Robert Edsel's Blog

Robert Posey’s wife, Alice, sent him this military cartoon featuring “Private Buck” during the last week of May 1945. The cartoon was no doubt inspired by the huge Nazi repository found at Merkers, Germany, which received a large amount of media attention. It makes me wonder though, did Alice even know yet that Posey had been at Merkers ?! Likely not, considering the strict censorship rules on mail and the weeks of lag time between writing and receiving letters. I imagine Alice simply wanted her husband to know that the American public was paying attention to the daunting task of the Monuments Men.

From left to right: Dr. Hans-Martin Hinz from the DHM (Deutsches Historisches Museum), Mr. Florian Scheurle from the BADV/Ministry of Finance, and Robert M. Edsel. Photo courtesy of Deutsches Historisches Museum.

Last week’s return of the Gemäldegalerie Linz Album XIII to the DHM (Deutsches Historisches Museum) in Berlin was another milestone achievement in our efforts to actively preserve the legacy of these remarkable men and women who saved so much of our cultural heritage during and after World War ll.  We honor their memory and underscore the modern day need to continue their work with events such as this.

We were so warmly received by Dr. Hans-Martin Hinz and his team at the DHM, a remarkable museum filled with more objects and knowledge about German history than anyone could ever fully study.  Much like our National Archives, the DHM team has made history interactive and fun for people of all ages, especially foreign visitors.  I encourage anyone visiting Berlin to allocate a half day minimum to see some of its remarkable displays.

From left to right: Dorothee Schneider, Dr. Birgit Schwartz (art historian), Dr. Hans-Martin Hinz (DHM), Robert Edsel, Dr. Matthias Miller (head of the library and curator of Old Master Prints DHM), Translator, Mr. Max Maldacker (Foreign Ministry, Head of Department for Culture and Communication), Ms. Maja Schweitzer (Foreign Ministry, Department for Culture and Communication), Mr. Harald Konig (BADV/Finance Ministry). Photo Courtesy of Deutsches Historisches Museum.

After the return ceremony we were given a brief tour of just the reading room in their library.  Remarkably this room appears largely as it did when constructed more than a hundred years ago.  It contains many old and priceless manuscripts including the first edition of Goethe’s “Faust” dated 1808, a 1200 year old handwritten document called the “Heliand fragment” written in an old Saxonian dialect now extinct, and even a first edition of the German children’s book ”Max & Moritz” from 1865, which sold at auction in Germany for about 125,000 Euro.”

These cultural exchanges of good will between countries won’t change our world, but each step, no matter how small, further and strengthen the ties that bind us.  These alliances are essential to overcoming the challenges of our new world.

Since its founding almost 3 years ago the Monuments Men Foundation has been working to encourage museums and collectors alike to comply with best practices guidelines. Simply stated, that means “know your collection” and where the objects were during the reign of the Nazis:  1933-1946.  Many museums, and some collectors, have embraced these guidelines. Some have been slow to catch up. A few continue to ignore the matter.

Belo’s Dallas station, WFAA, an ABC affiliate, broadcast a piece last evening highlighting a recent case we discovered several years ago at SMU’s Meadows Museum in conjunction with research on my first book, Rescuing Da Vinci.  Officials at the Meadows are now aggressively engaged conducting key provenance research on their collection as a whole and the two paintings covered by the story in particular, to their credit.

This case highlights one aspect of the work of the Foundation and the tangible results we continue to obtain while trying to work with important institutions like the Meadows Museum.

You can view the story by clicking on the following link:

http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/Art-Stolen-by-Hitler-Found-at-SMU-Meadows-Museum.html

Today, The Monuments Men Year-End Newsletter for 2009 was released to the general public. Inside this newsletter, you can read about the various creative content we have produce, our ongoing engagement with the public through the media to bring much need attention to the Monuments Men, the various honors bestowed upon the Monuments Men Foundation, and all the incredible memories bringing this story to life.  Many thanks to all that have worked on this project through the years.

Please take a minute to read the The Monuments Men Year-End Newsletter.

If you would like to sign up for future newsletters, please click here (fill out form on the right side to submit).

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

Monuments Men Foundation Announces that Famous Murillo Paintings Stolen from Rothschild Family in Paris, later discovered by the Monuments Men during World War II, have been Identified at SMU’s Meadows Museum

Dallas, TX (October 22, 2009) — Based on new evidence about the systematic looting of art from Jewish owners in the course of hostilities in Europe during World War II, a pair of famous paintings on display at SMU’s Meadows Museum created by Spanish master Bartolome Esteban Murillo (1618-1682) of Seville’s Patron Saints Justa and Rufina, estimated to be worth more than $10 million, are believed to have been stolen from the Rothschild family in Paris in 1941. The Nazi ERR (Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg) code evidencing Rothschild ownership is still visible on the stretcher bar of one of the paintings; it appears to have been rubbed off the other. The Monuments Men Foundation, recipient of the 2007 National Humanities Medal for its work preserving the legacy of these unknown heroes, which it received from the President of the United States at a White House ceremony, is continuing its research to document conclusively whether both paintings were properly restituted to the rightful owners prior to donation to the Meadows Museum.

Click Here to Read More>>

Tomorrow begins the realization of more than 7 years of work:  publication of my new book entitled The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History. This is the narrative telling of these heroes’ stories through the experiences of just 8 men and 1 woman–the unlikeliest of spies–who are in a race with time to save the greatest cultural treasures from Nazi fanatics.  The book can be ordered online and will be in bookstores nationwide.  It is being published in more than 16 languages, and will also be available as an audio book.  I hope you will read the amazing stories of the men and women which I have told using their letters home to loved ones written during combat.

Harry Ettlinger speaking at the Hope for Humanities Dinner in Dallas, November 2008. (Photo Courtesy of Robert M. Edsel Collection.)

This Friday we will have the first of many Guest Blogs…appropriately, the first guest blogger will be Monuments Man Harry Ettlinger.  Harry figures prominently in The Monuments Men.  He provides a fresh insight into these events and speaks eloquently as to why this part of history is so vitally important.

Please check it out this Friday!

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.

On the night of August 24, 1940, German bombs fell on London for the first time during World War II.

The Luftwaffe began bombing industrial targets in England in early July, and had recently increased night bombing runs. Perhaps worried that Churchill would be even less likely to negotiate, or out of fear that British bombs would fall on Berlin in retaliation, Hitler had been ignoring his military advisor’s urgings to bomb the capital itself. However on the night of August 24, 170 Heinkel HE 111s set out to bomb oil installations at Thameshaven and an aircraft factory in Rochester, but veered off course and bombed parts of London by mistake.

It might not have been an intentional military maneuver, but the first bombings of London marked a turning point early in the war. Churchill angrily ordered the bombing of Berlin, which had also been avoided until this point. On the night of August 25-26, the RAF Bomber Command sent 95 planes to hit industrial targets in the German capital, most notably the Tempelhof Airport and the Siemensstadt area of factory buildings. 81 of the planes dropped bombs on Berlin that night. Five more raids on Berlin occurred within the next two weeks, but damage was minimal.

Hitler was in turn angered by the retaliation bombing, and decided to proceed with a sustained attack on London. He was convinced that the terror bombing would make the British more likely to negotiate after all, and ordered “for disruptive attacks on the population and air defenses of major British cities, including London, by day and night.”