[rockinqsranch]

Curious about the timeline. If the pictures were hanging in Hearst Castle since 1935.....???

[Izzy Dunne]

If the pictures were hanging in Hearst Castle since 1935.....???

Nazis were in power, and persecuting Jews, long before the war itself.

Although then the statement that this is yet another reminder of the scope of Jewish persecution during World War II. does seem out of place, doesn't it?

[Michael.SF.]

Agreed. The time-line is not right. Hitler came to power in ‘33, became Fuhrer in ‘34. He did not begin rounding up future victims until the late ‘30’s.

[Michael.SF.]

Agreed. The time-line is not right. Hitler came to power in ‘33, became Fuhrer in ‘34. He did not begin rounding up future victims until the late ‘30’s.

[bcsco]

That's the year the Nuremberg Laws were initiated. Hitler began anti-Jewish persecution as early as 1932-33. See the paragraph headed "Early Nazi persecutions" at the link.

[UCANSEE2]

If the pictures were hanging in Hearst Castle since 1935.....???

Must be a typo. I think they meant Helen Thomas was hanging out in the Heart Castle back in 1935.

[x]

The paintings were at a gallery in Germany. The owners fled to Paris and Hitler's government took over the gallery and confiscated the paintings.

Hearst agents bought the paintings. Whether or not they knew of the story behind them I don't know, but it's less likely that William Randolph Hearst did himself.

When the paintings were returned they were the property of the state of California which now owns the castle. If anti-Semitism were somehow in the DNA, the current governor might not have returned them.

[AnalogReigns]

The Nazis were confiscating art from the very beginning of their rule. If you read the article you'll note the typical "early" method they used...threaten the owners, so they flee the country, then merely confiscate the property (house, business, goods, artwork) as "abandoned property."

I saw a documentary on TV called "The Rape of Europa" about Hitler's systematic theft of literally millions of the best art of Europe (thousands of which still remain unaccounted for). There were something like 10,000 men from the Wehrmacht assigned--even into the late stages of the war--to "collect" (steal), catalog, transport and store all the masterworks they could find.

Hitler, after all, having been an (almost) artist, fancied himself an art expert--and all the top Nazi officials followed his lead, having huge personal collections.

Goring for example in a summer "house" had a larger collection there (1500+ paintings) than Washington DC's National Gallery.

Whole trains full of stolen art were being transported to safe storage throughout the war...and were of the highest priorty...

One of the big storehouses for stolen art, strangely enough, was the famous Neuschwantein castle of Disney-fame.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

Hitler had formed the SA (Sturm Abteilung) by the end of 1921 and was robbing and assaulting Jews in 1922.