Notes and references
The focus of our research has been the Kunstraub (art theft) policy of the Third Reich, in particular the Sonderauftrag Linz (Special Assignment Linz), Hitler's secret project to house the best of the gathered art in a vast museum to be built in the city of his youth. His own plans and elevation sketches exist, as do the detailed plans and some of the models of Giesler and Frick, the assigned architects. The project raises certain questions.

Records of these events, like the events themselves, are contradictory. Accounts range from self-serving journalistic efforts to eyewitness reports, government records to historical compendia of destroyed or displaced works, and list after list of who had what, what went where, and when. Together these give us a shifting, incomplete reflection of one possible relationship between art and politics, and of the several kinds of madness at work in the glorification of the state, then and since.

What follows is a grouping of notes and references drawn together by some of the artists who have been thinking about these questions. This list, far from comprehensive, and not yet in alphabetical order, is made up of notes by Bernie Miller and Jeanne Randolph, library and Web site lists compiled by Daniel Olson, some of my own discoveries, and detective work by Anna Weiler. Though rough, it is nevertheless a kind of tracing of where we've been. New entries will be added as we go, and you are invited to contribute names of articles or books you consider essential to the interrelated questions of missing art, collecting fever, culture and politics, and the Führermuseum.

Send your message to: Artworks@yorku.ca

An interim bibliography


SUBJECTS: Art thefts--Europe.
World War, 1939-1945--Destruction and pillage--Europe.
Hitler,Adolf, 1889-1945.
AUTHOR: Alford, Kenneth D.
TITLE: The spoils of World War II : the American military's role in the stealing of Europe's treasures /
PUBLISHED: Secaucus, NJ : Carol Pub. Group, c1994.
NOTES: "A Birch Lane Press book."

AUTHOR: Smyth, Craig Hugh.
TITLE: Repatriation of art from the Collecting Point in Munich after World War II
PUBLISHED: Maarssen : Gary Schwartz ; Montclair, NJ : Distributed in North
America by Abner Schram, c1988.

ENTRY TITLE: Schuldig geboren. English.
TITLE: Born guilty : children of Nazi families / [compiled by] Peter
Sichrovsky ; translated from the GermanBR> PUBLISHED: London: I.B. Tauris, c1988.

AUTHOR: FriedlŠnder, Saul, 1932-
UNIFORM TITLE: Reflets du nazisme. English
TITLE: Reflections of Nazism : an essay on kitsch and death / Saul
FriedlŠnder; translated from the French
New York: Harper & Row. 1984.

AUTHOR: Breker, Arno, 1900-
TITLE: Paris, Hitler et moi [Traduit de l'allemand par Jean-Pierre Tafforeau.]
PUBLISHED: Paris Presses de la CitŽ, 1970

AUTHOR: Kubin, Ernst.
TITLE: Sonderauftrag Linz : die Kunstsammlung Adolf Hitlers :
Apbau, Vernichtungsplan, Rettung : ein Thriller
PUBLISHED: Wien : Orac, c1989.
NOTES: Includes index.

AUTHOR: Kurz, Jakob, 1931-
TITLE: Kunstraub in Europa : 1938-1945 / Jakob Kurz. --
PUBLISHED: Hamburg : FactaOblit,c199.
NOTES: Includes bibliographical references (p. 443-444).

AUTHOR: De Jaeger, Charles.
TITLE: The Linz file: Hitler's plunder of Europe's art /
PUBLISHED: Exeter, England: Webb & Bower, 1981.
NOTES: Includes index.

AUTHOR: Wortman,Michael.
TITLE: Baldur von Schirach, Hitlers JugendfŸhrer
PUBLISHED: Kšln : BŸhlauc1982.
NOTES: Rev. ed. of the author's thesis (doctoral)

Verlorene Werke der Malerei; in Deutschland in der Zeit von 1939 bis 1945
MŸnchen, F.A. Kunstverlag Akermann [1965]
31225 plates (part col.)

AUTHOR: Maser, Werner, 1922-
TITLE: Hitler's letters and notes / Werner Maser ; translated by Arnold Pomerans. --
PUBLISHED: London : Heinemann, [1974]
NOTES: Slightly adapted translation of Hitlers Briefe und

AUTHOR: Hoffmann,Heinrich, 1885-1957
TITLE: Hitler, wie ich ihn sah : Aufzeichnungen seines Leibfotografen, translated by Arnold Pomerans.
PUBLISHED: MŸnchen: Hebig, [c1974]


The Jackdaw of Linz
David Roxan and Ken Wanstall.
PUBLISHED: London: White Lion Publihers, 1976.

