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RECONSTRUCTING THE RECORD OF NAZI CULTURAL PLUNDER A GUIDE TO THE DISPERSED ARCHIVES OF THE EINSATZSTAB REICHSLEITER ROSENBERG (ERR) AND THE POSTWARD RETRIEVAL OF ERR LOOT Patricia Kennedy Grimsted Revised and Updated Edition Chapter 10: United States of America (March 2015) Published on-line with generous support of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference), in association with the International Institute of Social History (IISH/IISG), Amsterdam, and the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies, Amsterdam, at http://www.errproject.org © Copyright 2015, Patricia Kennedy Grimsted The original volume was initially published as: Reconstructing the Record of Nazi Cultural Plunder: A Survey of the Dispersed Archives of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR), IISH Research Paper 47, by the International Institute of Social History (IISH), in association with the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Amsterdam, and with generous support of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference), Amsterdam, March 2011 © Patricia Kennedy Grimsted The entire original volume and individual sections are available in a PDF file for free download at: http://socialhistory.org/en/publications/reconstructing-record-nazi-cultural- plunder. Also now available is the updated Introduction: “Alfred Rosenberg and the ERR: The Records of Plunder and the Fate of Its Loot” (last revsied May 2015). Other updated country chapters and a new Israeli chapter will be posted as completed at: http://www.errproject.org. The Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR), the special operational task force headed by Adolf Hitler’s leading ideologue Alfred Rosenberg, was the major NSDAP agency engaged in looting cultural valuables in Nazi-occupied countries during the Second World War. The detail with which the ERR documented the art, archives, books, and other Judaica it plundered has proved essential for the recovery of cultural valuables after the war and their return to victims or heirs. The original 2011 edition describes the archival remains of the ERR in 29 repositories in 9 countries – from Washington and Brussels to Moscow and Kyiv. The newly revised USA section now adds four more repositories, and a new Israeli chapter adds a tenth country with an additional four repositories. The whole volume serves as a preliminary guide to remaining documents generated by the ERR, and in many cases it goes well beyond ERR and related M-Aktion materials. Attention also focuses on key records of postwar U.S., French, British, and Soviet agencies seeking to retrieve the ERR loot, particularly those components that incorporated wartime ERR documents or reports on key ERR repositories and staff, including war-crimes trials. Links are also provided to many related but dispersed archival sources now available on the Internet: These include records from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), the German Federal Archives (Bundesarchiv), the National Archives (TNA) of the United Kingdom, the State Archives of Ukraine (TsDAVO), and other repositories, with additional digital contributions, providing improved access to a major component of the record of wartime plunder and retrieval of cultural loot. Contents 10.0. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 1 10.0.1. GENERAL INTERNET RESOURCES – USA 5 10.0.1.1. Claims Conference/WJRO Looted Art & Cultural Property Initiative 5 10.0.1.2. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) International Portal 5 10.0.1.3. Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art 6 10.0.1.4. Portal of the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI) 6 10.1. NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, COLLEGE PARK (NACP) 7 10.1.1. RG 242: FOREIGN RECORDS SEIZED (CAPTURED RECORDS) 18 10.1.1.1. Microfilms of German Records Prepared at Alexandria, VA 18 10.1.1.2. Selected Paper Records Remaining in NACP in Above Series 20 10.1.2. RG 239: RECORDS OF THE AMERICAN COMMISSION FOR THE PROTECTION AND SALVAGE OF ARTISTIC AND HISTORIC MONUMENTS IN WAR AREAS (THE ROBERTS COMMISSION) 23 10.1.3. RG 226: RECORDS OF THE OFFICE OF STRATEGIC SERVICES (OSS) 31 10.1.3.1. Formerly Security-Classified Intelligence Reports (XL Series) 32 10.1.3.2. Security-Classified Reports Concerning Recovery of LootedArt Treasures in Germany 33 10.1.3.3. Records of the OSS History Office 33 10.1.3.4. Director’s Office and Field Station Records 34 10.1.3.5. Washington and Field