A talented painter himself, Adolf Hitler had a
great appreciation for art and culture. He sees Churchill and FDR as
uncultured barbarians with merciless disregard for innocent life,
architecture, and works of art. As the Germans under Kaiser Wilhelm II
had done during World War I, Hitler also ordered the protection of
artworks throughout the combat theatres of Western and Eastern Europe.
The task of protecting the art of Europe
is handed over to Air Force Marshal Hermann Goring. As Allied terror
bombing ravaged Europe, thousands of paintings and sculptures from
Italy, France, Belgium, Russia, Romania, and Poland are gathered and
meticulously inventoried by the Germans.
This process began in the fall of 1943. Had
the Germans wanted to "loot" the art of Europe, they could easily have
done so in 1940, 1941, 1942, and the first 9 months of 1943. It
was only after Allied carpet bombardment was unleashed upon Italy
(later on France), and the Soviets began advancing from the East, that
the Germans began gathering up the artwork.
Irony of irony! Barbaric American looting of
Europe includes the taking of personal possessions, livestock, women,
and works of art. In the East, it’s not even necessary to speak about
the wholesale looting and ghastly gang raping carried out by the Red
Army.
