The cultural treasures stolen by the Nazis to the USSR

Hitler and the other Nazi leaders were great connoisseurs of the arts.They dreamed of creating a gigantic museum with masterpieces from around the world, including books and manuscripts, musical instruments and scores, paintings and sculptures, and artifacts of ancient history.Special detachments of the SS were responsible for confiscating cultural goods and taking them to Germany.

During the war, more than 400 Soviet museums suffered losses and 115 million printed works of libraries were destroyed.In the 18 volumes of the complete catalog of stolen or lost cultural goods during that period are 1.177.291 museum objects, and registration is constantly updated.

These are some of the works of art looted by the Nazis in the territory of the USSR.

Tretiakov gallery paintings

At the beginning of the war, a large number of canvases were evacuated to Siberia and later successfully returned to their place of origin.However, more than 30 paintings from the Tretiakov gallery were temporarily exposed in the plenipotentary missions of the USSR in Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland.

The looting of Soviet cultural goods began in the early hours of the German invasion and the "Kunst Battalions" took valuable documents, furniture and, of course, paintings of the embassies and Soviet commercial missions.Many of them probably ended up in private hands and masterpieces such as "Blind Mendigos at a Little Russian Fair" by Vladimir Makovski, "Winter afternoon" and "HEO GALLINAS" by Nikolái Dubovskói and "Pines in a cliff" of IvánShishkin were irremediably lost...

Several Nordic landscapes of Alexánder Borisov were also lost, bought by the founder of the gallery, Pável Tretiakov.In 2006, one of the works - “Colinas de Vilchiki at sunset in mid -September” (1896) - was found in an antique market and successfully returned to the Tretiakov gallery.

The Amber Room of Tsárskoye sealed

The museum workers of St. Petersburg (then Leningrad) packaged, hid and evacuated heroically and in record time millions of objects to store them from art galleries and real palaces.However, not everything could be saved.They thoroughly wrapped the pieces that were left and, in the 18th -century amber room of the Palacio de Catalina in Tsárskoye, they thoroughly covered the precious panels of the walls with guada and hit paper on them to protect them from the explosions.

The Nazis who seized Tsárskoye Seaó and other Leningrad suburbs rob.As for the Amber Room, they had special instructions in this regard: in a matter of days they dismantled it and took all its content.

After the war was lost;The researchers are inclined to believe that he was in Königsberg's cast.However, there are also other theories: that she was hidden in the wells of a mine and even that the Americans took her.In any case, the search for the room is still underway.

The Amber Room was one of the greatest and most famous cultural losses suffered by the Soviet side.At the end of the 90s, fragments of the original -mosaic room and a comfortable amber - were confiscated in Germany during an attempt to sell them.It turned out that an SS officer had secretly taken them as a memory.In the year 2000 they were delivered to Russia and, in 2003, the construction of a replica of the Amber Room was completed, with amber from the Kalinningrad region, in Tsarskoye seaed.German companies were some of those who sponsored reconstruction.

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Arterhof's Royal Palace Garden

Peterhof was in territory occupied by the Germans and suffered serious damage.The Nazis became ruins the magnificent great Poterhof Palace;They also destroyed the unique network of sources and burned the trees of the Royal Park.To protect the valuable garden sculptures, the museum staff had packaged and buried them before the invaders attack.Some were withdrawn and hidden in the San Isaac Cathedral in St. Petersburg.

After the release of Peterhof, in January 1944, most of the hidden sculptures were found successfully, but the museum staff failed to discover a large statue of Samson, the statue that symbolizes the Voljov River and others more.Disappeared without a trace.

The greatest loss in terms of size was the source of Neptune: the Germans took her to Nuremberg.Ironically, it was where, in the 18th century, the Russian emperor Paul I bought it first.However, in 1948 the fountain set was found and returned to Peterhof.

Ecclesiastical Treasures of the Nóvgorod region

The Nóvgorod region was occupied by German troops in the war years.The Cathedral of Santa Sofía de Nóvgorod, one of the oldest churches in Russia, suffered serious damage to the fire of artillery in 1942.The walls and roof were perforated by the projectiles and many frescoes were lost.The building dome also suffered damage, and the Germans merged their golden lining and made memories with him, which they sent home.They also took a large number of valuable objects of the cathedral, such as iconostasium and mosaic panels.

The soldiers of the Spanish Blue Division, which fought on the side of the Nazis, also looted the golden cross of two meters that crowned the main dome of the cathedral.It was stored for more than 50 years at the Academy of Military Engineers, near Madrid, and was finally returned to the Russian Orthodox Church in a ceremony in 2004.The restored relic is now preserved inside the Church.

The Germans took a bell from the church of Santa Mina in Staraya Russa, near Nóvgorod.They found an inscription of the manufacturer in it that said: “Albert Benning.Lubeck, 1672 ".In medieval era, Nóvgorod belonged to the Hanseatic League, just like Lubeck.The Germans sent the bell "home" as "Gift of the Eastern Front".

“The old Lake Ilmen bell will not heal all the wounds inflicted by the pumps and projectiles.But it will be a symbol for the German soldier, who is neither a saqueador nor a wild subjugator, but a protector of ancient culture, ”wrote a newspaper from the German Front in 1942.A Soviet soldier found and kept this article with a view to his hometown, Staraya Russa.Many years later he told the local historian Nina Bogdanova, who set out to discover the fate of the bell.In 2001, the mayor of Lubeck returned the bell to Staraya Russa, and today is preserved in the local museum.

Read more: the worst war crimes committed by Nazis in Soviet territory

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