Today, Monuments Man Harry Ettlinger lives in a condominium in northwest New Jersey. He remains active in Wallenberg Foundation activities; veterans’ organizations on local, state, and national levels; and Holocaust and other Jewish-related affairs. His grandfather’s beloved art collection has been scattered among his descendants, but Harry still owns the largest share. He admits most of it is in his closet. Even the print of the Rembrandt is hung inconspicuously, although he’ll move it to the place of honor above the sofa if requested.
The only visible memento of Harry’s war years is a small photograph on a nearby end table. Taken in the Heilbronn mine in early 1946, it shows Monuments officer Lieutenant Dale Ford and (recently promoted) Sergeant Harry Ettlinger staring down at a self-portrait by Rembrandt. The painting is perched on a mine cart, with the rock walls and steel rails of the mine clearly visible. In 1946, the photograph was used by the army for promotional purposes and reprinted around the world. The caption simply said, “American soldiers with a Rembrandt.” No one seemed interested in the fact that the painting was the Rembrandt from the museum in Karlsruhe, and that the nineteen-year-old soldier standing next to it was a German Jew who had grown up three blocks from that museum, and by chance had descended seven hundred feet into a mine to behold, for the first time, a painting he had always heard about, but never had the right to see.
BERLIN, MARCH 1945: Only weeks away from committing suicide, Adolf Hitler periodically escaped the depressing reality of Germany’s hopeless military situation by entering the dream world embodied in this scale model of his hometown of Linz, including the Führermuseum. (Ullstein Bild, Frentz)
BERCHTESGADEN, GERMANY: During happier times, Hitler, Gauleiter August Eigruber (left), and architect professor Hermann Giesler studied plans for the redesign of Linz. This photo was taken at Hitler’s home in Berchtesgaden, known as the “Berghof.” (Walter Frentz Collection, Berlin)
This Western Union telegram alerted prominent museum leaders to the urgent meeting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City held on December 20, 1941, less than three weeks after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. (National Gallery of Art, Gallery Archives)
MONTE CASSINO, ITALY, MAY 27, 1944: Monuments Man Lt. Col. Ernest T. Dewald (center) makes his way up to the ruins of Monte Cassino, the Benedictine abbey destroyed by controversial Allied bombing in February 1944. (National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD)
SAINT-LO, FRANCE, JULY 1944: “Covered with the American flag, the body of Maj. Thomas D. Howie (upper center), commander of the Third Battalion, 116th Infantry, rests amid the ruins of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Saint- Lô, France. Howie had been killed outside of the city on July 17, by mortar fire, and the task force that entered the city the next day carried his body by ambulance and jeep as a symbol of their comradeship and will to win.” This scene of devastation was an all-too-common occurrence in many of the towns and villages of Normandy following the D-Day invasion. (AP Images/ Harry Harris)
PARIS, AUTUMN 1944: Jacques Jaujard (far right, foreground), director of the National Museums of France, examines the world famous Bayeux Tapestry with W. Verrier, inspector general of French Historical Monuments and attaché of the Louvre (left) in conjunction with its exhibition at the Louvre in late 1944. (Archives des Musées Nationaux)
A postcard sent July 1, 1944, from Monuments Man Capt. Bancel LaFarge to fellow Monuments officer Capt. Walker Hancock, advising him of LaFarge’s arrival in Bayeux, France. (Walker Hancock Collection)
PARIS, DECEMBER 2, 1941: At the Jeu de Paume museum, Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, painting in his left hand and cigar in his right, sits gazing at two paintings by Henri Matisse being supported by Bruno Lohse. Standing to Göring’s left is his art advisor, Walter Andreas Hofer. Note the bottle of champagne on the table at center. Both paintings were stolen from the Paul Rosenberg collection by the Nazis and were recovered and returned after the war. The painting on the left, titled Marguerites, today hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago. The other, titled Danseuse au Tambourin, is at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California. (Archives des Musées Nationaux)
PARIS: Göring departs the Jeu de Paume in Paris after one of his twenty visits to select works of art stolen from French collectors to add to his vast collection. Col. von Behr is in the foreground; Bruno Lohse is standing in the doorway on the left, next to Walter Andreas Hofer. (Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.)
