The Monument Mens' Other Story

There is an episode of the television show Justified, in which U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (played by Timothy Olyphant) is asked to investigate a possible neo-Nazi who is buying up the remaining artwork of Adolf Hitler.  Concerned about the possibility that the man intends to open a Nazi museum, the good marshal tracked the man down, only to discover that the art collection consisted of a dozen jars of ashes.  The man had been burning the remaining paintings of Hitler.

Justified is an excellent television show, but it very unlikely that anyone would ever make a career of buying and burning all of der Fuehrer’s paintings.  The few museums that have them don’t particularly like them but won’t sell them.  In addition, there are all those paintings by Hitler that the United States “stole” in World War II.  You know…the ones the Monument Men stole.

Assuming that you have seen the George Clooney movie, then we are all experts about the Monument Men, the U.S. Army group that President Roosevelt authorized to save and repatriate the artwork that the Nazis had stolen from all over Europe.  These men did an extraordinary job, saving tens of thousands of priceless pieces of art.  

It is not mentioned in the movie, but the Monuments Men were also tasked with removing artwork commissioned by the German government to glorify the Nazi leaders or the war movement.   Adolf Hitler was generally considered to be a failure as an artist.  (Or as a human, for that matter.). He was rejected twice by the Academy of Fine Art in Vienna, and spent several years creating postcards and dabbling in street art.  Though unsuccessful as an artist, Hitler never lost in interest in creating (or stealing) artwork.  

Giving the devil his due, Hitler understood the use of artwork as a propaganda tool and how the German people would react to it.  Hitler commissioned a small army of artists to create paintings glorifying war, promoting the father land, and occasionally, portraying the Nazi hierarchy (particularly Hitler) as half man and half God.  After the paintings were copied into countless posters, the original works went to museums or were sold to high-ranking military officers.  

At Yalta, President Roosevelt had agreed to removing as much of this artwork as possible and after the war was over, the Army began scouring the German countryside to do just that, confiscating original artwork displaying the swastika that glorified war or depicted the Nazi elite such as Hitler, Goebbels, or Goehring.  The post-war Monument Men found paintings in cellars, in caves, in government offices, under the floorboards of mountain cabins, and in the homes of the Nazi hierarchy.  There is something ironic about the Monument Men, the guys that recovered so much stolen art, making off with the art of the defeated.  I understand why they did it, and approve, but it is still a little ironic.  I can understand why George Clooney left that part out of his movie.

When the propaganda art had been gathered, 8,722 pieces in all were shipped back home to the United States and hidden away at a military base in Virginia to prevent its being used to rekindle a far-right regime in Germany.  But, in the haste to gather the propaganda art, some of the legitimate artwork of German artists was also seized.  Within a few years after the artwork had been gathered and stored, some Germans were demanding that the non-political works be returned.

After carefully sorting through the artwork, the United States sent over 1500 pieces back to Berlin for return to their rightful owners.  The postwar German Republic was not exactly happy to have any reminders of the Nazis back, and simply warehoused the paintings away until the 1970’s, ignoring the claims of the rightful owners.

Three decades after the war’s end, most of the seized artwork was no longer deemed very threatening—the pompous over-the-top poses of “The Master Race” looked more comical than threatening.  Perhaps three decades of movies and television shows in which the Germans always lost to the Allies, had diminished the threat.  A painting showing the guards from Hogan’s Heroes was nothing to be worried about.  

So, the Army returned all but the most offensive pieces.   Today, almost eighty years after the war, Fort Belvoir still houses a three-foot bust of Adolf Hitler, hundreds of paintings showing the SS in heroic poses, statues of Nazis, and an undisclosed number of rather creepy watercolors done by Adolf Hitler.

What exactly should be done with such art is still a dilemma.  Who are the rightful owners?  If the owners could be located, would they even want the art?  Should this type of art even be exhibited in a museum?  There are probably no good answers to these questions, which explains why the US Army is still warehousing the art so long after the war.  For now, Hitler’s watercolors stay safely locked up in a filing cabinet drawer.

These works are not shown to the public and by now, the Army probably wishes that they were elsewhere.  Most of the artwork has been photographed and I could show you a few examples of Hitler’s art….but I won’t.  Perhaps this is a case in which life should imitate art, and the paintings, at least those done by Hitler, should be burned.  

The Gordon Riots

Among the many reasons that America won their Revolutionary War are my top three:

First, there was the French Alliance.  Though it pains me to admit it, our victory was largely due to help from the French, who not only did not surrender during the war but actually fought well.  The French played a crucial role by providing the United States with a formidable navy and by spreading Britain’s forces thin across the world.  Before the French entered the war, the British could focus their attention on the rebellion without much fear of other global conflicts.  (Though we should remember that part of the France’s motivation was not only to harm its historic enemy, England, but also to be able to pick up new territories that the British military was too thinly stretched to defend.)

Second, there was the sheer impossibility of the Britain being able to logistically support its army so far from home.  As we become accustomed to modern transportation, we tend to forget that two hundred years ago a small wooden fort equipped with a single cannon and barrel of moldy flour could control a huge amount of territory primarily because of the flour.  The hardest task for generals of the era was to keep their armies fed well enough to be able to survive (never mind being well enough to fight).  England could never supply its army well enough for the forces to go on the offensive.

