an urgent duty for National Socialism during this
war.
I therefore welcome Reichsleiter Rosenberg’s deci-
sion to set up task forces in all occupied territories
with the mission of securing all research material and
cultural assets of the above-designated groups and
transporting them to Germany.The Göring document ordered all party, government, and
military agencies to afford Feldführer von Behr “every conceiv-
able support and assistance.” He resumed his diary:
: .., Angerer (long talk!)
: Staffelt [head of Currency Protection Unit]
: war briefing by [chief adjutant Major von] Brau-
chitsch
: lunch at Cremaillère
: Bernheim at Grand Hotel
: Jeu de Paume (paintings)
: Napoleon’s crypt at Invalides Cathedral
: return to Palais and read
: report by [Hitler’s air-force adjutant Major
Nicolaus] von Below
: situation [conference with] chief of air staff
: dinner with guests at Maxim’s, back at :The next two days passed in the same sort of whirl confer-
ences with fighter aces Werner Mölders and Adolf Galland,
sumptuous meals at Maxim’s, erotic evenings at the Bal Tabarin,
“shopping for furniture for Veldenstein,” another finger-licking
trip to the Jeu de Paume, and then back to his train but not
before he had negotiated with Bernheim the purchase of the
priceless “Bagatelle Ceiling.” (“The Russians have it,” he would
say sardonically when asked by the Americans what had hap-
pened to this fabulous painted ceiling in .)
He had to be back in Berlin for Hitler’s grandiloquent, tri-