MICHELANGELO, BRUGES MADONNA, 1503-04. Marble, H. 121.9 cm (48 in). Notre Dame Cathedral, Bruges, Belgium. (Scala/Art Resource, NY)
JAN VERMEER, THE ASTRONOMER, 1668. Oil on Canvas, 51 x 45 cm (20 x 173/4 in). Louvre, Paris, France. (Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource, NY)
PARIS, SEPTEMBER 12, 1944: Monuments Man James Rorimer (right) and Ecole du Louvre director Robert Rey stand before the empty wall where the Mona Lisa (La Joconde) once hung before its precautionary evacuation from the Louvre in 1939. (National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD)
PARIS, 1945: The Mona Lisa was moved on six separate occasions from 1939 to 1945 before being uncrated upon its return home to the Louvre. (Roger-Viollet)
JAN VAN EYCK, GHENT ALTARPIECE (interior), 1432. Oil on Panel, 3.5 x 4.6 m (11 ft 6 in x 15 ft 1 in). Saint Bavo Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium. (Reproductiefonds/photo Hugo Maertens)
AACHEN, GERMANY, OCTOBER 1944: This was the scene of devastation that greeted Monuments Man Walker Hancock and other troops of U.S. First Army upon their arrival at the Aachen Cathedral on October 25, 1944. (National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD)
LA GLEIZE, BELGIUM, FEBRUARY 1, 1945: During the Battle of the Bulge, the church in La Gleize was severely damaged. This statue, known as the Madonna of La Gleize, was fully exposed to one of the harshest winters on record. Note the gaping hole in the roof overhead. (Walker Hancock Collection)
LA GLEIZE, BELGIUM, FEBRUARY 1, 1945: Monuments Man Walker Hancock (front left, in U.S. Army helmet) assisted residents of the town of La Gleize with the relocation of the Madonna of La Gleize to a more secure site. (Walker Hancock Collection)
MERKERS, GERMANY, APRIL 1945: Hidden inside the Merkers salt mine was the majority of Nazi Germany’s gold reserves and paper currency. All but the largest paintings from the Kaiser-Friedrich Museum in Berlin were also placed there for safekeeping. In today’s dollars the value of the gold found in Merkers would be almost $5 billion. (National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD)
MERKERS, GERMANY, APRIL 12, 1945: Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley, Lt. Gen. George S. Patton Jr., and Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower inspect the German museum treasures stored in the Merkers mine. Also pictured in the center is Maj. Irving Leonard Moskowitz. (National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD)
NEUSCHWANSTEIN, GERMANY: The castle of Neuschwanstein was the key Nazi repository for the greatest works of art stolen from France. Built by “Mad Ludwig” of Bavaria in the nineteenth century, it contained so many stolen works of art that it took the Monuments Men six weeks to empty it. The extreme vertical height and absence of elevators required most of the works to be carried down the innumerable flights of stairs. (National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD)
NEUSCHWANSTEIN, GERMANY, MAY 1945: Monuments Man James Rorimer (left) and Sgt. Antonio T. Valim examine valuable art objects stolen from the Rothschild collection in France by the ERR and found in the castle. (National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD)
BERNTERODE, GERMANY, MAY 1945: The bronze coffin of Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia was one of four enormous coffins found at the Bernterode repository by Monuments Man Walker Hancock. (Walker Hancock Collection)
BERNTERODE, GERMANY, MAY 1945 Monuments Men George Stout (left), Walker Hancock (center right), and Steven Kovalyak (right) during the excavation of Bernterode. The soldier standing between Stout and Hancock is a Sgt. Travese. (Walker Hancock Collection)
ALTAUSSEE, AUSTRIA, MAY 1945: Dr. Hermann Michel, Monu
ments Man Robert Posey, and an unidentified U.S. Army officer standing in front of the mine administration building during the confusing initial days after arriving at the Altaussee mine. (Robert Posey Collection)
ALTAUSSEE, AUSTRIA, MAY 1945: Austrian mine workers, including Karl Sieber (seated at lower left, in suit) and Dr. Hermann Michel (seated between two U.S. Army soldiers), are sitting on two of the half-ton bombs that had been hidden in crates marked “Attention - Marble - Do Not Drop.” (Robert Posey Collection)
