Watch: The Rape of Europa
WATCH: ‘The Rape of Europa’
CATEGORY: Documentary
TIME: World War II- Present Day
RATING: 5/5 Cups of Tea
The Rape of Europa is a meticulously researched and startling documentary chronicling the theft of what we were told was one-fifth of all the known significant works of art in Europe.
The Nazi conspiracy to steal the world’s greatest art was an enormous organized criminal act against human culture. Hitler desired to free a Third Reich Europe of Jews, Slavs, and other deemed undesirables, included removing art, property, and any cultural presence of his designated target populations. The Nazis purged art Hitler hated, and stole what he wanted. Hitler saw the war as a war of purification, not only annihilating populations, but also attempting to remove any vestige of their existences here on earth.
The film opens and ends with the story of Gustav Klimt’s famous portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer. The Nazis forcibly stole this painting in 1938 from the family’s home. It shows up after the war but was not returned to its rightful owner until long legal battles later.
The film recounts many acts of Hitler’s widespread systematic destruction including the invasion of Warsaw and destroying it street by street, the order given to Parisian Jews to clean, pack and ship their own families’ and friends’ stolen property to the Germans, the destruction of half of Florence’s best art, the bombing of Pisa for 40 days, and of course the 900 day siege of Leningrad, home to the Hermitage, with Hitler ordering his armies to wipe the city off the face of the earth.
The documentary puts into perspective the horrors we read about in the Madonnas of Leningrad. It talks in depth about the Germans wanting to annihilate Russia. Hitler chose to destroy Leningrad because he knew the Hermitage was where Russia began and ended. It tells of the frantic evacuation of four times the number of art objects the Parisians had shipped out of the Louvre. It talks of the starving and freezing citizens of Leningrad, including the Russians sheltered in the cellar of the Hermitage, having had their supplies cut off by the Germans. Thousands and thousands of Russians died.
Thank goodness The Rape of Europa also gives the viewers heartwarming examples of art that was heroically saved. Risking her life, Rose Valland kept hidden records of paintings stored in the Jeu de Paume before being shipped to Germany. Her records were essential in recovering the art after the war. The U.S. Army enlisted art experts, and under the command of Eisenhower, deployed The Monument Men to protect and save priceless pieces of art and return them to their rightful owners and countries.
This documentary attempts to give a full account of the unimaginable damage and massive theft of art during the period of Nazi rule. It staggers our imaginations.
The Rape of Europa is a gripping documentary which made me sick to my stomach and sick in my heart, but it’s a documentary that should be seen around the world to remind us never to be complacent in our attempts to prevent destruction of lives and cultures from continuing to happen.
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READ: Novel based on real-life WWII refugees trapped in St. Petersburg’s Hermitage Museum, ‘The Madonnas of Leningrad’