Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce
This article contains too many or overly lengthy quotations. (March 2024) |
Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (German) | |
Organization overview | |
---|---|
Formed | July 1940 |
Dissolved | May 1945 |
Minister responsible | |
Parent Office | NSDAP Office of Foreign Affairs |
The Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce (
Formation
The ERR was initially a project of
Shortly after the occupation of France the staff of the ERR joined the
- precious manuscripts and books from national libraries and archives;
- important artifacts of ecclesiastical authorities and Masonic lodges;
- all valuable cultural property belonging to Jews.
The "Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg" was officially established in "Office West" in Paris and was divided into different functional departments. The ERR central administration was transferred to Berlin on 1 March 1941 where it became formal subdivision of the German Foreign Office.
The Nazis were so eager to acquire valuable masterpieces that art theft became the most important field of work of the ERR. In addition to art, many libraries were looted for the Institute for Research on the Jewish Question in Frankfurt, but especially for the library of the Hohe Schule. The operations staff had eight main regional task forces and five technical task forces (music, visual arts, history, libraries, churches). Raids connected with the ERR also plundered the belongings of people deported to Nazi concentration camps. Between April 1941 to July 1944, 29 convoys transported goods seized from Paris to Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany, the ERR's principal place of storage. Until 17 October 1944, as estimated by the ERR itself, 1,418,000 railway wagons containing books and works of art (as well as 427,000 tonnes by ship) were transitioned to Germany.
Operations
Belarus
"More than two hundred libraries of Belarus, especially the state (now national) library, suffered irreparable damage during the occupation. An associate of the national library, T. Roshchina, calculated that 83 percent of the library’s collection was plundered and destroyed. After the war, some six hundred thousand volumes from the library were found in Germany, Poland and Czechoslovakia, and were subsequently returned. About one million books, however, including rare and old printed volumes, have still not been located."[2]
"Day by day for 26 months, the Hitlerites systematically destroyed one of the most ancient Russian cities,
Belgium
By the middle of 1941, most of the ERR work in Belgium concentrated on small collections in Jewish homes. Larger operations involved the Jesuit convent in Enghien involved removing 200 crates of books and archives, and looting the École des Hautes Études in Ghent, which involved transporting 56 crates of books. "Both institutions were considered outposts of French culture on Flemish soil and unfriendly to Nazism." The Jesuit collection was considered a treasure trove of information on the politics of Catholicism in Belgium, and of Catholic procedures to thwart the Germans. The Jesuit College in Leuven and the regional office in Brussels, for example, acted as a refuge for library materials.[4]
"Libraries and archives sees as enemy and international were confiscated outright by the ERR, as indicated by the following three examples. The contents of the communist bookshop OBLA, Brussels, were sent to Racibórz, Poland. The records of the International Federation for Housing and Town Planning were confiscated and brought to Germany. A similar fate overtook the archives and library of the international Jesuit college at Enghien, which was called a "Zentrale der anti-Deutschland speziell anti-National-Sozialistischen Information" ("Center for anti-German and anti-National Socialist Information").[5]
Czechoslovakia
"The 700,000 volumes of the Charles University Library in Prague were stolen as a unit."[6]
A library was created in the
In 1935, there were 17,148 public, school and university libraries in Czechoslovakia, having a book stock of 8,528,744 volumes. Many of these items were confiscated by the Germans, especially any Czech books dealing with geography, biography or history. Works by any Czech writers were taken away, many burned, most others taken directly to the paper pulp mills. Special libraries were devastated, and suffered a loss of about 2,000,000 volumes.[8]
France