ALTAUSSEE, AUSTRIA, MAY 17, 1945: Monuments Men Robert Posey and Lincoln Kirstein were greeted by the terrifying scene of “palsied” tunnels upon their arrival on May 13, 1945. Within several days, however, they were able to inspect the mine’s contents. Here, a mine worker and a GI sit atop the rubble, spades in the foreground, after having created enough space to pass over to the other side. (Robert Posey Collection)
ALTAUSSEE, AUSTRIA, MAY 1945: One of the many mine chambers in which the Nazis had constructed wooden shelves to house the enormous number of stolen works of art. To understand the volume of space in this one chamber, note the nine-foot ladder in the center right portion of the photograph. (Robert Posey Collection)
ALTAUSSEE, AUSTRIA, JULY 10, 1945: Removal of priceless works of art from the salt mine at Altaussee posed problems for Monuments Man George Stout unlike any ever contemplated. Stout constructed a pulley to lift Michelangelo’s Bruges Madonna onto the salt cart to begin its long trip home to Belgium. Visible on the far left is Monuments Man Steve Kovalyak, an expert in packing art, who was a key assistant to Stout. (National Gallery, Washington, D.C., Gallery Archives)
ALTAUSSEE, AUSTRIA, JULY 1945: The central panel of the Ghent Altarpiece, due to its size and weight, proved particularly challenging to move through the narrow passageways. Other panels of the altarpiece are visible in the background behind Stout. Note the tissue that has been applied to the painted surface to secure loose or flaking paint, a process known as “facing.” Stout was proud of his U.S. Navy background and usually wore an “N” for “Navy” on his jacket or helmet. (National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD)
HEILBRONN, GERMANY, 1945: This Self Portrait by Rembrandt, inspected by Monuments Men Dale V. Ford and Harry Ettlinger (right), was stored for safekeeping by museum officials from Karlsruhe in the Heilbronn mine. The painting was ultimately returned to the Karlsruhe Museum. This was just one of thousands of paintings and other works of art that were found in Heilbronn, as can be seen by the crates stacked behind each man. (National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD)
NEW JERSEY: Almost sixty-five years later, Harry Ettlinger reflects with pride on a life well-lived as a Monuments Man as he stands in front of his grandfather’s print of the very painting he was never allowed to see as a Jewish boy growing up in Karlsruhe, Germany. (Bill Stahl)
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Secondary Figures
John Edward Dixon-Spain: World War I Veteran; British Monuments Man assigned to U.S. First Army with George Stout
S. Lane Faison Jr.: Served in the OSS, precursor to the CIA; interrogated many Nazis involved in artistic and cultural looting
Dale V. Ford: Interior designer; Monuments Man assigned to U.S. Seventh Army after the end of active hostilities; worked with Harry Ettlinger at the Heilbronn mine
Ralph Hammett: Architect; Monuments Man assigned to Communications Zone
Mason Hammond: Classics scholar; advisor on fine arts and monuments, Sicily, and the unofficial first Monuments Man
Albert Henraux: President of the French Commission de Récupération Artistique
Thomas Carr Howe Jr.: Director of the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco; Monuments officer assigned to Altaussee
Sheldon Keck: Conservator; assistant Monuments officer assigned to Walter “Hutch” Huchthausen in U.S. Ninth Army
Stephen Kovalyak: Athletic coach; Monuments officer assigned to various repository evacuations
Bancel LaFarge: Architect; first Monuments Man ashore in Normandy, when attached to British Second Army; promoted to SHAEF headquarters in France in early 1945
Everett “Bill” Lesley: Professor; Monuments Man for U.S. First Army with Walker Hancock and later U.S. Fifteenth Army
Lord Methuen: British Monuments Man assigned to Comm Zone
Lamont Moore: Curator of Education at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; assistant Monuments officer for U.S. Twelfth Army Group, U.S. First Army, and U.S. Ninth Army