AUTHOR: Valland, Rose
TITLE: Le front de l'art : dŽfense des collections franaises, 1939-1945
PUBLISHED: Paris : Plon, 1961.
SUBJECTS: Art--France--Galleries and museums

Friemuth, Cay.
Die geraubte Kunst: der dramatische Wettlauf um die Rettung der
KulturschŸtze nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg
Braunschweig: Westermann, c1989.
NOTES: Includes bibliographical refernces

Simon, Matila.
The battle of the Louvre; the struggle to save French art in World War II.
New York, Hawthorn Books. 1971.

TITLE: Captured German and related records: a National Archives conference: papers and proceedings of
PUBLISHED: Athens: Ohio University Press, [1975] c1974.

TITLE: Le pillage par les Allemands des oeuvres d'art et des biblothques
appartenant ˆ des Juifs en France
PUBLISHED: Paris : ƒditions du Centre, 1947.
SERIES: SŽrie Documents - Centre de documentation Juive Contemporaine ; no. 4
SUBJECTS: World War, 1939-1945--Art and the war
David, Ken: ris: ƒditions du Centre,


Grosshans, Henry.
Hitler and the artists
New York : Holmes & Meier, 1983)

The Nazification of art: art, design, music, architecture and film in the Third Reich
edited by Brandon Taylor and Wilfried van der Will.
Winchester, Hampshire : Winchester Press, Winchester School of Art, 1990.

Hinz, Berthold.
Art in the Third Reich; translated from the German by Robert and Rita Kimber.
New York: Pantheon Books, c1979.
Translation of Die Malerei im deutschen Faschismus.


Adam, Peter.
Art of the Third Reich
New York: H.N. Abrams, c1992.

Steinweis, Alan E.
Art, ideology, & economics in Nazi Germany : the Reich chambers of music, theater, and the visual arts
Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, c1993.


********************************************************* Hello Vera, Here's something I found, and am sending as a test of this sending option. http://gopher.nara.gov:70/0/inform/guide/200s/rg239.txt I will also send you Hitler's skull (with any luck.)

Daniel

********************************* Records of the American Commission for the Protection and Salvage
of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas (Record Group 239)
1942-47
61 cu. ft.

239.1 ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORY

Established: Under the chairmanship of Associate Justice Owen J. Roberts, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, June 23, 1943, and announced by Secretary of State Cordell Hull, August 20, l943.

Functions: Cooperated with the U.S. Army in protecting cultural treasures and gathered information about war damage to such treasures. Compiled data on cultural property appropriated by the Axis Powers and encouraged its restitution. Compiled maps showing locations of areas or sites in enemy or enemy-occupied areas that were to be spared destruction if possible.

Assisted by the private American Defense-Harvard Group and by the American Council of Learned Societies' Committee on the Protection of Cultural Treasures in War Areas, which turned over its research files to the commission.

Abolished: June 30, l946.

Successor Agencies: Department of State (restoration of art objects), as announced by department, August 16, 1946.

Finding Aids: H. Stephen Helton and Philip C. Brooks, comps., William J. Lescure, rev., "Preliminary Inventory of the Records of the American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas," NC 124 (Aug. 1965).

Security-Classified Records: This record group may include material that is security-classified.

Subject Access Terms: World War II agency.

RECORDS

 
RECORD TYPES           RECORD LOCATIONS          QUANTITIES  
Textual Records            Washington Area                 59 cu. ft. 
Maps and Charts            College Park                 1,489 items 
Aerial Photographs         College Park                   124 items  
Still Pictures             College Park                19,950 images 
239.2 RECORDS OF THE COMMISSION, l942-47

57 lin. ft. and 10 rolls of microfilm

Textual Records:

Minutes, 1943-46. Applications and letters of recommendation, 1943-46. Correspondence and other records of Commissioner Paul Sachs, 1942-46. General correspondence, 1943- 46. Fiscal records, 1943-47. Lists and handbooks concerning cultural institutions in Europe, 1943-45. Allied military government records, including final reports of the Mediterranean and European Theaters of Operations, drawn from the "Analytical File," 1945-46. Reports of the Art Looting Investigation Unit, including some reports of the Office of Strategic Services and the Strategic Services Unit, 1945-46. Microfilm copy of lists of war damaged areas and buildings in Japan, origin unknown, 1946 (10 rolls).

