Robert Edsel's Blog

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

Nazi Party number 2 man Goering announced his intentions plainly, and well in advance, when he said, “I intend to plunder and to do it thoroughly”.  And plunder he did.  By the time of his arrest, he had amassed more paintings in his personal collection than exist today in the National Gallery of Art’s European painting section, some 1800 plus works.

My colleague, and the world’s leading authority on Hermann Goering and his painting collection, historian Nancy Yeide, Head of Curatorial Records at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D. C., has recently completed a seven year study and has written a masterpiece entitled Beyond the Dreams of Avarice: The Hermann Goering Collection.  Nancy’s exhaustive analysis is groundbreaking research that will no doubt lead to the identification of works of art previously unknown to have been a part of the Reichsmarschall’s collection.  More importantly, in time it will make possible the return of paintings to the victims of the greatest theft in history.  It is active detective work of the highest caliber.

There was a wonderful interview with Nancy in The Washington Times yesterday.  To read about her and her tremendous accomplishment, please click on the following link.