Opportunity to examine original “Hitler Album” and meet Monuments Man Harry Ettlinger
WHAT: To mark the May 8 anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe in 1945, the National Archives will hold a press conference to unveil the last known leather-bound “Hitler Album” of art works stolen by the Nazis during the war. The Monuments Men Foundation will donate to the National Archives this album, which was found at Hitler's home in Berchtesgaden, Germany, in the closing days of the war and has since been in private hands.
WHO: David S. Ferriero, Archivist of the United States
Dr. Greg Bradsher, Senior Archivist and expert on Holocaust-Era Assets records
Robert M. Edsel, Chairman of the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art, and author of The Monuments Men
Harry Ettlinger, one of only six living Monuments Men
WHEN: Thursday, May 8, 2014, at 1 p.m.
WHERE: Archivist’s Reception Room, National Archives, 700 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC.
Background: Created by the staff of a special Nazi task force, the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR), the so-called “Hitler Albums” document the unprecedented and systematic looting of European art by the Nazis, a story recently brought to the screen by George Clooney in The Monuments Men film. The ERR was the main Nazi agency engaged in art looting in Nazi-occupied countries. As the ERR looted, photographed, and catalogued French collections, they created albums, including the one being donated. Each page of the album shows a photograph of one stolen item.
After the war, the U.S. Army discovered 39 of these albums and turned them over to the Monuments Men for use in identifying art work to be restituted. These volumes, in the holdings of the National Archives, served as evidence in the Nuremburg trials to document the massive Nazi art looting operations. Until recentl ...More...
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