Paul Sachs: Founder of Harvard’s “Museum Course” and George Stout’s boss at the Fogg Museum; head of the Harvard Group that created monuments maps and guidebooks for use in the field; instrumental, as a member of the Roberts Commission, in recruiting the core of the Monuments officers in northern Europe
Francis Henry Taylor: Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; president of the American Association of Museum Directors; prominent member of the Roberts Commission
John Bryan Ward-Perkins: Archaeology scholar; British artillery officer in North Africa who assisted with conservation efforts; later deputy director of MFAA in Italy
Geoffrey Webb: Architectural historian; British MFAA advisor at SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force) and the lead MFAA officer in northern Europe
Sir Eric Mortimer Wheeler: British artillery officer and archeologist for the London Museum; his conservation of Roman and Greek ruins in North Africa in 1942 were the first such Allied efforts
Sir Charles Leonard Woolley: British archeological advisor to the War Office and civilian leader of the MFAA; ran the MFAA under the motto “We protect the arts at the lowest possible cost,” often to its detriment
Germans and Nazis
Colonel Baron Kurt von Behr: Head of the Dienststelle Westen in the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR); overseer of the Nazi looting operation in France headquarters at the Jeu de Paume museum
Martin Bormann: Reichsminister; private secretary to Hitler
Dr. Hermann Bunjes: Former employee of the Kunstschutz in France who became a key participant in the ERR in Paris; loyal to Von Behr and Reichsmarschall Göring
August Eigruber: Fanatical Nazi and gauleiter (district leader) of Oberdonau, which included Hitler’s boyhood hometown of Linz, Austria, and the salt mine at Altaussee
Dr. Hans Frank: Reichsleiter; governor-general of Poland
Hermann Giesler: Architect for Linz
Hermann Göring: Reichsmarschall of Nazi Germany; head of the Luftwaffe; the Nazis’ second in command and Hitler’s chief rival in the looting of Europe
Heinrich Himmler: Reichsführer SS; head of Waffen-SS and Gestapo
Adolf Hitler: Führer of the Reich; “purifier” of Germany who destroyed modern art; “glorifier” of Germany who thought the Reich should own Europe’s cultural treasures, many to be displayed at his Führermuseum at Linz
Walter Andreas Hofer: Art dealer; director of Göring’s art collection and central figure in the looting operation at the Jeu de Paume in Paris
Dr. Helmut von Hummel: Personal assistant of Martin Bormann, Hitler’s private secretary, and primary conduit for information to and from Berlin in the last days of the Reich
Ernst Kaltenbrunner: High-ranking Nazi from Austria; chief of the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA, or Reichssicherheitshauptamt); SS Obergruppenführer (senior group leader); chief of the Security Police (Gestapo) and the SD
Prof. Dr. Otto Kümmel: Director of Berlin State Museums who compiled a list of all “Germanic” art in Europe and the justification for repatriating it to the Fatherland
Dr. Bruno Lohse: Hermann Göring’s representative to the ERR looting operation at Jeu de Paume museum
Dr. Hans Posse: original director of the Führermuseum in Linz; died of cancer in 1943
Alfred Rosenberg: Head of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR), a racist organization that became the primary “legal” avenue for Nazi looting in Western Europe
Prof. Dr. Al
bert Speer: Hitler’s personal architect and close confidant; Reichsminister for Armaments and War Production
Prof. Dr. Count Franz von Wolff-Metternich: Head of Kunstschutz in Paris, the German arts and monuments protection program
Key Figures at Altaussee
Max Eder: Engineer
Glinz:Gauinspektor (district inspector) working for Eigruber
Otto Högler: Engineer and mining counselor (Oberbergrat)
Eberhard Mayerhoffer: Engineer; technical director of the salt mines (Oberbergrat DI)
Prof. Dr. Hermann Michel: Ex-director of the Natural History Museum Vienna and head of the Mineralogical Department of the museum
Ralph E. Pearson: U.S. Army colonel with the 318th Infantry; led “Task Force Pearson” to the salt mine at Altaussee