Georg Ebert, who was a member of Rosenberg’s NSDAP Office of Foreign Affairs, discovered that a Masonic grand lodge, the Grand Orient de France, had been abandoned in Paris. This was one of the most important Masonic grand lodge in Europe. Ebert personally guarded the building, with its library collection, museum and archives, until he could turn it over to the army. This was one point in the origin of the ERR, which eventually developed into a central headquarters in Berlin, with subsidiary offices (Hauptarbeitsgruppen (Main Work Groups) in Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Belgrade, Riga and other cities.[9]
"In January 1940, Hitler gave Rosenberg his task: to loot Jewish and Masonic cultural treasures, including synagogues, libraries, and archives in western Europe. By fall 1940, Hitler ordered Rosenberg to confiscate all Jewish art collections since these materials were now deemed "ownerless" by Nazi decree. Jews in France, as in most of Europe, were now labeled "stateless" and no longer had property rights. With France part of the German-occupied territories, the ERR and Rosenberg now fell under Hermann Göring's authority and control, with the Gestapo seeking out Jewish houses, apartments, and shops in the hopes of finding valuable pieces."[10]
"Alfred Rosenberg reported to Hitler that his Einsatzstab had commenced confiscations in Paris by October 1940, with the assistance of the Service de Sûreté (S.D.) and the "Police Secrète Militaire (Geheime Feldpolizei)."[11] The "Sonderstab Bildende Kunst" (Special Arts Staff), a section of the ERR, confiscated numerous Jewish art collections, often of international renown (for instance, the Rothschild collection). In the Netherlands, this Sonderstab did not seize much more than about a thousand works of art. The Sonderstab Musik, Kirchen, Osten, Bibliothekenaufbau der Hohen Schule und Rassenpolititische Fragen (Special Staffs for Music, Churches, the East, the High School Library and Race-political Questions) each fought for its own corner. By 1942, no fewer than 3,500 collections, libraries and archives had been ‘secured’ by the Hauptarbeitsgruppe Frankreich (Main Working Group, France) of the ERR- France having been divided into five districts.[12]
The libraries of the Alliance Israélite Universelle (AIU) and the French Rabbinical Seminary (SIF) were high on the list of German locations to loot. The AIU had built a new library in 1937, including an eight story high tower and reading room, and boasting of 50,000 books. By March 1940, 647 crates of books had been removed from the AIU, and 243 crates of books from the SIF. A list by the ERR dated March 1941 indicated that 81 libraries had been looted in Paris alone, and a later supplemental list included another 30 libraries of Jewish, Masonic, socialist and émigré collections had been seized.[13]
"These albums were created by the staff of the Third Reich’s Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR). This special unit was organized in the summer of 1940 under Reich Leader
Before the war, Paris was the world's largest and most important art market. This was where well-off French, European and American collectors bought and sold their best pieces. From the beginning of the century, Jewish marchands d'art had established themselves as the best art dealers and experts, resultantly shaping and influencing global taste. Dealers included: the Wildensteins, where
During the next several years, the ERR would be engaged in an extensive and elaborate art looting operation in France that was part of Hitler’s much larger premeditated plan to steal art treasures from conquered nations. Soon after the German occupation of France in 1940, the German military, and subsequently the ERR, focused their art confiscations on the world-renowned Jewish-owned art collections from families such as the Rothschilds, and the Veil-Picards, Alphonse Kann, and Jewish dealers such as the Seligmanns. According to the German ERR documents from 1944, the art seizures in France totaled 21,903 objects from 203 collections. There were 5,009 items confiscated from the Rothschild family collections, 2,687 items from the David-Weill collection, and 1,202 from Alphonse Kann’s collection. French officials, at the end of the war, estimated that one third of all art in French private hands had been confiscated.[14]
Jeu de Paume Galerie
All looted and confiscated art works were initially shipped by truck to the
"The latest advice from authentic neutral sources said that the
So called degenerate art was legally banned by the Nazis from entering Germany, and so once designated was held in what was called the Martyr's Room at the Jeu de Paume. Much of Paul Rosenberg's professional dealership and personal collection were so subsequently designated by the Nazis. Following
After the war, many of the books hidden by the Germans were collected by the
Greece
Greece was also visited by the ERR after the country’s fall in April 1941. A special unit headed by Dr.
