Robert Edsel's Blog

Gemaldegalerie Linz Album XIII

Augsburger Geschlechterbuch or “Augsburg Book of Nobles”

On Friday we gathered at the State Department for a ceremony marking the return of two irreplaceable documents, one of which was located by the Monuments Men Foundation.  The Gemaldegalerie Linz Album XIII was a prized possession of Hitler and documented German 19^th century works of art he had accumulated, both through purchase and theft, for the Fuhrermuseum he planned to build in his hometown.  The other document is known as the Augsburger Geschlechterbuch or “Augsburg Book of Nobles” which belongs to the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart.  While each item was taken by a U.S. Army soldier, the circumstances of their respective returns couldn’t have been more different.

Mr. Robert Edsel, Mr. John Pistone, and Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat, German Ambassador Klaus Scharioth, and Minister of the Interior for Baden-Wuerttemberg, Heribert Rech

This great occasion also honored one of those veterans, Mr. John Pistone, who upon learning about the importance of the Gemaldegalerie Linz Album agreed to work through the Monuments Men Foundation to ensure its return to Germany.  In contrast, the person in possession of the Augsburg Book of Nobles refused to return it and only through years of litigation was it eventually delivered to the State Department.

Deputy Secretary of State Jacob Lew, Minister Heribert Rech, German Ambassador Klaus Scharioth and Mr. Robert M. Edsel

Mr. Robert Edsel, Ambassador Klaus Scharioth, Minister Heribert Rech, and Deputy Secretary of State Jacob Lew

Ambassador Christian Kennedy, the U.S. Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues hosted the event and introduced each of the speakers after making poignant remarks about the importance of these two items being returned to Germany. His comments were underscored by Deputy Secretary of State Jacob Lew.  Accepting these items was German Ambassador Klaus Scharioth, and Heribert Rech, Minister of the Interior for Baden-Wuerttemberg, the state in which Stuttgart is located.  Both gentlemen spoke eloquently and candidly about this period of Germany’s history and the commitment Germany has today to doing everything possible to assist those victims of the Nazi era in recovering their stolen belongings.  At the same time, they expressed their desire to see items belonging to Germany returned home.  Minister Rech had tears in his eyes when he expressed the satisfaction that this important relic of his city’s history was finally going home.

Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat, Ambassador Christian Kennedy, and Deputy Secretary of State Jacob Lew

Each speaker commented on the important role of the Monuments Men during and after World War II and expressed their sincere appreciation for the work of the Monuments Men Foundation in not only preserving their legacy but in helping to locate and return items of such historic importance.  After all our hard work, these remarks were quite gratifying to hear.  Compliments were also directed to Mr. John Pistone for his role in coming forward to set the example for all veterans and their relatives who, like him, may have some item that was taken during the war that is a cultural object which should be returned.  When I first met with Mr. Pistone many months ago, I encouraged him to be a visible presence in the return of this document both to allow him to receive the credit he was due, but also to set the example for others.  He graciously agreed.  It was a very happy moment for the Monuments Men Foundation team to witness this fine veteran receive such praise in the presence of his family.  He later told me it was one of the proudest moments of his life…and that speaks volumes about what we at the Foundation are all about.

Mrs. Verna Pistone and her daughters Joan, Julianne and Laura

Photos courtesy of United States State Department

After six weeks of fighting across “Purple Heart Valley”, US Fifth Army in Italy finally reached the Gustav line on January 15, 1944. Before them lay the long road to Rome.  On January 17, British X Corps attempted to break the Gustav Line by crossing the Garigliano River. This marked the beginning of the Battle of Monte Cassino – a battle that would last four months, and become one of the most controversial and devastating of the war.

The Gustav Line was anchored by the town of Cassino, and the Benedictine Abbey of Monte Cassino above it. Because some allied leaders believed that the Germans were using the abbey  as an observation point, the thousand-year old building became the focus of much debate. On the one hand, General Eisenhower had issued an order just weeks earlier, stating that “we are bound to respect those monuments as far as war allows.” However, as the battle dragged on and the number of casualties quickly climbed into the tens of thousands, the abbey increasingly became seen as a symbol of Nazi strength, and one that must be destroyed if the Allies were to advance to Rome.

The abbey would not be destroyed by Allied bombing until February 15, but in the early days of battle the monks living in the abbey had already begun to experience the war first hand. This is an excerpt from a monk’s diary, dated January 18:

“At noon a shell hit in the Fossa [the ravine behind the Abbey]. It killed a woman and wounded several others, among them a girl of 20 months…The Anglo-Americans are firing on the Fossa because they see movement there…Only God can save us. One day perhaps we will find out the reason for things that seem somewhat mysterious.”{Footnote 1}

It is no wonder the monks thought the attack of the abbey so mysterious – as the Allies discovered after the bombing of the monastery, the Germans had not been occupying the building after all. Luckily, the destruction of Monte Cassino served as an important lesson for Allied leaders – and soon after Monuments Man Deane Keller was attached to Fifth Army.

