevator manned by a lone German operator.
Their sense of disconnection was palpable: billions of dollars (in today’s currency) of gold bars and bagged coins sat stacked in one chamber adjacent to some of the world’s greatest works of art. Chests filled with gold fillings pulled from the mouths of murdered victims of the Nazi genocide sat idle, not yet smelted into bars to sit atop the Reichsbank horde. Suitcases of silverware, another reminder of property stolen along with the lives of the owners, lined several walls.
General Eisenhower at Ohrdruf Concentration Camp (Photo Courtesy of National Archives)
Later that afternoon, the generals visited Ohrdruf, the first Nazi work camp liberated by American forces. Strewn before them were the corpses of the dead and emancipated figures of those near death. General Patton, old “Blood and Guts”, had to lean against the side of one of the bunkhouse sheds as he was sick to his stomach from the horrors and stench of what he was witnessing.
President Franklin Roosevelt attending Yalta Conference in February 1945, less than 2 months before he died. (Photo Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons)
After dinner, as the generals returned to their respective tents, General Patton overheard on the BBC the announcement of President Roosevelt’s death earlier that day. At age 63, 12 years into his presidency, having led the nation through its most perilous fiscal crisis and a world war, Roosevelt was gone. He did not live to see the fruits of his leadership – victory – which would follow 26 days later in Europe, and 125 days later in Japan.
April 12: a day that had momentous implications for our nation, the world, and the Monuments Men. (For a more detailed account of this story, please read The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History).
Tags: Death of FDR, Franklin Roosevelt, General Bradley, General Eisenhower, General Patton, Germany, Holocaust, Merkers, Monuments Men, Ohrdruf, War Loot, World War II
Posted in Amazing Stories, Art, Finding the Monuments Men, General, History, Media, Military, Missing Works of Art and Other Property, Monuments Men, Monuments Men Book, Monuments Men Foundation, Restitutions, Travel and Museum Hints, World War II | No Comments »
April 8th, 2010 | 3:27 pm
Mary Regan Quessenberry 1915 - 2010 (Photo Courtesy of Robert M. Edsel Collection)
Monuments officer and U.S. Army veteran Mary Regan Quessenberry, died today, age 94. Mary was the sole living connection to the beginning of the Monuments Men efforts and the key people whose vision led to their creation. From Langdon Warner, the great scholar of Asian art and swashbuckling explorer, to Paul Sachs, the founder of the first museum studies course in America, to Mason Hammond, legendary professor of Classics at Harvard: Mary knew them all. We were so fortunate to find her and film her memories and stories while she was in good health.
Robert M. Edsel, Founder and President of the Monuments Men Foundation, presenting Mary Regan Quessenberry with the Flag of the United States that flew over the Capitol on June 6, 2007. (Photo Courtesy of Robert M. Edsel Collection)
Mary Regan Quessenberry played an important role in the post-war work of the Monuments Men, a remarkable but small group of 345 men and women from thirteen nations, many of whom were museum directors, curators, artists and architects, who together worked to protect monuments and other cultural items from the destruction of World War II. In the last year of the war they tracked, located and ultimately returned more than five million artistic and cultural treasures stolen by Hitler and the Nazis. Mary assisted with the Monuments Men efforts to return millions of works of art to the countries from which these treasures had been stolen.
Born in Boston on October 10, 1915, Mary Regan attended Radcliffe College and later received a master’s degree in Fine Art from Harvard, where her professors included Monuments Men Paul Sachs, Langdon Warner, and Mason Hammond, all key figures in my new book, The Monuments Men. The United States entered World War II in December 1941. By July 1942 Mary had given up her job as a high school art teacher and was in uniform serving with the WAAC (Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps). Over 400,000 women applied to be part of the first group of women to serve in the US military; only 450 were chosen. She would later become a recruiter for WAC (Women’s Army Corps), where one of the highlights was meeting the Churchill family when they visited Boston. Mary was sent overseas in 1943. Prior to becoming a Monuments officer, she trained with the U.S. Army 8th Air Force under General Doolittle; she was also sent to the Royal Air Force base at Medmenham as part of the Central Interpretation Unit and later, Mary received orders to report to General Carl Spaatz. At that time he commanded the 8th, 9th, and 15th Army Air Corps and led the strategic bombing campaign against Germany reporting directly to General Eisenhower. Mary became “company commander of the 550 WACs who ran Spaatz Headquarters.” For her service as company commander, Mary received a Bronze Star.
L to R: Mary Regan Quessenberry, Mary Churchill and Unknown (Photo Courtesy of NARA)
Following the Allied victory, Mary read in Stars and Stripes that officers with an art history background were needed as Monuments Men. Despite having more than enough points to return home, Mary traveled to Berlin to volunteer for service with the Monuments Men. As a Monuments officer stationed in Berlin, Mary traveled to the Munich Collecting Point, Wiesbaden Collecting Point, various repositories, and badly damaged cities. She worked with fellow Monuments Men Bancel LaFarge, Rose Valland, Charles Kuhn, Calvin Hathaway and others to restitute stolen works of art to their rightful owners. She served as a Monuments officer until 1948, when she retired as a Major after an extraordinary and accomplished military career.
Mary returned home to the United States and taught humanities at the University of Florida, and married her husband Tim Quessenberry in 1965, who preceded her. We shall miss her greatly.
Tags: Heroine, Langdon Warner, Mary Churchill, Mary Regan Quessenberry, Monuments Men, Monuments Officer, Monuments Woman, Robert M. Edsel, World War II Veteran
Posted in Amazing Stories, General, History, Interviews, Laurel Publishing, Media, Military, Monuments Men, Monuments Men Foundation, Robert Edsel, World War II | 5 Comments »