Last, America won because George Washington didn’t lose.  As asinine as that sounds, it is correct.  Washington could have blundered so badly that the war could have been lost.  The fact that he managed to keep his army supplied, trained, and largely undefeated until Great Britain realized that the war was unwinnable was an impressive strategic victory.

There are a host of other, smaller reasons.  Among those reasons are included the lack of Loyalist support in the colonies, the fact that Native Americans didn’t (for the most part) side with the British, that the colonists fought unconventionally, and the incredible incompetence of some British generals.  

A somewhat obscure reason for the British loss, however, is the impact of the London Gordon Riots of 1780.  The riots, the worst in a century, had prolonged effects in both domestic and foreign policy.

The root of the riot goes all the way back to the Popery Act of 1698, a hateful, discriminatory law that basically stripped all civil rights from Catholics—as evidenced by the actual title of the law, “An Act for the further preventing the Growth of Popery”.  The discriminatory provisions included a prohibition of Catholics attending school, of owning property, or of receiving an inheritance.  Catholic priests were to be perpetually jailed at the pleasure of the monarch and any British citizen lucky enough to apprehend a priest would receive a bounty of £100.

I wish I could tell you the riot was because concerned citizens were angry at the injustice of the act, but actually the people of London were furious that The Papists Act of 1788 lifted, ever so slightly, some of the harsher provisions of the previous act, specifically that if Catholics took an oath of allegiance to the monarch and rejected the authority of the Pope over English law, they could own property and enlist in the British Army.

The act was passed for two pressing reasons.  First, England was at war with practically everybody and the army desperately needed more recruits.  Second, England was terrified that Ireland might emulate the Americans and start its own revolution for independence.  The law formally recognized something of a settled fact—the Irish were already in the army and Naval Press Gangs were snatching up any men who were even close to physically fit, regardless of nationality or religion.  (Occasionally, as it turned out, some of those “men” were actually women.)

Note.  I have never understood why governments periodically decide that certain groups cannot join the army, whether it is because of their religion or sexual orientation.  Imagine the outrage if, in time of war, all those prohibited from serving went down to the docks and waved goodbye to the departing troops.  “Goodbye boys!  Have fun in the war!”

Terribly upset about the return of civil rights to Catholics, Lord George Gordon, the head of the Protestant Association, began making a series of inflammatory speeches to the poor of London.  (Think of this as George Wallace addressing the KKK, but without bedsheets.). Because the ongoing wars hurt trade, the poor were suffering from high unemployment and inflation, and according to Wallace/George, if Catholics were allowed into the military, there would be an inevitable return to absolute monarchy, enslavement to the Pope, watered down beer, and dogs would marry cats.  (This is not the famous General Charles George Gordon of Khartoum, but an altogether different British nobleman with a similar name.)

After two and a half centuries, there is a rather obvious effort by some historians to shift the cause of the riots to economic reasons, but in the end, the primary cause was religious persecution against Catholics.  (As you read that last sentence, try desperately hard not to think about the Lost Cause of the Glorious South.  I don’t care how many times you have read the books of Shelby Foote, the American Civil War was fought over slavery.) 

Lord George met with King George III and tried to convince the monarch to repeal the law, but the King was only periodically crazy, and not stupid.  Lord George marched his followers to Parliament and urged them to act, but even Parliament refused to listen to him.  Within days, the Protestant Association took to the streets and was quickly joined by a mob of 40,000 to 60,000 angry people who were eager to demonstrate their stupidity with violence.

The target of the mob was initially the poor Irish immigrant neighborhood of Moorfields.  Despite the pleas of prominent merchants in the area, the London Mayor refused to send troops.  The rioters quickly burned and looted Moorfields homes, then moved towards the center of London.  

The mob, wearing blue ribbons for identification, grew steadily in size and stormed Newgate Prison, freeing the convicts and destroying the prison.  When the government still didn’t move to stop the riot, three other prisons were destroyed, along with Catholic churches and the homes of prominent citizens.  

The riot lasted five days and it was only after the violent mob turned to the Bank of England that the King sent in 15,000 soldiers who had orders to fire at will on any group of four or more people who refused to disperse.  Almost three hundred people were killed and another two hundred were wounded.  

When the riot was over, about two dozen ring leaders were quickly charged with treason and executed, the Mayor was convicted of criminal negligence and fined £1,000, and Lord George was arrested and charged with high treason, but was acquitted. A few years later, George, the great defender of the One True Faith converted to Judaism, taking the name of Yisrael bar Avraham Gordon.

This riot had far-reaching ramifications.  England had been negotiating with Spain to stop supporting the Americans in their revolution, but the rise of anti-Catholic sentiment in London brought a sharp end to the diplomatic talks.  And Austria, also a Catholic country, decided not to aid England in the war against America.  

In London, the riots helped convince !merchants that the protracted wars, both in Europe and America, were bad for business.  There was also a growing cry for London to create a police force—an idea that was criticized because it would be copying something that had been done in Paris.  (This was more than forty years before Sir Robert Peel established Scotland Yard.)

There was, additionally, general agreement among the leadership of British Society that when a mob commences to use violence to achieve political  aims, a delayed response only encourages more destruction.  This seems to be a lesson we have to relearn at least once a generation.