by Susan Ronald
14. Gesa Jeuthe, Kunstwerte im Wandel (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2011), 53. Ottfried Dascher, Alfred Flechtheim. Sammler—Kunsthändler (Verleger Wädenswil, 2012), 537–38. For further reading, see Thea Sternheim’s Tagebücher 2 (1925–1936) for Flechtheim’s state of mind.
15. See the chapter entitled “The Lion Tamer.”
16. See www.alfredflechtheim.com. Flechtheim Munich Case memo MS2014-01-28.
17. BP, undated letter prior to March 30, 1933 from Vömel to Bernoulli.
18. Jeuthe, Kunstwerte, 53. See also Verlag Beckmann, 1893, 19 and PhD Thesis Tiedemann 2010, 85. There are demonstrable connections between their stock in 1936.
19. Ibid., 53–54.
20. Ibid.
21. Ibid.
22. Petropoulos, Art as Politics, 28.
23. Ibid., 29.
24. Stephanie Barron, ed., Degenerate Art—The Fate of the Avant-Garde in Nazi Germany (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1991). Christoph Zuschlag, “An Educational Exhibition,” 83.
25. NPG, 214/001.
26. Ibid., 026/024.
27. Zuschlag, “An Educational Exhibition,” 84–85. Also Olaf Peters, ed., Degenerate Art, Karl Stamm, “‘Degenerate Art’ on Screen” (New York: Prestel Publishing, 2014), 196.
28. Hüneke, Degenerate Art, “On the Trail of Missing Masterpieces,” 122.
29. Ibid., 121.
30. John Weitz, Hitler’s Banker (London: Warner Books, 1999), 204, 208–10.
18. The Four Horsemen
1. NPG, 195/001.
2. The Gurlitt papers in the possession of the German government may give more information.
3. Hüneke, Degenerate Art, “On the Trail of Missing Masterpieces” (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1991), 121.
4. Lynn H. Nicholas, The Rape of Europa (London: Macmillan, 1997), 12–13.
5. Ibid., 10–11.
6. Hellmut Lehmann-Haupt, Art under a Dictatorship (New York: Oxford University Press, 1954), 74–75.
7. Nicholas, Rape of Europa, 12.
8. Hüneke, Degenerate Art, 122.
9. Ibid.
10. William E. Dodd, Jr., and Martha Dodd, Ambassador Dodd’s Diary, 1933–1938 (London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1941), 236, 397, 428.
11. Nicholas, Rape of Europa, 24.
12. Janda, in Degenerate Art, 113.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid., 89; cf. Rave, Kunstdiktatur, 145–46.
15. Ibid., 90. Some sixty-five cities responded to Goebbels’s telegram on November 23, 1937, inviting them to bid on dates for their own showing of the exhibition.
16. John Weitz, Hitler’s Banker (London: Warner Books, 1999), 192.
17. Ibid., 193.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid., 220; cf. Schacht, 457.
20. Nicholas, Rape of Europa, 23.
21. Hüneke, Degenerate Art, 124. Franz, Roh, Entartete Kunst—Kunstbarbarei im Dritten Reich (Hannover, Germany: Fackelträger-Verlag, 1962), 51. Petropoulos, “From Lucerne to Washington, DC” in Degenerate Art (New York: Neue Galerie, 2013), 283. The Möller Stiftung (Foundation) has set itself the task of financing this database of all purged art.
22. Roh, Entartete Kunst, 52.
23. Hüneke, Degenerate Art, 124.
24. Ibid.
25. The family correspondence limped on after Cornelius’s death for a few months. The Gurlitt papers with the German government may shed more light.
19. Tradecraft
1. Jonathan Petropoulos, Art as Politics (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina, 1996), 92–93. Also Avraham Barkai, From Boycott to Annihilation (Hanover, NH: University of New England Press, 1989), 84–87; BAB, R43II/1238c, 17.
2. Esther Tisa Francini, Anna Heuss, and Georg Kreis, Fluchtgut—Raubgut: Der Transfer von Kulturgütern in und über die Schweiz 1933–1945 und die Frage der Restitution, Expertkommission Schweiz—Zweiter Weltkrieg, Bd. 1 (Zurich: Chronos, 2001), 67. This is the Swiss Expert Commission’s first effort at an historical analysis of the role Switzerland played with regard to both “Escape Goods” and “Looted Goods.”
3. Petropoulos, Art as Politics, 76; Iselt, Sonderbeauftragter des Führers (Cologne: Böhlau Verlag, 2010), 100. Also BAB R55/21015 and R55/21017 for details.
