Over 20,000 Nazi-looted artifacts now searchable online
18 October 2010
More than 20,000 artworks stolen by the Nazis from Jews can now be searched in an online catalog. A new online database lets Holocaust survivors and their relatives search details of the artifacts looted during World War II in Nazi-occupied France and Belgium. The database is a joint project of the Conference of Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, based in Washington DC. Holocaust survivors and their heirs, art collectors, galleries and museums can make use of the free service. Hundreds of thousands of artworks were seized by Germany's forces during World War II. The Nazis often photographed their spoils and meticulously catalogued them on typewritten index cards. Some of these records, which show what was seized and from whom, have now been digitized and made searchable. The database combines records from the US National Archives, the German Federal Archive (Bundesarchiv) and records on repatriation and restitution held by the French government.
The Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR), the Special Task Force headed by Adolf Hitler’s leading ideologue Alfred Rosenberg, was one of the main Nazi agencies engaged in the plunder of cultural valuables in Nazi-occupied countries during the war. A particularly notorious operation by the ERR was the plunder of art from French Jewish and a number of Belgian Jewish collections from 1940 to 1944 that were brought to the Jeu de Paume building in the Tuileries Gardens in Paris for processing by the ERR Sonderstab Bildende Kunst (Special Staff for Pictorial Art).
According to the Claims Conference, around half of the objects have never been returned to their rightful owners, their descendants or their country of origin. Julius Berman, the chairman of the Claims Conference, said it was "now the responsibility of museums, art dealers and auction houses to check their holdings against these records to determine whether they might be in possession of art stolen from Holocaust victims".
“Searchable by individual objects and by the owners from whom these objects were taken, the database is a detailed record of a small but important part of the vast seizure of cultural property that was integral to the Holocaust,” the Claims Conference says on its website. Wesley A. Fischer, the organization’s director of research, told the British newspaper ‘Daily Mail’ that over half the stolen property was still unclaimed.
Search the database by clicking here.
» Michael Schneider, WJC Secretary General at the WJC Governing Board 
Comments
We welcome any comments you may have on this article.
If you are a facebook user you may choose to have the comment appear on your wall.
Comments are moderated and we reserve the right to edit or remove any which are derogatory or offensive.
The WJC is not responsible for the content of any comments.
Get Involved
'Strategic Review: Holocaust Legacy' presented by Michael Schneider, WJC Secretary General at the WJC Governing Board, Jerusalem, 31 August 2010
Zura, 2 months ago
Some people in this sevnorcation seems to think that immigrants without status have ignored the laws of this country, and that their being out of status is proof of how they have done so. Being out of status is NOT criminal offense. It is a civil offense, such as a parking ticket. Do you think it is fair that families are being torn apart for an offense as minor as a parking ticket?? I would like to share with you that many, many of the people who are out of status in this country entered with a visa and are in the process of applying for legal residency. Some folks were in status and then a glitch or lost document created a problem. Some people are refugees here from war-torn countries who are waiting to hear if they can gain asylum. Delays and backlogs as long as 25 years have made obtaining status nearly impossible. Equality under the law would require that cruel and unusual punishment tearing apart families not be leveled for civil offenses.