Literature Review

Introduction

In the twenty-first century an increase in publicity regarding the repatriation of Jewish objects taken by the Nazi regime during World War Two has been accompanied by a rise in the publishing of journalistic accounts and personal memoirs, about families' legal battles to reclaim their property. The state of the field is primarily divided between literature describing resolved and unresolved cases and by looking at both one can see that authors writing about resolved cases tend to take a stronger position against the use of anti-Semitism by governments and museums to deny or resist art repatriation claims. This specific field of literature provides firsthand accounts of what happened in the immediate postwar period, along with answering public questions about what happened to prominent Jewish families and their collections. These circumstances have led to a divide, with some books written in the twenty-first century taking a stronger position than others against the use of anti-Semitism in repatriation cases.

The State of the Field - Journalistic Accounts v. Personal Memoirs

Journalistic accounts typically revolve around resolved repatriation cases that have had a proportionate amount of media attention. Written after the case has taken place, the authors rely on other media sources such as trial accounts, newspapers, and interviews. On the rare occasion that a representative of the private family is available to help with the book, that will also be used (O'Connor, 2012). Put together by authors with no relation to the case, the books tell the full story from the creation of the piece to its return to its rightful heirs. Not being biased about the trial, having not personally participated, the authors tend to use more explicit and blunt language when discussing the wrongdoings of both governments and institutions. Taking a stand against government legal systems embedded with strong anti-Semitic language, journalists can ask questions such as “what is the meaning of justice when law is used to legalize thievery and murder,” (O’Connor, 2012) to make the reader uncomfortable.

While journalistic accounts can use blunt language to call out wrongdoings, personal memoirs, whether focused on resolved or unresolved cases, tend to use slightly vaguer language to emphasize the injustice faced in the art repatriation process. These accounts tend to be written by heirs or members of lost Jewish families to bring awareness to the anti-Semitism they have faced from before World War Two to now (De Waal, 2010). The majority of case studies are again focused on resolved cases but tend to take a mediated approach to explicitly writing about anti-Semitism, this could be due to deals being worked out or legal bindings but those questions remain unanswered. The only mentions of anti-Semitism in personal memoir literature is when discussing the pre-war injustices faced by the Jewish families in Nazi Germany (Goodman, 2015). By using indirect language families can express their hurt and call out perpetrators and entire countries without risking the chance of getting the rest of their family's art back (Kaiser, 2021). 

Works Cited

De Waal, Edmund. The Hare with Amber Eyes: A Family’s Century of Art and Loss. New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 2010.

Goodman, Simon. The Orpheus Clock: the search for my family’s art treasures stolen by the Nazis. New York: Scribner, 2015.

Kaiser, Menachem. Plunder: Family Property and Nazi Treasure. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2021.

O’Connor, Anne-Marie. The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt’s Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer. New York; Knopf, 2012.

Header Image (Figure 10): Books and paperwork at the Yiddish Institute in 1943, Vilna, Poland. Yad Vashem Photo Archive.