The Spoils of World War II: The American Military's Role in the Stealing Europe's Treasures

Alford reveals in detail the extent to which the U.S. Army of occupation pillaged the defeated German people of their private possessions and public treasures after WWII. Paintings and statuary, jewelry, silverware and china, furniture and all manner of items from private homes were stolen by marauding GIs and their officers. Much museum art, which had been hidden in castles, monasteries and mine shafts was officially confiscated by American military authorities, but then was guarded so haphazardly that insider thieves, including general officers named here, took what they wanted. Alford also describes the work of the army's Monuments, Fine Arts and Archival Section and Criminal Investigation Division in apprehending looters. Unlike Lynn Nicholas's superb The Rape of Europa (Nonfiction Forecasts, Mar. 21), this survey is repetitious and somewhat naive in its amazement over the scope of temptation unresisted. Photos. (Oct.)