Footnote 1: David Hapgood and David Richardson. Monte Cassino: The Story of the Most Controversial Battle of World War II. Cambridge: Da Capo, 2002. Pg 109.

With veteran John Pistone during our first visit

Today the Monuments Men Foundation announced the discovery of an album containing photographs of Hitler’s most beloved works of art by German painters destined for his Führermuseum in Linz, Austria.  This item, formally called the Gemaldegalerie Linz Album XIII, was taken by an American soldier from Hitler’s home in Berchtesgaden in early May, 1945.  The veteran, Mr. John Pistone, in a wonderful act of grace, has worked with the Monuments Men Foundation to identify what the album was and it’s return to Germany.

For the full story please click on the link to the Associated Press story. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_hitler_s_album)

Today’s news was extraordinarily well received.  In fact, it was the most popular, most viewed and most emailed news article on Yahoo! today.  I hope and believe that this news, and the example set by Mr. Pistone, will bring the much needed visibility to our efforts to finish the mission of the Monuments Men and assist others who may be in the possession of items “liberated” or stolen during the World War ll period.

Shown in the photo above – Front Row from Left to Right

Hermann Göring, Rudolf Hess, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Wilhelm Keitel, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Alfred Rosenberg, Hans Frank, Wilhelm Frick, Julius Streicher, Walther Funk, Hjalmar Schacht

Back Row Left to Right

Karl Dönitz, Erich Raeder, Baldur von Schirach, Fritz Sauckel, Alfred Jodl, Franz von Papen, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, Albert Speer, Konstantin von Neurath, Hans Fritzsche

The former leaders of Hitler’s Third Reich on trial in Nuremberg, Germany. The Nuremberg trial was conducted by a joint United States-British-French-Soviet military tribunal, with each nation supplying two judges. The four counts in the indictment were: Count 1 – CONSPIRACY to commit crimes alleged in the next three counts. Count 2 – CRIMES AGAINST PEACE including planning, preparing, starting, or waging aggressive war. Count 3 – WAR CRIMES including violations of laws or customs of war. Count 4 – CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY including murder, extermination, enslavement, persecution on political or racial grounds, involuntary deportment, and inhumane acts against civilian populations.

Most of the above text is from “The History Place”. To read the rest of what happen at the Nuremberg Trial, please click the link: http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/nurem.htm.

I can think of no more fitting end to the week then remembering our friend, S. Lane Faison Jr., a man we all deeply admired and miss. As a tribute to Lane and his remarkable life, we created a short film, about two minutes in length which you may see by clicking on the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/RobertEdsel#p/a/u/2/JLqYev6Thck

Left to Right: Mary Regan Quessenberry, Mary Churchill and Unknown

Today the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art, recipient of the 2007 National Humanities Medal, announced they have identified a second living female member of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives section (“MFAA”), or “Monuments Men” as they were more commonly known: Mary Regan Quessenberry of Boston, Massachusetts.

The Monuments Men were a 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.

Regarding this important occasion, Robert M. Edsel, author of The Monuments Men, and President of The Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art stated, “This news makes Veterans Day even more special for the Monuments Men Foundation. The men and women who collectively comprised the Monuments Men set the standard for the protection of cultural treasures during armed conflict. Although we hope our ongoing research efforts identify other living Monuments Men and women, today we know of only 10, including Mary Regan Quessenberry, who played an important role in the post-war work of the Monuments Men, assisting with the efforts to return millions of works of art to the countries from which these treasures had been stolen. This significant occasion underscores the importance and urgency of our research to recognize the contribution and preserve the legacy of these remarkable men and women who saved so much of our cultural heritage during World War II.”

Mary Regan Quessenberry and Robert M. Edsel

After watching an interview with Robert Edsel on BBC regarding his new book, The Monuments Men, Ms. Quessenberry’s niece contacted the Monuments Men Foundation about her aunt’s role as a Monuments officer. Mr. Edsel immediately traveled to Boston to meet with Mary, and presented her with a flag of the United States which had flown over the United States Capitol in honor of the Monuments Men, as well as a gold leaf copy of the Congressional Resolution that was passed in both the House and the Senate recognizing for the first time in the United States the heroic efforts of the members of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives section.

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 Mr. Edsel’s 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.

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. Mary Regan Quessenberry currently lives in Boston, Massachusetts.

About the Monuments Men Foundation

The Monuments Men Foundation was created to raise public awareness of the 345 or so men and women from thirteen nations, many of whom were museum directors, curators, and educators, who protected monuments and other cultural treasures from the destruction of World War II. By 1945, these heroes of civilization tracked, located and later returned more than 5 million artistic and cultural items stolen by Hitler and the Nazis. The Foundation intends for their rich legacy to serve as a beacon for the preservation of such treasures in future armed conflict and to finish the task of locating and returning some of the hundreds of thousands of stolen and missing works of art and documents to the victims of the greatest theft in history. The Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art was one of ten recipients of the 2007 National Humanities Medal, the highest honor given for excellence in the Humanities field.

