Shot Through the Art

How the Nazis looted and destroyed Europe's cultural treasures.

by Shaun Brady

OILS OF WAR: Hitler and Goering became tireless art collectors during WWII. (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

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In the opening moments of this dense, compelling documentary, an interviewee poses the question: Which is more valuable, a work of art or a human life? The question is left unanswered, and dangles over the ensuing two hours. Ultimately, what the film suggests is that an affront to either, in ruthless hands, can be devastating to both.

Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen and Nicole Newnham have adapted Lynn H. Nicholas' book about the purge and plunder of European art during World War II with a fairly straightforward if exhaustive and systematic approach, merely presenting the facts. But if the unreeling of stock footage and on-camera interviews — coupled with Joan Allen's monotone narration — feels like a History Channel special, the impression is dispelled eventually by just how thoroughly the topic is explored.

The film proceeds in largely chronological order, providing an alternate history of the war, viewed from threatened cultural institutions rather than the trenches. Stumbling out of the gates with the familiar, pat evaluation of Adolf Hitler as a failed art student turned genocidal monster, the co-directors quickly regain their footing once they put the psychological speculation aside.

The Nazis became tireless art collectors — especially Hitler, whose plans for conquer included lists of work to be looted or destroyed. He had a grand scheme for a cultural center to be located post-war in his hometown of Linz, where his own grandiose mausoleum would sit amongst a museum complex displaying the world's great masterpieces.

But Hitler was rivaled in his covetousness by Hermann Goering, whose glory-mongering was more selfish than nationalistic. The head of the Luftwaffe plundered to embellish his own ostentatious surroundings, amassing a stunning collection by war's end. Near the film's conclusion, one participant muses over how the Nazis could have had such disrespect for human life while maintaining such an appreciation for the beauty of fine art. But it has long before become obvious that their interests were not in art for art's sake, but for the sake of self-aggrandizement.

While the German army marches across Europe, the fate of the continent's art is revealed: The evacuations of the Louvre and Hermitage are detailed, as are the Soviet trophy brigades that not only recaptured their own art but stole German works in retribution — the existence of some of which has only recently been revealed and remains controversial.

That controversy is integral to what one interview subject calls "the unfinished business of the greatest war in history," which has resulted in a lengthy list of pieces that remain missing or in contention — witness the recent legal battle between the descendants of Klimt subject Adele Bloch-Bauer and the Austrian State Gallery over her famed portrait.

Heroes are eventually found in the person of the "monuments men," art-savvy soldiers assigned to catalog and restore art in the midst of the still-raging war. Though even these efforts are not without controversy — an infantryman involved in the battle at the monastery at Monte Cassino expresses frustration at taking fire while being ordered to not harm the structure.

As shots alternate between the bomb-battered black-and-white footage and modern views of many of these same sites — enshrined, restored or re-created — their continued or resurgent existence becomes an act not only of cultural preservation but of defiance. What becomes staggeringly clear throughout this story is that, although one commentator is correct in suggesting that the Nazis were "not only the worst mass murderers in history, but the greatest thieves," that's not the entire story. Instead, Hitler's thievery was a symbolic act intended to obliterate the identity of the people whose lives he sought to end. While comparing the loss of paintings and sculptures to human life may seem at first blush to be a facile subject, Rape of Europa makes clear that an attack on cultural history is as direct a strike against a people as a bomb dropped on their homes.

(s_brady@citypaper.net)

The Rape of Europa

Co-directed by Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen and Nicole Newnham

Menemsha Films release