Judge: U.S. Government Can Keep Hitler Art

The Miami Herald ^ | Mon, Jun. 09, 2003 | Associated Press

[yonif]

WASHINGTON - A federal judge has ruled that the U.S. government can keep four watercolors signed by Adolf Hitler and millions of photographs taken by the Nazi dictator's personal photographer, ending a 20-year dispute over their ownership.

The case began in 1983 when Billy Price of Houston, who collects Nazi memorabilia, joined the heirs of Hitler photographer and friend Heinrich Hoffman and filed suit to obtain the paintings and photos. They charged that the materials were illegally seized by the U.S. Army near the end of World War II.

U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. ruled May 30 that Price and the Hoffman heirs waited too long to reopen the case. He also ruled that the government could keep a photo archive of some 2.5 million photographs, some of which were used in the Nuremberg trials after World War II.

Hitler, who early in life had wanted to study fine arts, is believed to have created thousands of drawings and paintings, many of them streetscapes and village scenes. He is believed to have given the watercolors to Hoffman, convicted at the Nuremberg war trials as a Nazi profiteer. Hoffman died in 1957.

The court ruling was first reported by The New York Times in its June 8 editions. Robert White, a lawyer for Price and the heirs, told the Times an appeal was unlikely.

[thegreatbeast]

I don't get it. The Hitler watercolors don't fetch that much on the market to the best of my knowledge, not enough to warrant a long and expensive campaign to free them from gov't possession. That is why it is being dropped here. Must be fascinating stuff in those photos though.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Only one photographer, and he took "millions of photos"?

[Drammach]

As official photographer, he probably "directed" many photo essays, documentaries, etc., and indirectly took these pictures, through subordinates, and intermediaries.
Likewise, he probably kept records of all photography done by ANY one in the 3rd Reich, including newspapers, magazines, etc..

This should have been more properly described as his photo "collection" or "library", something of that sort.

Just a thought, but there are still a lot of people alive today that had a hand in WW2, and Germany in particular.
Chances are, some interesting faces might show up in that collection, at places they shouldn't be, and with people they shouldn't be with.

Little wonder the Federal Government doesn't want these photographic archives getting into the "wrong" hands.

[thegreatbeast]

Entirely possible as he was the official photographer for Hitler. He documented every moment of Hitler's life. AH was leader of Germany for 12 years (at least).

[HiTech RedNeck]

In the late 1930's, before Hitler went totally rotten, he probably got a photo-op with just about every prominent worldwide politician. That shouldn't surprise anybody.

[aristeides]

It was through Hoffmann that Hitler met Eva Braun. She was working as an office assistant for Hoffmann.

The wife of Hitler Youth leader Baldur von Schirach was Hoffmann's daughter Henriette.