Before the war, Greece was rich in libraries. The National Library, which included the Public and University libraries in Athens, contained more than 400,000 volumes. "Reports reaching American authorities in Cairo have told of the pillaging of libraries, laboratories and workshops of the Universities of Athens and Salonika ... A large part of the
Italy
"The ERR were also active in the west. After the German occupations of Rome in 1943, ERR officers inspected the contents of the Roman Synagogue’s two great libraries, the Biblioteca della Comunità Israelitica and Collegio Rabbinico Italiano, which contained extraordinary collections gathered over the 2,000 year history of Jewish life in Rome. They demanded the libraries’ catalogs; just days before the first deportation of Roman Jews to Auschwitz, two specially ordered railcars destined for Alfred Rosenberg’s institute in Frankfurt were loaded with ten thousand books from these libraries."[20]
"Two archaeological libraries, the Hertziana Library of History and Art, and the German Archaeological Institute’s library of the history, topography, art and customs of ancient Rome, were removed from Rome and taken to Germany by the Nazis. At the end of the war, the two library collections were discovered in two Austrian salt mines packed away in 1,985 wooden cases. The German Library’s collection was unharmed, but some of the Hertziana collection and the card catalog were damaged by water when part of the mine flooded. They were returned to Rome, where they became part of the Gallery of Modern Art, where both collections will be in the care of the new International Union for the study of Archaeology, Art and History in Rome."[21]
After the war, many of the major collections looted from Italy were identified by the
Lithuania
In
The Netherlands
"The Einsatzstab Reichleiter Rosenberg (ERR), established by Rosenberg in 1939, was represented in the Netherlands by an Amsterdam office. In 1940, the ERR confiscated all property belonging to the
Most of the looted Jewish property, especially books, was sent to Rosenberg’s
The RSHA was interested specifically in information about those they perceived to be the prime enemies of the state. Accordingly, the RSHA in Berlin received looted library and archival materials relating to "enemies" such as the Jews. The RSHA Office Seven (Amt VII), which specialized in ideological research, established a center for the evaluation of looted documents. By August 1943, it contained more than 500,000 catalogued volumes. Most of the Jewish materials collected by Amt VII related to Zionist groups, rescue agencies, communities, and cultural organizations. Materials pertaining to Jewish political, economic, cultural, and intellectual leaders were also collected. Seeligmann, who founded the Genootschap voor Joodsche Wetenschap in Nederland (Society for the Science of Judaism in the Netherlands) and served as president of the Dutch Zionist Organization, was of interest to the RSHA. By August 1943, his library became part of the Amt VII library and archive center.[24]
Norway
In Norway, there were 150 school libraries and 50 public libraries that were destroyed by the Germans. Most of these libraries were in the province of Finnmark, where there was widespread destruction during the evacuation of the German Army forces. The Norwegians did not burn the German propaganda works that had filled their shelves when the original Norwegian books were removed. They will be kept for the study by future generations who will want to study the period of the German occupation.[25]
Poland
" ... From the very beginning of the establishment of the Staatsbibliothek Krakau, special importance was given to materials related to the natural sciences, mathematics, geography and medicine. In the fiscal year 1940–1941, the amount of money spent on book purchases was surprisingly high." The Germans recognized the value of the scientific collection, and from 1941 through 1944, 35,599 books were borrowed by 2,621 patrons, mostly German civil servants and military personnel. Polish civilians were not allowed access to the library during the occupation. Gustav Abb, the German overseer of libraries, decided to send much of the reference collection to Germany in 1944. "Abb decided to send the major part of the reference collection, as well as most of the books bought by the Staatsbibliothek to Germany (altogether about 25,000 volumes). [Polish] Librarians, charged with the task of filling boxes with books, tried to sabotage Abb’s orders. They hid a large number of books and stuffed boxes with old newspapers. Despite those heroic efforts to save the collection, the Germans were still able to send a great number of books to Adelsdorf (Adelin) in Silesia. Fortunately, after the war the library was able to recover most of the books that Abb had evacuated form the library." Later in the war, the main reading room was used as sleeping quarters for German soldiers, and other parts of the library were used as a hospital for Germans.[26]
From the Frankfurter Zeitung, Wochen-Ausgabe, 28 March 1941: "For us it is a matter of special pride to destroy the Talmudic Academy which has been known as the greatest in Poland ... We threw out of the building the great Talmudic Library and carted it to market. There we set fire to the books. The fire lasted for twenty hours. The Jews of Lublin were assembled around and cried bitterly. The cries almost silenced us. Then we summoned a military band, and the joyful shouts of the soldiers silenced the sounds of Jewish cries."[27]
Soviet Union
In the note of Vaycheslav M. Molotov [sic:
"ERR dispatches note they had to abandon their offices before the removal of the materials on hand could be completed ‘due to lack of loading spaces’ and the fact that German artillery, located in the center of the city [Kiev], was firing continually over their heads. Still, they managed to send on both their paintings 9,279) and prehistoric materials, which had come from
1941–1944 Soviet Union: As a result of the German invasion, heavy damage was done to Russian libraries. It has been estimated that more than 100 million books have been destroyed, mainly from public libraries.[30]
"At
Partial postwar recovery
It is estimated that Germany looted three million books during the course of the war. More than one million of them were discovered by American forces at Hungen, Hesse, in May 1945. The books had been moved there from Frankfurt in early 1944, when the Allied bombing of the city threatened the collection. The books were moved back to the former Rothschild Library for cataloguing.[33][34][35]
Ranks
ERR was a uniformed organization with the hierarchical position of the male officials indicated by rank insignia on collar patches. The patches were bright red for the leadership and the special staff in Berlin; burgundy for other staff and special staff members. On the lower left sleeve was a cuff title with the text "Einsatzstab RR." The actual physical removal of the cultural property was done by local manual workers employed in the occupied countries. They were not uniformed, but wore an armlet with the inscription "Im Dienst der Einsatzstabes RR."[36]
Insignia | Ranks | Translation | Comparative ranks in the Wehrmacht |
---|---|---|---|
Oberst-Einsatzführer | Senior action leader | Oberst | |
Oberstabs-Einsatzführer | Senior staff action leader | Oberstleutnant | |
Stabs-Einsatzführer | Staff action leader | Major | |
Haupt-Einsatzführer | Head action leader | Hauptmann | |
Ober-Einsatzführer | Senior action leader | Oberleutnant | |
Einsatzführer | Action leader | Leutnant | |
Stabs-Einsatzhelfer | Staff action helper | Stabsfeldwebel | |
Haupt-Einsatzhelfer | Main action helper | Oberfeldwebel | |
Ober-Einsatzhelfer | Senior Action helper | Feldwebel | |
Einsatzhelfer | Action helper | Unteroffizier | |
Source: | [36] |
See also
- Art theft and looting during World War II
- Art repatriation
- Art Looting Investigation Unit
- Karl Haberstock
- Roberts Commission
- Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art
- Nazi plunder
- M-Aktion
- List of claims for restitution for Nazi-looted art
- Aryanization
References
- ISBN 3-8257-0032-1.
