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Thursday, October 22, 2015

What happened to the real-life Monuments Men? (trackers of Nazi Art heists in Europe during W W II)

www.nj.com (News of New Jersey and citizenry):
The U.S. Congress on Thursday said thanks to Harry Ettlinger.
One of the six remaining survivors of a 350-member, 13-nation force sent into World War II to track down and return cultural artifacts stolen by the Nazis, Ettlinger, a resident of Rockaway, NJ traveled to Capitol Hill to receive the Congressional Gold Medal.
These "monuments men" were the subject of a movie starring George Clooney, Cate Blanchett, Bill Murray and John Goodman.
The four members able to make the ceremony all stood on stage with the congressional leaders of both parties to a standing ovation. They received the honor thanks in part to U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), the lead Senate Democratic sponsor of legislation to give them the gold medals "Far beyond my expectations, way way beyond," Ettlinger, now close to 90 years old, said of the ceremony, which featured speeches by Menendez, the other congressional sponsors, and the congressional leaders.
A refugee from Nazi Germany, Ettlinger joined the U.S. Army in August 1944, and became part of the monuments men in 1945 because of his German language skills. Two of them were killed in action.
The group was tasked by Gen. Dwight Eisenhower with recouping art treasures looted by the Germans and returning them to their rightful owners.
"Instead of taking things, we spent our efforts returning it," Ettlinger said.
He was the only one of the four survivors to speak at the ceremony.
"What this small group discovered was nothing less than the greatest plunder ever perpetuated in the history of civilization," he said.
http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/10/rockaway_monument_man_gets_congressional_gold_meda.html

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