4. Roh, Entartete Kunst, 53.
5. Hüneke, Degenerate Art, 125.
6. Ibid., 127; cf. letters to Franz Hofmann October 14, 1938 and Rolf Hetsch October 28, 1938 from (ZStA, Best. 50.01-1017, bl. 49).
7. Lynn H. Nicholas, The Rape of Europa (London: Macmillan, 1997), 25.
8. Hüneke, Degenerate Art, 127.
9. Ibid.; cf. Nachlass Ferdinand Möller, Berlinische Galerie, letter November 9, 1938.
10. Ibid., 128.
11. I suspect Böhmer’s inclusion had more to do with his “closeness” to Barlach, with whom even Hitler had voiced a willingness at some sort of reconciliation. Barlach’s wife was also Böhmer’s mistress.
12. Francini, Fluchtgut, 67.
13. Ibid., 72.
14. Ibid., 71.
15. Barkai, From Boycott to Annihilation, 174–75; cf. Yad Vashem Archive, JM/2828.
16. Francini, Fluchtgut, 137.
17. Halvorsen was introduced by Kirchbach. Gurlitt dealt with him for his Oslo exhibition while still at the museum in Zwickau.
18. Francini, Fluchtgut, 137.
19. Ibid., 139.
20. Ibid., 215.
20. The Treasure Houses
1. Helen Fry, Spymaster: The Secret Life of Thomas Kendrick (London: Kindle edition, 2014). I had the pleasure of working with Helen on several film scripts where she shared her deep knowledge of the Anschluss and the war.
2. Avraham Barkai, From Boycott to Annihilation (Hanover, NH: University of New England Press, 1989), 133. Grynszpan maintained he was avenging the injustice of the deportation of his parents to Poland on October 28.
3. There are still sacred items of Judaica which have yet to find a home some seventy years later.
4. Both headlines are from November 11, 1938.
5. Ibid., 138.
6. Author interview with David Toren (aka Klaus Garnowski) in his Manhattan apartment June 4, 2014.
7. BAB, R2-12920 microfilm.
8. NARA, RG153, roll 0001, 86.
9. Albert Speer, Inside the Third Reich (London: Phoenix, 1995), 127–28.
10. Speer, 154.
11. Pevsner’s career was launched in Dresden. He had Jewish ancestors, so when the opportunity arose to move his family to London, he did.
12. Francini, Fluchtgut, 144.
13. Stephanie Barron, ed., Degenerate Art (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1991), 138; cf. Kreis, “Entarte” Kunst für Basel, 12–13.
14. Ibid.; cf. Kreis, 168–69.
15. Ibid., 140.
16. Francini, Fluchtgut (Zurich: Chronos, 2001), 216; private correspondence with Jonathan Petropoulos.
17. Ibid., 139.
18. Ibid., 140.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid. Notwithstanding this reference, the author of this otherwise finely researched article has based the statement that “Germany had invaded the free city of Danzig” that day on the William F. Arntz papers. No such invasion took place that day. The nearest pre–World War II significant event was on June 17, with the return of the refugee ship St. Louis, which had been refused entry to the United States and Cuba, returned to Belgium. Almost all of its refugees were later slaughtered by the Nazis.
21. Ibid., 141.
22. Ibid., 144, 145.
23. Francini, Fluchtgut, 215.
24. Alice Goldfarb Marquis, Alfred H. Barr, Jr. (Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1989), 177–78.
25. Ibid., 178.
26. AAA, Jane Wade Papers, Nazi Authoriz
ation dated November 14, 1936.
27. Ibid.
28. Marquis, Alfred H. Barr, Jr., 178.
29. Ibid., 178–79.
30. BAB, R55/21019; also Francini, Fluchtgut, 145.
21. The Posse Years
1. NARA, M1934, RG226, roll 0001, 173–78. Gould, a Nazi hostess, was also reputed to be the mistress of three different Nazis.
2. www.dictionaryofarthistorians.org/posseh.htm.
3. Ibid.
4. Kathrin Iselt, Sonderbeauftragter des Führers (Köln: Böhlau Verlag, 2010), 98–99, note 94. BAB, R 55/20.744, fol. 92–114.
5. NARA, CIR no. 4: 57–59.
6. Francini, Fluchtgut (Zurich: Chronos, 2001), 220, 239n.
7. Author interview with Elisabeth Novak-Thaller, director Lentos Museum, Linz, May 24, 2013. The original will be on display in 2015 at the Liège Exhibition about Degenerate Art; microfilm printout in BAK B323/134.
8. Francini, Fluchtgut, 216.
9. Lynn H. Nicholas, The Rape of Europa (London: Macmillan, 1997), 69.
10. Ibid., 68.
11. Ibid., 69.
12. BAK, B323/134, f. 70, 10 December 1940.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid. This is a summarized translation of the letter.
