The Monument Men

The Holocaust was a devastating time for many people. Eleven million Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, and other non-Aryans were killed. But lives were not the only thing lost during the Holocaust. Hitler and the Nazis stole several million works of art. Five million were tracked down and recovered by the Monument Men. These courageous people helped to find and save the art stolen during the greatest cultural disaster in history.
Hitler and the Nazis stole all kinds of art and for many different reasons. Adolf Hitler admired art and culture. He wanted to become an artist, but his application to the Vienna Academy of the Arts was denied. One of his goals was to create the cultural center of the world in his hometown of Linz, Austria. The Führermuseum …show more content…
It all started with some passionate people in the United States who were worried about the cultural loss in Europe. The American Defense - Harvard Group began working with the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) to devise plans for protecting cultural property in Europe. National Gallery of Art (NGA) Director, David Finely, and Chief Justice and Gallery Chairman, Harlan F. Stone, became the group’s spokesmen in Washington. In December 1942, Stone took the group’s proposition to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt created the American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in Europe. Later, the Commission’s scope was expanded to include all war areas. Owen J. Roberts was appointed as chairman, and the Commission became known as the Roberts Commission. In the group’s early days, it sought to formalize the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives (MFAA) program within the War Department. The group recommended would-be Monument Men, or members of the MFAA program. The Roberts Commission also told military strategists of potential targets for Allied bombers that should be protected because of its cultural …show more content…
These members are Harry Ettlinger, Richard Barancik, Bernard Taper, Anne Oliver Popham Bell, and Lennox Tierney. Born in 1926, Harry Ettlinger is the youngest living member at the age of eighty-nine. He is a Jew who escaped to the United States at a young age. After graduating high school, he was drafted and designated as an interpreter because he is fluent in German. While in Munich, awaiting assignment, he volunteered for the MFAA, at the mere age of nineteen. Today, he is co-chair of the Wallenberg Foundation of New Jersey. He carries out the Foundation’s mission by educating young people about the power of a single person’s actions to positively impact society. Ettlinger also wrote an autobiography called “Ein Amerikaner: Anecdotes From the Life of Harry Ettlinger.” Anne Oliver Popham Bell was born in 1916, and she coordinated the Branch officer’s work during her service. She is the only known surviving British member of the MFAA. She was married to Quentin Bell and had three children. Today, she is a senior Trustee of the Charleston Trust and is actively associated with the Bloomsbury Group. All of the surviving Monument Men are doing incredible things to help others in their own

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