By Renee’ Collins
Rating: 4.5 (Out of 5 Reels)
The Monuments Men by George Clooney is a mainstream film that delves into what happened to art in Europe during and after World War II. Adolf Hitler waged an all-out war on art because at his command enormous amounts were destroyed. High ranking Nazi officers took what they wanted while a massive amount was stockpiled in mines throughout Europe.
Believe it or not soldiers from all nations stole all kinds of items to take home as mementoes. Among them was an American soldier named Joe Meador who stole medieval art treasures from a church in Germany. He packaged them up and mailed them home to his hometown in east Texas called White wright. Meador supposedly told officials a priest asked him to take the items and keep them safe but return them after the war was over. There is one problem with that statement, he never returned the items. It is one thing to take a small souvenir home like a canteen, German soldier hat or uniform. It is another thing all together to steal thousand year old medieval religious relics that truly belong to the world and not one individual. The only reason they were found at all is because a tenacious German art detective stopped at nothing to find them.
This film is wonderfully written and put together. Everyone should see this film to become aware of what happened behind the scenes during and after the war. In fact thousands of artifacts are still missing to this day.