Hitler’s Last Hostages, by Mary M. Lane—A chilling look at the rise of Hitler and the Nazis seen through the lens of the art world ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️☆
Before reading Hitler’s Last Hostages I was vaguely aware of Adolf Hitler’s background as a failed artist, and I had heard of the Führermuseum project. I had also read the excellent book, The Monuments Men , by Robert M. Edsel and Bret Witter, and I was expecting something that expanded upon the information contained in that book. What I found was very much more than that. The book opens by looking into the discovery of the hoard of looted/stolen artwork that was in the possession of Cornelius Gurlitt, the son of a notorious Nazi art “dealer”—though Gurlitt senior was in fact just a licensed looter, given carte blanche by the Third Reich to acquire works of art by coercion, for pennies on the dollar, or by outright theft. The narrative then shifts to Adolf Hitler’s early life and background in art, other German artists that were active before, during, and after the First World War, and the effects of that war on the world of the arts, and the artists who worked within it—in great,