Sunday, November 10, 2013

The real Jewish treasures of World War Two

BBC   A New York Times headline summed up one view of the missing art story: "Art trove a triumph over Nazism," it announced.

I wonder. For art historians, perhaps the sheer survival of these magnificent paintings is enough. 

But reading through some of the comments online, it seemed clear that some saw the story through a very different lens - another tale of Jewish wealth and privilege, as though every Jewish family in pre-war Europe owned a Picasso or a Matisse. And as though anyone who now came forward to claim ownership was greedily depriving the public of works that rightfully belonged in museums. 

So, maybe not such a triumph over Nazism after all?

The more I read, the more I found myself thinking about my own family's history. And my own obsessive interest in finding out what had survived the war - and what had been lost.

1 comment:

  1. Of course this article makes mockery of the holocaust.

    Not only so much life was lost, unbelievable amount of torture was taking place, in a sense, there was no real victory over the Nazis because they did not have a real agenda other than to destroy anything good and they quite succeeded.

    What survived the holocaust is the soul of our nation which is of course the Emuna in the Ribono Shel Olam which is so inspiring to all of us

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