For more information about the Monuments Men Foundation, please visit www.monumentsmenfoundation.org.

To speak with Robert Edsel or for further details, Please Contact:
Christy Fox
Telephone: 646-246-3743
Email: christyfox1@aol.com

In the course of research for my new book, The Monuments Men, and while filming The Rape of Europa, I had a chance to get to know the country of Poland and its remarkable people. During the period we were filming in both Cracow and Warsaw, I took a couple of days off to visit some other sites, in particular Auschwitz…the ghastly site of the concentration camps where millions of Jews and other victims of Hitler’s “final solution” were murdered.

When visiting such places, I go with a mind full of images and stories I have seen and heard, eager to merge them with the physical experience of being there. No matter how many images a person sees of Warsaw and the devastation it experienced as a consequence of World War II, it doesn’t really take hold until you walk the streets of the city, look into people’s eyes (especially those of the children), and see the great attractions which illuminate so well the history of the city and its citizens. This was my experience in Warsaw, a beautiful city today but one that looked like the pock-marked surface of the moon after the Nazis lade waste to it as they fled. You can’t believe the city is the same place.

One image that spoke volumes about how determined the Nazis were to destroy not just the Polish people’s lives and property but also the very soul of the nation and its values concerns the statue of the great music composer Frederic Chopin. This remarkable sculpture was unveiled in Lazienki Park in 1926. During summer, piano recitals are held at the foot of the monument. Note its scale by focusing on the people sitting on the bench to the left in the photo below. This is how it appears to visitors today.

The bronze monument to Poland's greatest musician, Frederic Chopin, was designed by Waclaw Symanowski and erected in Warsaw in 1910.

However, in 1941, a little more than a year after the Nazi invasion of Poland, the statue was dissected by the Nazis and placed on a flatbed railcar for transport to a smelter. This was but just one of enumerable acts by Hitler and the Nazis to destroy the most treasured cultural icons of each conquered city. In Russia notable such examples were the homes of the great poet Pushkin, and the remarkable composer Peter Tchaikovsky

Fryderck Chopin Monument cut up on rail car. (Photo Courtesy of National Archives and Records Administratiion.)

When I boarded the plane to depart Poland, I couldn’t help but admire so deeply the courage and fortitude of the Polish people. The Poles were the first victims of the Nazi invasion on this day 70 years ago. By war’s end more than 6 million Poles had died. Nazi Concentration camps had been built throughout the country at which millions of innocent people were murdered. The list of horrifying events that took place during World War II seems endless. Yet through it all, the Polish people found the will not just to survive, but to flourish. Their determination to rebuild their great cities and society as it was before the war is a living testament to the pride they have for the great history of Poland, and their courage and determination to triumph.

Chief Archivist of the United States, Professor Allen Weinstein and Robert M. Edsel standing before one of the two "Hitler Albums" (Photo Courtesy of Robert M. Edsel Collection)

Hundreds of thousand of works of art and millions of cultural treasures, including library books, manuscripts, and religious objects, stolen by Hitler and the Nazis, or taken by others during World War ll, remain missing.  The collective value of these items is well into the billions of dollars! Does anyone really believe they were all destroyed during the war?

Two years ago we located the Hitler Albums, two albums filled with photographs of paintings stolen by the Nazis from French collectors, many of whom were Jewish, that were presented to Adolph Hitler for his enjoyment and selection of the best works for his Führermuseum in Linz.  These albums were found in his home – the Berghof – in Berchtesgaden by an American soldier and taken as war booty.  They had been sitting in the attic of his home ever since.

Years later they surfaced when a family member contacted us seeking assistance with determining what they were and their importance. In time they expressed a desire for us to put them to their best use.  We – me personally and the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art – subsequently donated them to the National Archives at a ceremony in Washington in 2007.  Allen Weinstein, Chief Archivist of the United States, hailed their discovery as “the most significant find related to Hitler’s premeditated theft of art and other cultural treasures to be found since the Nuremberg trials.”

I believe there are many more such albums that will surface in the coming years along with missing paintings, drawings, books, and tens of thousands of other items displaced by the war or stolen during those years.  As the World War II generation passes, their belongings will be distributed to family members and, in many cases, sold.  During this sorting and identification process, many missing items from the war will surface.

The internet is also proving invaluable in helping both claimants and others seeking to find such stolen items recover their belongings.  Still, there is much to be done, by certain governments, museums, collectors, even the public at large.  It begins, however, with a far greater public awareness of the volume and importance of what is missing from World War II.

Everyone can participate!  Everyone can help us write the final chapter to this amazing story, the final chapter to this part of World War II, and in so doing, complete the mission of the Monuments Men.

To learn more about how you can help please contact me.