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Originally Posted by Skytrooper
This is true Tabs, the subject matter isn't fascinating, but I think it is worth the read to see what these men accomplished...and to think of what would have happened had they not been successful. Priceless artifacts ad art would have been lost forever.
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I do want to see the movie I think it is a great story of recovery.
Ummm I do think that Cloney's take on history is a bit convoluted. Hitler ordered a scorched earth policy for the whole of Germany. Hitler felt that the German people were not fit to survive because they lost the war for him...He ordered the destruction of bridges, utilities, dams everything. Albert Speer who was the War Production Minister was supposed to carry out the orders, but purposefully disobeyed and did not carry them out. At the end Speer went to Hitler in the Bunker in Berlin and told him what he had done. Hitler felt disappointed in Speer that he to would betray him, however he gave Speer credit for telling him to his face.
The men who were sent out to recover the art and artifacts were in a race to see that the Soviets did not get to them first. That was more to the point of why they were going after them.
The dirty little secret is what our boys and the other Allied boys brought home with them as being liberated by them from the evil NAZI's. Treasures are still being found today in the USA. Some of the Holocaust treasures stolen from the Jews are in museums in the USA and there is legal actions pending to repatriate them to their rightful owners families. I was always on the look out for a hidden gem at the auctions that I attended. I imagine that from the 50's through the 80's one could occasionally find something of value that was a looted object.
Another thing to consider is that Chinese Gordon's British and French soldiers looted and burned the Chinese Summer Palace in 1864 under his orders. One can only imagine what is still out there in someones attic.