Between 1933 and 1945, the Nazis developed and operated an elaborate procurement system for art which they had looted from Jews and other victims of persecution during the Third Reich. Works of art were confiscated, and many art collectors were forced to sell below value. In 2000, a report to the U.S. Congress by historian and Holocaust researcher Dr. Jonathan Petropoulos revealed the full extent of the theft: Some 600,000 works of art were taken by the Nazis within the sphere of influence of the Germans – a third in Germany and Austria alone. Many still have not been recovered.
In his latest book, Göring’s Man in Paris: The Story of a Nazi Art Plunderer and His World, Dr. Petropoulos tells the story of Bruno Lohse, one of the key art experts who helped the Nazis loot European Jews. On November 19, the ACG hosted a conversation with Young Leader alumnus Jonathan Petropoulos, and led by Dr. Ronald J. Granieri, Associate Professor of History in the Department of National Security and Strategy at the U.S. Army War College and Templeton Education Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, who is also a Young Leader alumnus.