I have previously watched films on the
concentration camps, and on Hitler and his generals, but this is the first film
that I have seen discussing how the art in each country was stripped from the
lands and its people. In Poland alone, almost 6,000 pieces of art is still
unaccounted for. The numbers are staggering. The Rape of Europa highlights on the devastation and cruelty of
WWII while commenting on the greed of the armies and their leaders, along with
the hardship of attempting to straighten out the details 70 years later.
I find it
fascinating how many different personas of Hitler there are in documentaries
and movies. I have previously thought that it was just different
interpretations of the same information. This film, paired with The Nazi Temple of Doom that was
released in 2013, is leading me to the understand that the basic root of the
difference is not in the interpretation, but in the fact that Hitler had a lot
of hate and greed within him. This hatred was not just directed at the Jewish
people, it was also directed in how people expressed themselves through their
art. In Hitler’s mind, he was the only person who could say whether the work
was “good” or not. I feel that it is a vindictive motivation directed at the
art world because he had previously been denied an entrance into a prestigious
school. Who else but a scorned bitter artist could call Matisse, Van Gogh and
Picasso “degenerate”?
This film did a
wonderful job of balancing the history with the impact that the war still has
on the art world today. The interviews from survivors and the monument men
added the human element that was needed in order to discuss a deeply
penetrating subject. However, I was disappointed by the last 15 minutes of the
film. Through the majority of the film I did not feel any biased nature to the
information being presented. It was educational, visual and a side of the story
that is not heard very often. It highlighted on how important it is to the
descendants of the victims and to the human world to find and identify the
missing works that had disappeared through the war. With the introduction of
Stalin’s Trophy Brigade, I feel that the true nature of the film was revealed.
The last few interview clips painted an image of the Russian people that was
reminiscent of Hitler and his greed. I understand that the film was created to
educate and make people aware of the staggering numbers of missing art objects,
but it didn’t need to take that direct of an approach in the conclusion of the
film.
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