15. Jonathan Petropoulos, Art as Politics (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina, 1996), 264–65.
16. BAK, B323/134, fol. 70, no. 381.
17. Ibid., fols. 68–70.
18. AAA, Curt Valentin Papers, Beckmann file, Buchholz to Beckmann June 14, 1940.
19. Ibid.
20. Ibid., Valentin to Beckmann, June 8, 1940.
21. BAK, B323/134, fol. 40, no. 211; fol. 41, no. 213; fols. 63–65.
22. See AAA, Curt Valentin Papers; SAC, SpK BA Land G251, letter August 6, 1946.
23. SAC, SpK BA Land G251, fol. 79.
24. Ibid., fol. 78.
25. BAK, B323/134 is littered with Gurlitt’s “Heil Hitler!” salutations, the first one dated September 10, 1941.
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid., 79. Karla Langhoff’s statement is here, too.
28. www.lootedart.com. Toren v Bavarian Government and German Federal Government.
29. Ibid., 78.
30. Ibid., 79.
31. Ibid.
32. www.interactive.ancestry.com/30299/rddeu1824b_078875-0227/14903396?backurl=http%3a%2f%2fsearch.ancestry.com%2fcgi-bin%2fsse.dll%3fgst%3d-6&ssrc=&backlabel=ReturnSearchResults&rc=835,2728,1020,2750. A 1935 Hamburg telephone book unlocked the mystery surrounding Theo Hermsen. No expert or archivist with whom I spoke or corresponded, including the director of the Dutch Restitution Services, had any information on Hermsen other than that provided to Gurlitt in his statements to Allied interrogators.
22. Swallowing the Treasure
1. NARA, CIR no. 4.
2. NARA, Vlug report, RG239/roll 0008, 5–6.
3. Charles Williams, Pétain (London: Little Brown, 2005), 333.
4. A few online references for initial further information can be found at: www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/dunkirk.htm or www.historylearningsite.co.uk/dunkirk.htm.
5. Henri Michel, Paris Allemand (Paris: Albin Michel, 1981), 19.
6. Williams, Pétain, 332.
7. Churchill urged Reynaud (prime minister of France) to wire Roosevelt for help. See Williams, Pétain, 319–22.
8. Ibid., 29.
9. Williams, Pétain, 335–36.
10. Lynn H. Nicholas, The Rape of Europa (London: Macmillan, 1997), 116; cf. Shirer, Third Republic, 914.
11. Emmanuelle Polack and Philippe Dagen, eds., Les carnets de Rose Valland (Paris: Fage Editions, 2013), 9–10; cf. Valland, Le front de l’art (Paris: Librairie Plon, 1961), 49.
12. Jonathan Petropoulos, Art as Politics (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina, 1996), 129.
13. Nicholas, Rape of Europa, 119.
14. Ibid., 120.
15. Ibid., 121.
16. Petropoulos, Art as Politics, 125–26.
17. IMT, Trial of the Major War Criminals, 8:68.
18. Petropoulos, Art as Politics, 128.
19. Valland, Le front de l’art, 48.
20. Polack and Dagen, Les carnets de Rose Valland, 15.
21. Valland, Le front de l’art (Paris: Librairie Plan, 1961), 55–56.
22. Nicholas, Rape of Europa, 127–28.
23. Ibid., 128.
24. Ibid., 131–32; Polack and Dagen, Les carnets de Rose Valland, 19.
25. Ibid., 142.
26. Anne Sinclair, 21 rue la Boétie (Paris: Éditions Grasset et Fasquelle, 2012). Also CDJC, XIa-230a.
27. CDJC, XXIX-36, Aryanization of Wildenstein. Wildenstein left for the United States on January 29, 1941.
28. Ibid., 78–79.
29. AAA, Valentin Papers, letter March 31, 1942.
30. CDJC, XXI-14, XXI-15, letter June 23, 1942.
31. CDJC, CX-217, letter November 27, 1942.
32. Ibid.
33. Nicholas, Rape of Europa, 157–58.
34. Frederic Spotts, The Shameful Peace (London: Yale University Press, 2010), 159.
35. Ibid., 150.
36. Nicholas, Rape of Europa, 124.
37. Spotts, Shameful Peace, 151.
23. Viau
1. Lynn H. Nicholas, The Rape of Europa (London: Macmillan, 1997), 153.
2. BAK, B 323/134, fol. 68, no. 372.
3. webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20070706011932/www.raf.mod.uk/bombercommand/jul42.html.
4. NARA, DIR nos. 12, 37.
5. ANF, AJ40/573, export application 37.875, Gurlitt list December 17, 1942.
6. There are several examples of Gurlitt’s poor French in AJ 40. He even provided translations in German for his addressee, fearing he hadn’t made himself understood.