- ^ Adam Maldis. "The Tragic Fate of Belarusan Museum and Library Collections During the Second World War." p. 79.
- ^ "The trial of German major war criminals : proceedings of the International Military Tribunal sitting at Nuremberg Germany". avalon.law.yale.edu. Archived from the original on January 24, 2009. Retrieved 2023-09-26.
- ^ Grimsted, P.K. Returned from Russia. pp. 203–204.
- ^ Lust, Jacques. 1997. "The Spoils of War Removed from Belgium During World War II." In: Simpson, Elizabeth, ed. "Spoils of War." p. 59.
- ^ Stubbings. Blitzkrieg and Books. p. 438.
- ^ Intrator, Miriam. 2007. "People Were Literally Starving for any Kind of Reading." Library Trends. Volume 55 (3) Winter 2007. pp. 516–17, 519.
- ^ Zivny, Ladislav. 1946. "Czechoslovak Libraries During the War and After." Library Journal. June 15, 1946. p. 877.
- ^ Collins, Donald E. and Herbert P. Rothfeder, 1984, "The Einsatzstab Reichleiter Rosenberg and the Looting of Jewish and Masonic Libraries During World War II." Journal of Library History, volume 18 (1), p. 24.
- ^ Rothfeld, Anne, 2002, "Nazi Looted Art: The Holocaust Records Preservation Project." Prologue, Volume 34 (3), Fall 2002.
- ^ Cassou, Jean. 1947. Le Pillage par les Allemands des Œuvres d’Art et des Bibliothèques Appartenant à des Juifs en France. Pages 108–109.
- ^ Aalders, Gerard. Nazi Looting. p. 55.
- ^ Grimsted. Returned from Russia. pp. 137–139.
- ^ a b c d "The Lost Museum".
- ^ National Archives and Records Administration Public Affairs Staff. "National Archives Announces Discovery of Hitler Albums Documenting Looted Art." Announcement made on November 1, 2007.
- ^ "Nazi Police Purge Libraries in Paris." 1941. New York Times. Jan 7, 1941; p. 21.
- ^ a b Posté, Leslie. 1948. "Books Go Home". Library Journal. December 1, 1948, p. 1704.
- ^ Collins, Donald E. and Herbert P. Rothfeder, 1984, "The Einsatzstab Reichleiter Rosenberg and the Looting of Jewish and Masonic Libraries During World War II." Journal of Library History, volume 18 (1), p. 29.
- ^ "Library Pillaging by Nazis Surveyed." 1945. New York Times. Apr 4, 1945, p. 12.
- ^ Battles, Matthew. 2003. Library: An Unquiet History. p. 170.
- ^ "Two Roman Libraries Regained from the Nazis." 1946. New York Times. February 3, 1946. p. 1.
- ^ Collins, Donald E. and Herbert P. Rothfeder, 1984, "The Einsatzstab Reichleiter Rosenberg and the Looting of Jewish and Masonic Libraries During World War II." Journal of Library History, volume 18 (1), p. 30.
- ^ Leistra, Josephine. 1997. "A Short History of Art Loss and Art Recovery in the Netherlands." In: Simpson, Elizabeth, ed. "Spoils of War." p. 55.
