Scholar To Discuss Art Collections Amassed By Nazis During World War II

FAIRFIELD — On Wednesday, November 8, at 4 pm, at Fairfield University, historian Jonathan Petropoulos, PhD, who has served as a consultant for Holocaust victims trying to recover lost artworks, will present a talk and slide presentation titled “Hitler and the Princes: From Nazi-Royal Alliance to Class Warfare.” His most recent book is Royals and the Reich: The Princes von Hessen in Nazi Germany (Oxford, 2006). The event is presented by University College of Fairfield University.

If being a prince were a profession, then German princes would arguably have been the most Nazified group in the Third Reich, even surpassing physicians. German princes helped legitimatize Hitler and bring him to power. They were rewarded with posts in the regime and economic favors, and helped create a glittering Nazi high society that flourished in the 1930s. They also helped Nazi leaders amass extraordinary art collections, especially during World War II when German plundering units ravaged the continent. But this alliance between the old and new ruling elite broke down amid the strains of war.

Dr Petropoulos will examine why this happened and discuss the myths and cover-up that emerged in the postwar period and that have endured to this day. 

Dr Petropoulos was the first scholar to have been granted access to a princely family’s archive from the Third Reich. He is the John V. Croul Professor of European History at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, Calif., where he also serves as director of the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies and the associate director of the Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights. He has served as a consultant for a number of Holocaust victims trying to recover lost artworks.

He wrote the expert report for the plaintiffs in Altmann versus Austria, which resulted in the return of five paintings by Gustav Klimt to the heirs. He is the author of Art as Politics in the Third Reich (University of North Carolina Press, 1996), and The Faustian Bargain: The Art World in Nazi Germany (Oxford University Press, 2000).

The event is part of the Best-Selling Author Series. It is presented by University College, the Carl and Dorothy Bennett Center for Judaic Studies, the departments of art history and history, and Congregation B’nai Israel, Bridgeport. It will take place in the Oak Room of the Barone Campus Center on the Fairfield campus. Tickets are $10.

For additional information, call 203-254-4307.