"The Rape of Europa"

I watched a really interesting documentary last night, The Rape of Europa. It chronicles the systematic pillaging of art works throughout Europe by the Nazis prior to and during WWII. It dealt not only with the theft of works of art from Jews, but also theft from private and state collections "unrelated" to Nazi hatred of the Jewish people. Hitler, as a would-be artist, had a passion for art and indeed drew up an art "hit list" prior to the start of his invasions so that works on the list could be targeting by field commanders, with the works then sent back to Germany. Hundreds of thousands of works made their way into Germany this way.

What was amazing was just how many people risked their lives to save art from the Nazis. One such group was the so-called "Monument Men" of the American army. In spite of my great interest in WWII and having spent a lot of time researching this war, I had never before heard of the Monument Men. These were men, lead by a Yale art professor, who were tasked by the army with protecting architectural and fine art as Allied forces advanced against the Third Reich. What they did and the amount of art that they helped to preserve was just amazing.

I've also seen two other movies recently that I can highly recommend. The first is Outsourced, a comedy about an American forced to travel to India to train his replacement after the company for which he works outsources call center jobs. The second is Greenfingers, a comedy-drama about an English prisoner who finds redemption via gardening. Both are sweet, funny films.

6 October 2008