Station Records 35 10.1.4. RG 331: RECORDS OF ALLIED OPERATIONAL AND OCCUPATION HEADQUARTERS, WORLD WAR II, RECORDS OF SUPREME HEADQUARTERS ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCE (SHAEF) 35 10.1.5. RG 260: RECORDS OF U.S. OCCUPATION HEADQUARTERS, WORLD WAR II, RECORDS OF THE OFFICE OF MILITARY GOVERNMENT FOR GERMANY, U.S. (OMGUS) 41 10.1.5.1. Records of the Office of the Adjutant General 45 10.1.5.2. Records of the Economic Division, Restitution Branch, Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives Section 46 10.1.5.2.1. General Correspondence (“Central Files”) 46 10.1.5.2.2. Miscellaneous Property Reports, 1945–1948 48 10.1.5.3. Records of the Property Division: Records of the Property Control and External Assets Branch, Museums, Fine Arts, and Archives Section (MFA&A) 50 10.1.5.3.1. General Records of the Section Chief, 1944–1949 51 10.1.5.3.2. Records Pertaining to Restitution, 1945–1948 51 10.1.5.3.3. Photographs of Artworks, 1945 51 10.1.5.3.4. Property Claim Applications, 1946–1948 52 10.1.5.3.5. Photographic Albums from the Offenbach Archival Depot (OAD) 54 10.1.5.3.6. Lists of Property Removed from France during the War, 1939–1945 55 i 10.1.5.4. Records of the Property Division: Records Concerning the Central Collecting Points (“Ardelia Hall Collection”) 55 10.1.5.4.1. Records of OMGUS Headquarters Relating to Central Collecting Points 55 10.1.5.4.1.1. General Records, 1938–1948 56 10.1.5.4.1.2. Activity Reports, 1945 60 10.1.5.4.1.3. Restitution and Custody Receipts, 1945–1951 60 10.1.5.4.2. Records of the Wiesbaden Central Collecting Point (WCCP) 61 10.1.5.4.2.1. General Records, 1945–1952 62 10.1.5.4.2.2. Cultural Object Movement and Control Records 64 10.1.5.4.2.3. Restitution Claim Records, 1945–1952 65 10.1.5.4.2.4. Records Relating to the Status of Monuments, Museums, and Archives, 1945–1950 65 10.1.5.4.2.5. Restitution, Research, and Reference Records 66 10.1.5.4.2.6. Directory of Property Received at Wiesbaden CCP, 1945–1949 67 10.1.5.4.2.7. Wiesbaden CCP Property Cards Art 67 10.1.5.4.2.8. Photographs of Activities and Exhibits at Wiesbaden CCP Restitution, 1946–1947 69 10.1.5.4.3. Records of the Marburg Central Collecting Point 69 10.1.5.4.3.1. Marburg Administrative Records 70 10.1.5.4.3.2. Marburg Property Cards 71 10.1.5.4.3.3. Marburg Photographs 71 10.1.5.4.4. Records of the Offenbach Archival Depot (OAD) 71 10.1.5.4.4.1. OAD Administrative Records, 1946–1949 73 10.1.5.4.4.2. Cultural Object Restitution and Custody Records 73 10.1.5.4.4.3. Correspondence Relating to Restitution Claims, 1946–1950 74 10.1.5.4.4.4. Monthly Reports, March 1946–August 1947 74 10.1.5.4.4.5. OAD Photographic Albums 74 10.1.5.4.5. Records of the Munich Central Collecting Point (MCCP) 75 10.1.5.4.5.1. Administrative Records, 1945–1951 77 10.1.5.4.5.2. Cultural Object Movement and Control Records, 1945–1949 77 10.1.5.4.5.3. Restitution Claim Records, 1945–1951 79 10.1.5.4.5.4. Activity Reports and Related Records, 1944–1950 80 10.1.5.4.5.5. Records Relating to the Status of Monuments, Museums, and Archives, 1945–1949 81 10.1.5.4.5.6. Restitution Research Records, 1933–1950 84 10.1.5.4.5.7. MCCP Property Cards Art (MCCP registration cards), in Four NARA Series 97 10.1.5.4.5.8. MCCP Photographs 105 10.1.5.5. Records of the Property Division: Miscellaneous Records 106 10.1.5.6. Records of the Education and Cultural Relations (ECR) Division, Records of the Cultural Affairs Branch, 1946–1949 108 10.1.5.7. Records of the Reparations And Restitutions Branch of the U.S. Allied Commission for Austria (USACA) Section, 1945–1950 109 10.1.6. RG 153: RECORDS OF THE OFFICE OF THE JUDGE ADVOCATE GENERAL [U.S. WAR DEPARTMENT], WAR CRIMES BRANCH 110 10.1.6.1. Safehaven Reports, 1944–1945 110 10.1.6.2. Persons and Places Case File (Dossier File), 1944–1949 111 10.1.7. RG 59: GENERAL RECORDS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE 112 10.1.7.1. Records Maintained by the Fine Arts and Monuments Advisor, 1945–1961 (“Ardelia Hall Collection”) 112 ii 10.1.8. RG 238: COLLECTION OF WORLD WAR II WAR CRIMES RECORDS: RECORDS OF THE OFFICE OF THE U.S. CHIEF COUNSEL FOR THE PROSECUTION OF AXIS CRIMINALITY (OUSCCPAC) 113 10.1.8.1. U.S. Evidence Files, 1945–1946 118 10.1.8.1.1. Records formerly retained by Justice Jackson. Correspondence with European Document Centers relating to receipt and return of Documents, 1945 118 10.1.8.1.2. Reference Documents Received from American and Foreign Sources 119 10.1.8.1.3. PS (Paris-Storey) files 120 10.1.8.1.4. Staff Evidence Analysis Forms (SEAs) 121 10.1.8.2.