- ^ Yavnai, Elisabeth M. 2003. "Jewish Cultural Property and Its Postwar Recovery." In: "Confiscation of Jewish Property in Europe, 1933–1945." USHMM. pp. 127–128.
- ^ Arndt, Jessie Ash. 1947. "From Scandinavia: Task of Rebuilding 200 of Norway’s Libraries Now Under Way." Christian Science Monitor. July 12, 1947, p. 8.
- ^ Sroka, Marek, 1999, "The University of Cracow Library under Nazi Occupation: 1939–1945." Libraries & Culture v. 34 no 1 (Winter 1999) pp. 5, 6 and 7.
- ^ Shaffer, Kenneth R. 1946. "The Conquest of Books." Library Journal. Volume 71 (2), p. 84.
- ^ Posté, Leslie I. "The Development of US Protection of Libraries and Archives in Europe During World War II." pp. 240–241.
- ^ Nicholas, Lynn H. The Rape of Europa. pp. 199–200.
- ^ Hoeven, Hans van der; Van Albada, Joan, 1996, "Memory of the World: Lost Memory: Libraries and Archives Destroyed in the 20th Century." pp. 7–15. They comment from: Bibliothekswesen und Bibliographie in der USSR. Uebersetzungen aus der Grossen Sowjetenzyklopädie. Berlin [c. 1958], 38; ELI vol. 26, 182.
- ^ Shvidkoi, Mikkhail. 1997. "Russian Cultural Losses During World War II." In: Simpson, Elizabeth, ed. "Spoils of War." pp. 69, 71.
- ^ Crankshaw, Edward. 1956. Gestapo: Instrument of Tyranny. pp. 156–157.
- ^ "Report on the Activities of the Commission for the Recovery of the Bibliographic Patrimony of the Jewish Community of Rome Stolen in 1943" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on March 24, 2023.
- ^ Michael Frank (3 November 2015). "The Mystery of the Missing Jewish Books of Rome". Tablet. Archived from the original on 3 October 2018. Retrieved 3 October 2018.
- ISBN 978-1-5126-0049-0.
- ^ a b "Штаб Розенберга в Киеве." Reibert. Retrieved 2019-04-29.
Bibliography
- Aalders, Gerard. 2004. Nazi Looting: The Plunder of Dutch Jewry During the Second World War. Amsterdam: Berg Publishers. ISBN 978-1-85973-727-9.
- Cassou, Jean. 1947. Le Pillage par les Allemands des Œuvres d’Art et des Bibliothèques Appartenant à des Juifs en France. Translated title: "Plundering by the Germans of the Works of Art and the Libraries Belonging to Jews in France." Paris: Editions de Centre. Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine. Série Documents No 4.
- Crankshaw, Edward. 1956, 1990. Gestapo: Instrument of Tyranny. London: Greenhill Books. Printed 1956; reprinted 1990.
- Grimsted, Patricia Kennedy. 2007. Returned from Russia: Nazi Archival Plunder in Western Europe and Recent Restitution Issues. Edited by Patricia Kennedy Grimsted, F.J. Hoogewoud, and Eric Ketelaar. Institute of Art and Law (UK), 2007.
- Leistra, Josephine. 1997. "A Short History of Art Loss and Art Recovery in the Netherlands." In: Simpson, Elizabeth, ed. "Spoils of War."
- Maldis, Adam. 1999. "The Tragic Fate of Belarusan Museum and Library Collections During the Second World War." IN: The Spoils of War: World War II and Its Aftermath: The Loss, Reappearance and Recovery of Cultural Property. Papers of a Symposium by the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, January 1995, in New York. New York: Harry Abrams, Inc.
- Rothfeld, Anne, 2002. "Nazi Looted Art: The Holocaust Records Preservation Project." Prologue, Volume 34 (3), Fall 2002.
- Rydell, Anders, 2017. The Book Thieves: The Nazi Looting of Europe's Libraries and the Race to Return a Literary Inheritance. New York: Viking Publishing. ISBN 9780735221222
- Simpson, Elizabeth. The Spoils of War: World War II and Its Aftermath: the Loss, Reappearance, and Recovery of Cultural Property. New York: H.N. Abrams in association with the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, 1997.
- Stubbings, Hilda U. 1993. Blitzkrieg and Books: British and European Libraries as Casualties of World War. Indiana: Rubena Pr. ISBN 1-880622-02-5.
- Yavnai, Elisabeth M. 2003. "Jewish Cultural Property and Its Postwar Recovery." In: "Confiscation of Jewish Property in Europe, 1933–1945." US Holocaust Memorial Museum.