Archive of stolen art works online

Discussion in 'The Holocaust' started by chick42-46, May 5, 2011.

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  1. chick42-46

    chick42-46 Senior Member

    Not sure if this is the right section, but since many of the art works stolen by the Nazis originally belonged to Jewish people, it seems apt.

    So, today's Guardian reports - Archive of artworks stolen by Nazis goes online | World news | The Guardian - that an international database of stolen art is now online.

    This excerpt gives a flavour of what's covered:

    The records include files documenting the systematic expropriation of Jewish property, Adolf Hitler's plans to establish a Führermuseum crammed with looted art in his Austrian hometown of Linz and the interrogation of art dealers.

    The British documents, which cover the years 1939 to 1961, also lay out the efforts made to identify the stolen works and reunite them with their owners.

    Among them is a report from a British art expert and RAF intelligence officer who was dispatched to Switzerland in 1945. The paper may have faded to yellow, but Douglas Cooper's exasperation with the Swiss authorities remains fresh to this day.

    "Until I arrived here five weeks ago, practically nothing had been done," he writes. "And still no steps have been taken by the Swiss government to put the looted pictures in security. This means that it is still possible for any of the present holders to dispose of them."

    The database can be found here - International Resources for Holocaust-Era Assets Research.

    It seems to cover more than just looted art works.
     
  2. PA. Dutchman

    PA. Dutchman Senior Member

    A couple years ago I had a doctor from Israel contact me here in the USA in Pennsylvania on the Internet. He was trying to locate members of his mothers side of the family. She was from Pennsylvania and a gentile, in time we discovered we were 7 TH cousins on his mother's side.

    I asked him once why he was working so hard to link up with his mothers side, a gentile, and not his father's side.

    He told me his father's side was wiped out in the war in the Death Camps. There are very few if any left and his mother's side was easier to look up.

    I know the Jewish lost a lot of art, family photographs and other things, however when he said he pretty much lost his entire family on his father's side it really sunk in.

    The MOST valuable items they lost were their loved ones and they can never be recovered.

    We have a large population of German Americans living in Pennsylvania, mainly we have been Americans since before the Revolution. Many of the German names can be Gentile or Jewish and we all realize this living here.

    Our son played baseball with a fine Jewish boy for 10 years. His parents throught we might be Jewish because of our last name and I explained we weren't. We remained good friends and when Schindlers List came out they asked us to go see it with them. We were honored. I picked them up and told my wife later they had family photos all over the living room. Many looked like they came right out of the movie Schinders List. It was sad and the wife cried quietly during the movie.

    Our last name is Heilman and many of my friends and teachers pronounced it Heelman growing up. In Schindlers List two Heelmans are registered at one of the tables. I looked it on the Internet, they were actually Jewish Heilman's. They survived the war and had a son Samuel who is a famous Hebrew Scholar of Hebrew Studies in NY City.

    I printed the list and took it into work, it really struck people at work and my friends when they found those with their same name on Schindler's List.

    Here is the list, as I said there are many many names on it found in our local phone book, including Heilman.
     

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