Related Records: Department of State central decimal file, in RG 59, General Records of the Department of State. Records of the Civil Affairs Division, in RG 165, Records of the War Department General and Special Staffs.

Subject Access Terms: Art looting; Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives Section.

239.3 CARTOGRAPHIC RECORDS (GENERAL) 1943-46 1,613 items

Maps (1,489 items): Base maps of provinces, regions, and cultural sites in Europe and Asia, photocopied with overlays marking sites that were to be spared destruction (a few maps are originals with manuscript overlays), 1943-46; with accompanying documentation, consisting of a set of instructions for the preparation of maps, lists of maps, and site identification lists attached to the maps.

Aerial Photographs (124 items): Italian and Spanish cities, and Tinian Island in the Marianas, ca. 1944.

Subject Access Terms: Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, China, Corsica, Czechoslovakia, Dalmatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Indochina, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Java, Korea, Marianas, the Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, Romania, Sardinia, Sicily, and Yugoslavia.

239.4 STILL PICTURES (GENERAL) 1943-46 19,950 images

Photographs: Europe, North Africa, Palestine, the Philippine Islands, Burma, China, and the Netherlands East Indies, collected by the Photo Archives Unit, showing depositories and looted artwork, effects of bomb damage and vandalism to cities and monuments, liberation by the Allies, and commission employees, 1943-46 (PA, RC; 19,650 images).

Survey of war damage to cultural institutions and monuments in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 1946 (SFM, 300 images).


************************************************** Lost Works Bibliographic Information

Long after the American Monuments Officers had left Germany, Rose Valland continued her quest to retrieve or account for every single thing that had left France. In her last years she retreated entirely into her world of secret documents, which at her death were relegated in an unsorted and chaotic mess to a MusŽe storeroom in Malmaison.

In Germany Wilhellm Arntz, a Lawyer, spent years trying to track down every single 'degenerate' picture removed by the Nazis.

The USSR returned most of the Dresden and Berlin collections in their possession to the GDR in the late 50's.

In all nations, most of the records relating to confiscation and recovery lay classified and often sealed for terms of 50 years or more.

Since the unification of Germany and the end of the Cold War the French Foreign Ministry has retrieved Rose Valland's Papers and is busily perusing them at the Quai d'Orsay.

The search for missing works of Art still goes on. International law enforcement agencies and private foundations such as the Institute for Art Research in New York keep an eye on the markets.

************************* Possible Research Leads: Record Group 5a at the National Archives is the records of the Fine Arts and Monuments Advisor !949-1969

Record group 239 Records of the American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas

Record Group 260. Records of the U.S. Occupation Headquarters. World War II, Ardelia Hall Collection: Records of the Collecting Points.

"Looted Art Treasures Go Back to France" The Quartermaster Review September/October 1946

Works of Art in Italy : "Losses and Survivals in the War". Volumes 1 and 2 London: His Majesty's Stationary Office 1945

Craig H. Smyth "Repatriation of Art From the Collection Point in Munich After WWII" The Hague: Gerson Lecture, Schwartz/SDUm 1988

Thomas C. Howe "Saltmines and Castles" New York: Bobbs Merrill 1946

Bureau Central des Restitutions "RŽpertoire des Biens SpoliŽs en France durant la Guerre 1939-1945" Berlin 1947

American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas "Report on American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas." Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office 1946

NA, RG 239/77 OSS/ALIU CIR 4, Faison "Linz: Hitler's Museum and Library" December 14, 1945 P.2

NA 260/386 II, Ledgers for Linz operation

NA, RG 239?77 CIR LINZ Attatchments2,5,8,35a,60 and supplement

R.Valland, "Le Front de l'Art " Paris 1961

Report on Activities of ERR in Netherlands, Nuremberg Document 175PS CIR ERR Attatchment 9

Getty Centre Archives, List and letter, Valland December 10, 1962 as well as Reutti, "Reports on Post-War Activities" MS

J. Flanner "Men and Monuments" New York, 1957

Album of Photos, Contents Ricoveri, FŸhrer's birthday April 20, 1945: Hartt papers, Ringler Report pp. 12-13

"History of the Wiesbaden Collecting Point July 13, 1945-March 5, 1946 Courtesy: W. Farmer

Archives of American Art, Washington D.C. Thomas Carr Howe Papers James J. Rorimer Papers George Stout Papers

NA, RG 239/84, DIR VOSS

M. Kurtz, "Nazi Contraband" New York 1985

***************************************** Some interesting notes:


**************************************************************** To be continued. The story is always partial. "Partial to what?" you say ...