7. CDJC, XIf-32, November 17, 1941.
8. ANF, AJ40/573, export applications 37.876, 38.218, 38.263, 38.606. Also the Viau Auction Catalogue in the same file.
9. Le Nouvel Observateur, www.rue89.nouvelobs.com/rue89-culture/2013/11/26/tableaux-nazis-gurlitt-a-fait-bonnes-affaires-france-247841.
10. ANF, AJ40/573, press clipping from the Pariser Zeitung last page (unnumbered).
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid. Memo stamped February 23, 1943.
13. Ibid. Memo January 26, 1943. The underlining is mine.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. Kathrin Iselt, Sonderbeauftragter des Führers (Vienna: Böhlau Verlag, Köln, 2010), 181. Scholars repeat the story that Posse named Voss his successor on his deathbed. Yet Voss was one of the most unlikely candidates, not only for his supposed political convictions but also because he hadn’t been employed by one of the big museums, only as the director of Wiesbaden, despite his admired scholarship. Given Hitler’s convoluted thinking, this might have been an advantage alongside his tremendous credentials in nineteenth-century German and Italian Renaissance art, particularly if Hitler was considering an invasion to “support” (meaning invade) Italy after the defeat of Rommel’s Afrikakorps.
17. Nicholas, Rape of Europa, 171.
18. Ibid., 130.
24. King Raffke
1. BAK, B323/134, f. 60, no. 322 3.
2. ANF, AJ 40/574, letter July 27, 1944. Other letters are, among others, AJ 40/574, export applications 38650—38658, 38662–38668, letter April 11, 1943, letter January 11, 1944, April 7, 1944, and application no. 26522, letter June 16, 1944.
3. Rose Valland, Le front de l’art (Paris: Librairie Plon, 1961), 72–73.
4. Ibid., 90.
5. Ibid., 91, law of April 7, 1942.
6. Ibid., 92, Bunjes report August 18, 1942.
7. Em
manuelle Polack and Philippe Dagen, eds., Les carnets de Rose Valland (Paris: Fage Éditions, 2011), 71 (fol. 82).
8. Ibid.
9. Jonathan Petropoulos, Art as Politics (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina, 1996), 159.
10. ANF, AJ40/574. Gurlitt is labeled “the main exporter to the German authorities” through his agent Hermsen. The April 11, 1943 letter is salient detailing the difficulties the authorities had with Gurlitt.
11. Valland, Le front de l’art, 93.
12. Ibid., 106–7.
13. Ibid., 107. For Voss’s official statement about the Schloss Collection heist, see CIR no. 4, attachment 27.
14. BAB, R 43 II/1653, fol. 89, letter from Gurlitt to Voss, September 4, 1944, and R 43II/1651a, fol. 33, Voss to Lammers September 6, 1944.
15. Ibid., 106–10.
16. Polack and Dagen, Les carnets de Rose Valland, 71.
17. Ibid.
18. BAK, B323/45-51, fol. 56 re the Schloss Collection in the “Dresden Catalogue.”
19. Valland, Le front de l’art, 178–83. Many scholars describe this May event as the one that took place in mid-July. Valland, however, describes two separate events—the one on May 27, 1943, and the one from July 19 to 23, 1943. Four days after the July “trial,” these were driven to the garden of the Jeu de Paume under guard and heaped onto the bonfire. Valland omits the May bonfire from her contemporaneous journal. See Polack and Dagen, Les carnets de Rose Valland, 71 (fol. 85).
20. Ibid., 182. Valland believed that only those paintings deemed as fakes, poorly restored, or of no intrinsic value were destroyed. In his statement to the ALIU after capture on August 15, 1945, DIR no. 4, page 5, Gustav Rochlitz said, “Scholz talked frequently in almost hysterical terms about the ‘degenerate’ nature of all modern French painting.”
21. BAK B323/109, f. 119, Reimer to Reger, September 29, 1943. Italics are mine.
22. ANF, AJ 40/573 and AJ40/574, Hermsen file, export application 13678 dated March 27, 1944.
23. Ibid., cover letter for invoice.
24. Petropoulos, Art as Politics, 159–60.
25. Ibid., April 5, 1944 letter.
26. BAB, R 55/667.
27. ANF, AJ 40/573 and AJ 40/574. Eighteen of the 129 export applications were clearly in the name of Schmidt and the Dorotheum—nos. 13679, 17528, 21495, 22272, 22273, 24065, 24066, 27068, 27069, 27068, 27069, 27238, 27239, 27668, 27861–27863, 28332, 29418, 29419, 29629, 31237, 31701, and 31702.
