Robert Edsel's Blog

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).

US Army Generals Omar Bradley, Dwight Eisenhower, and George S. Patton

On the morning of December 8, 1944, General George S. Patton called his Third Army Chaplain, Msgr. James H. O’Neill. “This is General Patton; do you have a good prayer for weather? We must do something about those rains if we are to win the war.” Third Army had been fighting in terrible rain since September and Patton had become desperate.

The prayer Chaplain O’Neill wrote became famously known as the “Weather Prayer.”

Almighty and most merciful Father, we humbly beseech Thee, of Thy great goodness, to restrain these immoderate rains with which we have had to contend. Grant us fair weather for Battle. Graciously hearken to us as soldiers who call upon Thee that, armed with Thy power, we may advance from victory to victory, and crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies and establish Thy justice among men and nations.

On the back was a Christmas Greeting from Patton to his troops – 250,000 copies were dispersed.

To each officer and soldier in the Third United States Army, I Wish a Merry Christmas. I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty, and skill in battle. We march in our might to complete victory. May God’s blessings rest upon each of you on this Christmas Day. G.S. Patton, Jr, Lieutenant General, Commanding, Third United States Army.

The Weather Prayer didn’t work right away, but no doubt gave the troops, including Monuments Man Robert Posey, some hope.

German Ambassador Klaus Scharioth accepts two books returned by an American soldier who took them from a salt mine during World War II. (Photo Courtesy of Robert M. Edsel Collection.)

Today I attended a ceremony at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. to participate in the return of 2 books to Germany that were taken by a U.S. soldier who discovered them in a German salt mine where they had been placed for safekeeping by German cultural officials. This soldier contacted the Monuments Men Foundation more than two years ago seeking information on the books and their value. We worked diligently over the next 13 months to identify them and the precise mine from which they had been removed. One book was written in Latin; the other in German. They were both more than 400 years old. Accepting both books on behalf of a grateful nation was German Ambassador Klaus Scharioth.

These books are but 2 of hundreds of thousands of books and works of art still missing from the war, some of which were stolen by the Nazis but others “taken”—”liberated”—and in some cases stolen by Allied troops of all sides. Oftentimes these cases had innocent beginnings: a soldier found something during his tour and took it as a souvenir of his wartime experience. Where such cases involve cultural items–works of art, library books, documents, they were taken against direct orders from Generals Eisenhower and Bradley, the latter of whom issued on numerous occasions field wide orders to his troops: “We are a conquering Army, not a pillaging one”. Still, it happened.

One of the greatest obstacles the Monuments Men Foundation frequently must overcome is to explain that items such as these books, or other important documents, are not only NOT SELLABLE, but to do even attempt to do so places the person in possession of them at great risk of prosecution, especially if moving them across state lines. My dad was a veteran: I understand as well as anyone who wasn’t there doing the fighting why items were sometimes taken and the emotional attachment the person who possesses it has to the object. At the same time, I know how important it is to victims of the Nazis murderous theft to have their items returned to them. Oftentimes these missing documents facilitate those returns.

(Photo Courtesy of AP Photo/ Haraz N. Ghanbari.)

I have always succeeded in explaining to the person in possession of such objects how they can demonstrate a different type of valor than that required of the battlefield by working with the Monuments Men Foundation to return these objects. The Foundation does not seek to judge anyone; our focus is to facilitate doing the right thing in the most transparent way possible although we do handle some cases on an anonymous basis depending on circumstances.

No one reveres veterans more than I do. I believe we can never fully repay our debt to anyone who has served in combat to preserve the ideals and freedom we hold so dear. But two Monuments Men died in combat, and more than 60 others risked their lives, trying to preserve the cultural belongings of ALL people—including Germans—against destruction and theft by anyone. They believed that taking or “liberating” cultural belongings made our side no better than those we were trying so desperately to defeat. And for that reason, I openly plea with anyone in the possession of such objects, whether living veterans, their heirs, or someone who has otherwise come into the possession of such objects to contact the Monuments Men Foundation (www.monumentsmenfoundation.org) and work with us to return these important items. It’s the right thing to do.