Monuments Men and Women, Looted Art, Stolen Art, Art Provenance, and Stolen Property during World War II
Today’s post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher, Archivist at the National Archives in College Park Schloss Neuschwanstein, two miles east of Fussen, a picturesque little town, some 80 miles south of Munich, in southern Schwabe, Bavaria, had been a central Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR) repository for looted cultural property. A considerable bulk of this … Continue reading The Monuments Men in May 1945: Buxheim and Neuschwanstein
Today’s post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher, Archivist at the National Archives in College Park On March 31, 1945, the 12th Army Group reported that probably the most important repository in the area immediately ahead of the forces under its command was at or near Siegen, some fifty miles east of Cologne. It noted … Continue reading The Monuments Men in April 1945: Siegen, Finally
Today's post was written by Dr. Greg Bradsher and Dr. Sylvia Naylor, Archivists at the National Archives in College Park. Dr. Alfred Hentzen, on the staff of the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin, was mobilized into the German Army in mid-1942. While serving on the Intelligence Staff of a Panzer Division in North Africa, he … Continue reading The Kümmel Report
Today's post is written by Dr. Greg Bradsher March 1945 would be a busy and eventful time for the Monuments Men officers, as the Allied armies advanced into Germany. This was especially true for two of them: Ronald Balfour and Walker Hancock. During combat operations in February 1945, Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives (MFA&A) officer, … Continue reading The Monuments Men in March 1945: Ronald Balfour and Walker Hancock
Today’s post was written by Dr. Greg Bradsher, archivist at the National Archives in College Park. At the end of January, Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley, head of the 12th Army Group, wrote the G-5s of his four Armies (First, Third, Ninth, and Fifteenth) regarding the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives (MFA&A) Specialist Officers and their … Continue reading The Monuments Men During February 1945: Locating Repositories of Looted and German Cultural Property
Today’s post was written by Dr. Greg Bradsher, Senior Archivist at the National Archives in College Park. As December 1944 ended and January 1945 began, the German counteroffensive in the Ardennes (Battle of the Bulge) was two weeks old and the Allied forces had stopped the German effort to cross the Meuse River and capture Antwerp. … Continue reading The Monuments Men During January 1945
Today’s post was written by Dr. Greg Bradsher, Senior Archivist at the National Archives in College Park. The Monuments Men -- the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives (MFA&A) specialists assigned to General Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) -- had begun operations in France in June 1944 and by December had moved into … Continue reading The Monuments Men: Taking Stock and Preparing to Move Forward, December 1944
Today’s post was written by Dr. Greg Bradsher, Senior Archivist at the National Archives in College Park. The idea of establishing an American commission to assist in protecting and restituting cultural property in war areas grew out of discussions among American educators and museum officials about the potentially dangerous impact of the European war on historic … Continue reading Committee of the American Council of Learned Societies on the Protection of Cultural Treasures in War Areas
Today’s post, written by Dr. Greg Bradsher, is the next installment in an ongoing series of posts on real-life Monuments Men. The 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 … Continue reading Everett Parker Lesley, Jr.: The Monuments Man who drafted the Wiesbaden Manifesto
Today's post was written by Dr. Greg Bradsher, Senior Archivist at the National Archives in College Park. In looking at some boxes of the Reference Collection of the Departmental Records Branch of the Army’s Office of the Adjutant General (Record Group 407), I stumbled upon two boxes labeled “Protection of Monuments.” They carried the designation “Document … Continue reading The American Defense, Harvard Group’s Committee on the Protection of Monuments
