The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History
At the same time Adolf Hitler was attempting to take over the western world, his armies were methodically seeking and hoarding the finest art treasures in Europe. The Fuehrer had begun cataloguing the art he planned to collect as well as the art he would destroy: "degenerate" works he despised.\ In a race against time, behind enemy lines, often unarmed, a special force of American and British museum directors, curators, art historians, and others, called the Momuments Men, risked their lives...
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Focusing on the period between D-Day and V-E Day, this fascinating account follows six men on a mission to save the world's great art from the Nazis.The Washington Post - Jonathan YardleyWere the Allied (mostly American) soldiers who rescued works of art stolen by the Nazis before and during World War II really heroes, as Robert M. Edsel claims in The Monuments Men, or were they good men—aided by one resourceful, determined French woman—who were simply, in the best sense of the phrase, just doing their jobs? My vote is for the latter…Still, for the most part they have receded into the fog of history…and that is a pity, so it is good to have them given recognition in The Monuments Men. It's a somewhat problematical boo…But it's a terrific story, and it certainly is good to give these men (and that one remarkable woman) their due.
I The Mission1 Out of Germany 32 Hitler's Dream 103 The Call to Arms 164 A Dull and Empty World 255 Leptis Magna 326 The First Campaign 377 Monte Cassino 448 Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives 509 The Task 63II Northern Europe10 Winning Respect 7011 A Meeting in the Field 8312 Michelangelo's Madonna 9713 The Cathedral and the Masterpiece 10214 Van Eyck's Mystic Lamb 11315 James Rorimer Visits the Louvre 12016 Entering Germany 13917 A Field Trip 14618 Tapestry 15519 Christmas Wishes 16420 The Madonna of La Gleize 17321 The Train 17722 The Bulge 19023 Champagne 193III Germany24 A German Jew in the U.S. Army 20925 Coming Through the Battle 21426 The New Monuments Man 22027 George Stout with His Maps 23028 Art on the Move 23929 Two Turning Points 24230 Hitler's Nero Decree 25031 First Army Across the Rhine 25332 Treasure Map 25933 Frustration 27034 Inside the Mountain 28035 Lost 28436 A Week to Remember 287IV The Void37 Salt 30338 Horror 30939 The Gauleiter 31440 The Battered Mine 31641 Last Birthday 32242 Plans 32743 The Noose 33244 Discoveries 33945 The Noose Tightens 34446 The Race 34847 Final Days 35348 The Translator 35949 The Sound of Music 36250 End of the Road 367V The Aftermath51 Understanding Altaussee 37352 Evacuation 38253 The Journey Home 39154 Heroes of Civilization 400Cast of Characters 427Notes 431Bibliography 447Acknowledgments 455What Is Your Connection to the Story? 459Index 461
\ Jonathan YardleyWere the Allied (mostly American) soldiers who rescued works of art stolen by the Nazis before and during World War II really heroes, as Robert M. Edsel claims in The Monuments Men, or were they good men—aided by one resourceful, determined French woman—who were simply, in the best sense of the phrase, just doing their jobs? My vote is for the latter…Still, for the most part they have receded into the fog of history…and that is a pity, so it is good to have them given recognition in The Monuments Men. It's a somewhat problematical boo…But it's a terrific story, and it certainly is good to give these men (and that one remarkable woman) their due.\ —The Washington Post\ \ \ \ \ Publishers WeeklyWWII was the most destructive war in history and caused the greatest dislocation of cultural artifacts. Hundreds of thousands of items remain missing. The main burden fell to a few hundred men and women, curators and archivists, artists and art historians from 13 nations. Their task was to save and preserve what they could of Europe's great art, and they were called the Monuments Men. (Coincidentally or not, this book appears only briefly after Ilaria Dagnini Brey's The Venus Fixers: The Untold Story of the Allied Soldiers Who Saved Italy's Art During World War II, Reviews, June 1.) Edsel has presented their achievements in documentaries and photographs. He and Witter (coauthor of the bestselling Dewey) are no less successful here. Focusing on the organization's role in northwest Europe, they describe the Monuments Men from their initial mission to limit combat damage to structures and artifacts to their changed focus of locating missing items. Most had been stolen by the Nazis. In southern Germany alone, over a thousand caches emerged, containing everything from church bells to insect collections. The story is both engaging and inspiring. In the midst of a total war, armies systematically sought to mitigate cultural loss. (Sept. 3)\ \ \ Library JournalAdolf Hitler's plan for the subjugation of the world included its culture and treasures. Art was to be taken from conquered countries and stored in Germany until Hitler could build the world's largest museum complex in his hometown of Linz, Austria. It was the job of the Monuments Men (as they came to be called) to track down these missing treasures during the latter years of the war. This story concentrates on Northwest Europe only, where men (and at least one woman) from 13 nations, largely from professional arts-related backgrounds and past combat age, effectively saved much of European culture from a gang of murderous thieves. This intriguing story, told largely through letters written by the rescuers and now in various government archives, will appeal to many general and military history readers.\ \
