Today's post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher and is the first in a series featuring real life Monuments Men. The forthcoming movie, The Monuments Men, has focused great attention on the Monuments Men (and women) and their work during and after World War II. Of course the movie cannot tell the story of the over … Continue reading Sir Charles Leonard Woolley-The Background and Early Activities of an Unlikely Monuments Man
Category: World War II
Records of the Office of the Chief of Counsel for the Prosecution of Axis Criminality Yields New Hildebrand Gurlitt Information
Today's post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher. During the past several weeks there has been international interest in the revelations about some 1,400 works of art, some allegedly acquired from looted Jewish collections, found in a Munich, Germany apartment. Most, if not all, of the works found in Cornelius Gurlitt’s apartment had previously been in … Continue reading Records of the Office of the Chief of Counsel for the Prosecution of Axis Criminality Yields New Hildebrand Gurlitt Information
A Slap’s a Slap: General John L. DeWitt and Four Little Words
Today's post is written by Alan Walker, a processing archivist at Archives II in College Park. Lt. General John L. DeWitt was in charge of the U.S. Army’s Western Defense Command in 1942 and was instrumental in the development of Executive Order 9066, which directed the internment of all Japanese Americans living on the West … Continue reading A Slap’s a Slap: General John L. DeWitt and Four Little Words
The Origins and Operations of the Wiesbaden Central Collecting Point
Today's post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher. During the past several weeks there has been great international interest in the art works that had been in the possession of Hildebrand Gurlitt before and during World War II, some of which were ultimately recovered at war’s end, stored at the United States Army’s Wiesbaden Central … Continue reading The Origins and Operations of the Wiesbaden Central Collecting Point
“The Numbers Don’t Add Up” — Lessons to be Learned by Archivists and Researchers
Today's post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher. In reviewing some text that we plan on adding to the International Research Portal for Records Related to Nazi-Era Cultural Property in conjunction with albums containing photographs depicting looted art work, Robin Waldman had a comment after she looked at the following: [Colonel Robert Storey, an American prosecutor at … Continue reading “The Numbers Don’t Add Up” — Lessons to be Learned by Archivists and Researchers
13 Rue Madeleine and the National Archives
Today's post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher. Elizabeth Hamer, the chief of the National Archives Exhibits and Publications staff, maintained a very detailed daily diary of everything she and her staff did between 1946 and 1951. While conducting research for an article on the 1946 accessioning and exhibiting of Adolf Hitler’s Last Will and … Continue reading 13 Rue Madeleine and the National Archives
The Marines and Japanese Souvenirs on Guadalcanal August-October 1942
Today’s post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher. On the morning of August 7, 1942, the Marines landed on Guadalcanal, relatively near an airfield that the Japanese had begun constructing, and the relatively small number of Japanese on the island melted into the jungle. The following day the Marines began collecting Japanese souvenirs near the airfield. … Continue reading The Marines and Japanese Souvenirs on Guadalcanal August-October 1942
Remembering Pearl Harbor
By David Langbart In the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor 71 years ago today, agencies of the U.S. government swung into action. The Army and Navy immediately went on a war footing as did American diplomats in the Department of State and at embassies and consulates around the world. Since the formal … Continue reading Remembering Pearl Harbor
Seventy Years Ago: The United States Army Air Force’s 8th Air Force begins Bombing Operations in the European Theater of Operations, August-December 1942
Today’s post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher. On the night of May 30, 1942, the Royal Air Force’s Bomber Command mounted its first "thousand plane" raid against Cologne and two nights later struck Essen with almost equal force. At this point the United States Army Air Force’s 8th Air Force was just beginning to arrive … Continue reading Seventy Years Ago: The United States Army Air Force’s 8th Air Force begins Bombing Operations in the European Theater of Operations, August-December 1942
The Travels of two 16th Century Books from Germany to California, to Washington, D.C., and Back to Germany, 1945-2009
Today’s post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher. Three years ago, on October 9, 2009, a former member of General Patton’s Third Army, in Room 105 of the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C. returned to the German Ambassador two 16th Century books he had taken from a German mine during April 1945. The story how … Continue reading The Travels of two 16th Century Books from Germany to California, to Washington, D.C., and Back to Germany, 1945-2009