report of Robert Scholz, Chief of the special staff
for Pictorial Art, stated: "During the period from March 1941 to
July 1944 the special staff for Pictorial Art brought into the Reich
29 large shipments, including 137 freight cars with 4,174 cases of
art works."
The report of Scholz refers to 25 portfolios of
pictures of the most valuable works of the art collection seized in
the West, which portfolios were presented to the Führer.
Thirty-nine volumes, prepared by the Einsatzstab, contained
photographs of paintings, textiles, furniture, candelabra, and
numerous other objects of art, and illustrated the value and
magnitude of the collection which had been made. In many of the
occupied countries private collections were robbed, libraries were
plundered, and private houses were pillaged.
Museums, palaces, and libraries in the occupied territories of
the U.S.S.R. were systematically looted. Rosenberg's Einsatzstab, Von
Ribbentrop's special "Battalion", the Reichscommissars and
representatives of the Military Command seized objects of cultural
and historical value belonging to the People of the Soviet Union,
which were sent to Germany. Thus the Reichscommissar of the Ukraine
removed paintings and objects of art from Kiev and Kharkov and sent
them to East Prussia. Rare volumes and objects of art from the
palaces of Peterhof, Tsarskoye Selo, and Pavlovsk were shipped to
Germany. In his letter to Rosenberg of 3 October 1941 Reichscommissar
Kube stated that the value of the objects of art taken from
Bielorussia ran into millions of rubles. The scale of this plundering
can also be seen in the letter sent from Rosenberg's department to
Von Milde-Schreden in which it is stated that during the month of
October 1943 alone, about 40 box-cars loaded with objects of cultural
value were transported to the Reich.
With regard to the suggestion that the purpose of
the seizure of art treasures was protective and meant for their
preservation, it is necessary to say a few words. On 1 December 1939
Himmler, as the Reich Commissioner for the "strengthening of
Germanism", issued a decree to the regional officers of the
secret police in the annexed eastern territories, and to the
commanders of the security service in Radom, Warsaw, and Lublin. This
decree contained administrative directions for carrying out the art
seizure program, and in Clause 1 it is stated:
To strengthen Germanism in the
defense of the Reich, all articles mentioned in Section 2 of this
decree are hereby confiscated . . . . They are confiscated for the
benefit of the German Reich, and are at the disposal of the Reich
Commissioner for the strengthening of Germanism."
The intention to enrich Germany by the seizures,
rather than to protect the seized objects, is indicated in an undated
report by Dr. Hans Posse, director of the Dresden State Picture
Gallery: