Focus | WORLD WAR II
Transcription
Focus | WORLD WAR II
Monday, July 8, 2013 News 3 Orange County Register 1 Focus | WORLD WAR II CLEANING THE NAZI HOUSE Germany seeks owners of reams of relics, many looted by Hitler’s right-hand man. COURTESY OF LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Goering’s trains, which covered 4,305 square feet, were housed for a while in the attic of his estate at Carinhall. B y C AT H E R I N E H I C K L E Y BLOOMBERG | FROM BERLIN T he miniature, half-timbered houses are crafted by hand and decorated with wreaths. Tiny figures lean out the windows, among them a man in uniform with a swastika armband giving a “Heil Hitler” salute. One shoebox-size building has a row of shops; another is lined with balconies and flower boxes. They may have been part of a model railway set owned by Hermann Goering, Adolf Hitler’s right-hand man and commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe, Nazi Germany’s air force. He owned two train sets covering 4,305 square feet at his sprawling country estate. “We can date these houses from between 1933 and 1945,” said Frank Beseke, a legal specialist working for the German government. “We have a lot of other things that belonged to Goering, which suggests these may well Nearly seven decades have come from Carinhall, after World War II, German too,” he said, referring to authorities still are trying the Reichsmarschall’s to find the rightful owners country estate north of Berof thousands of items lin. stolen by the Nazis. Today, the items sit on a They’ve had limited success, and now come the shelf in a government depot difficult cases. in the German capital, where Angelika Enderlein, a government art historian, 40 miles is researching ownership of a trove of unclaimed paintings, sculptures and other GERMA N Y items. Some were plundered 20 from Jewish families; some Szczecin belonged to Nazi leaders. Carinhall Thousands of treasures were discovered in mines, caves, palaces and depots Joachimsthal and assembled at a collectPOLAND 11 ing point in Munich by the 24 U.S. and British Monu10 ments, Fine Arts and ArBerlin chives unit. 12 “It would have been helpful if the Allies had given us The Register more information,” Enderlein said. A morphine addict who kept pet lions, jangled emeralds like small change in his pockets and built a huge stash of stolen art, Goering also loved toys. Photos show him displaying his train sets to houseguests, including Hitler and Hungarian leader Miklos Horthy, in the attic and basement of Carinhall. FILE PHOTO: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A U.S. soldier studies a sample of Hermann Goering’s looted art May 29, 1 945, less than a month after his arrest. HERMANN GOERING’S MILITARY CAREER WHY IT MATTERS HOME DESTROYED AMID SOVIET ADVANCE After moving his collection to Bavaria, Goering ordered Carinhall to be dynamited to prevent it falling into Soviet hands. The fate of his model trains is unknown, Enderlein said. The tasks of the intriguingly named Federal Office for Central Services and Unresolved Property Issues include handling claims for compensation and restitution from victims of Nazi theft, and for those expropriated by the communist East German regime. The office also inherited about 2,300 unclaimed paintings, graphics, sculptures and artifacts, along with 10,000 coins and books from Allied depots at the conclusion of World War II. Goering was the highest-ranking Nazi official tried at the Nuremberg tribunal in 1 946. As Hitler’s No. 2 man, Goering was the one who gave orders for a “total solution” to the “Jewish question.” He was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging, but committed suicide by cyanide in his cell on the eve of his execution. A timeline of his career: Born: Jan. 1 2, 1 893, in Marienbad, Germany Died: Oct. 1 5, 1 946, in Nuremberg, Germany 1 9 1 5-1 8: Highly decorated fighter pilot during World War I 1 922: Meets Adolf Hitler at Nazi party rally and subsequently joins 1 923: Wounded while marching with Hitler during Beer Hall Putsch 1 923-27: In exile; returns to Germany after general amnesty declared 1 928: Becomes one of 1 1 Nazis in Reichstag (parliament) 1 930: Chosen by Hitler to lead Nazi delegation 1 932: Becomes president of Reichstag as Nazis assume control 1 933: Receives cabinet post after Hitler is appointed German chancellor; announces formation of Gestapo 1 934: Designated by secret decree as successor to Hitler if he dies or can’t carry out duties 1 935: Becomes commander of Luftwaffe, Germany’s air force 1 937-41: Overseer of German economy 1 94 1: Authorizes “final solution”; blamed – and replaced – by Hitler for air force setbacks April 23, 1 945: With Hitler cut off by advancing Soviets in Berlin, requests authorization to take over his duties; Hitler denounces him as traitor, strips him of all titles and orders his arrest May 7, 1 945: Germany surrenders; arrested near Salzburg, Austria SOURCE: UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM FILE: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Successes often are the result of serendipity. A 1 6th-century walnut table was restituted in 2009 to the heirs of a Jewish telephone maker after a researcher spotted it in a 1 943 auction catalog. Enderlein said the provenance of about 1,900 works of art has been investigated. Forty-one have been restituted to heirs. Most of the rest are on loan to German museums and are searchable online. “Now at the end, we are left with the difficult cases,” Enderlein said. “In the case of coins, medallions and books, we are not hopeful.” Some other items will remain unclaimed. Two sideboards at the back of the depot belonged to the Reichskanzlei in Berchtesgaden, Bavaria, Hitler’s second seat of government, Enderlein said. Piles of carpets include one that belonged to Goering. Enderlein said he ordered it from a Berlin company that imported from Persia, so it’s unlikely to be looted. “We offer a lot of things on loan to museums, but because of the size of them, the museums can’t store the big carpets,” Enderlein said. “We may end up having to sell some of these items, but only if the provenance is completely cleared up.” GUARDING AGAINST SYMPATHIZERS The office also needs to be wary of collectors with Nazi sympathies who would value the items as relics of the regime. “In the case of a carpet with Nazi symbols on it, then of course we wouldn’t sell it,” she said. “We had one like that: It went to the German Historical Museum in Berlin.” A bronze copy of the Uffizi Gallery’s Medici Venus adorns the foyer of the Federal Office. This one has an unhealthy greenish tinge, due to its watery history. It stood in the ceremonial hall of Goering’s Carinhall estate. Beseke speculates that Goering ran out of space when moving his art collection, so Venus was dumped into the Gross Doelln lake to safeguard her from Soviet troops. East German authorities left her undisturbed. She was hauled to the surface in 1990, 45 years after her disappearance. She has been restored and given a limestone pedestal. “We left the green patina to recall her underwater past,” Beseke said. America’s Largest Replacement Window Company Established in 1995 Replacement Windows | Patio Doors | Entry Doors 8 PREMIUM WINDOWS 2976 Only $ Hung or Double Slider INSTALLED •• Double 4000 Series SolarZone Glass Package Included! 64 or $ Per Month For 60 Months • Guaranteed Lowest Price! • Call Store for Details “Not only do we stand behind our windows, we stand on them” 0 DOWN $ 6 MONTHS Kevin, Razmik, Megan, Oscar & Tony Your Window Team No Interest* CALL NOW FOR A FREE REE ESTIMATE! WE BRING SAMPLES TO YOU. *Qualified buyers with approved credit. Call us for details. 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