cupied Western Europe primarily for Göring’s benefit. Walter
Hofer, whose visiting card proclaimed him to be “curator of the
Reichsmarschall’s art collections,” acted as his principal adviser.
The biggest search operation was conducted by his friend Alfred
Rosenberg. Hitler had assigned to Rosenberg the job of securing
the “ownerless” treasures abandoned by fleeing Jews forfeited
by them in lieu of the compulsory refugee tax.
Göring very rapidly got wind of the Rosenberg operation.
Dr. Harold Turner civilian head of the military occupation
authority in Paris, and a Göring-appointed Staatsrat asked
the Reichsmarschall to decide the future of the seized collec-
tions. Göring thus got first wind of the best bargains and often
had them loaded aboard a boxcar attached to Asia before Hit-
ler’s “art professors” Hans Posse and Karl Haberstock got a look
at them. In fact Göring held all the aces: His Four-Year Plan
currency agents had the power to open French safe deposits. An
Inspector Dufour of the French Sûreté and a Mademoiselle
Lucie Botton, formerly employed by Seligmanns, the art dealers,
led the agents straight to Jewish caches that often concealed
paintings and jewels as well as currency. Göring provided
Rosenberg’s staff with armed guards, Luftwaffe truck transport,
and specialists like art historian Bruno Lohse, released from air-
force duties for the purpose.
The Reichsmarschall was the only Nazi with the time to
conduct “shopping expeditions” in Paris. The first trip in Sep-
tember was to “get the feel of the art market,” as he later
explained.
Minister of Justice Raphaël Alibert protested on October
to the head of the military occupation, General Alfred Streccius,
about Göring’s behavior. His remonstrances fell on deaf ears.
Rosenberg wanted the art collections merely photographed and
catalogued, and then held at the Führer’s pleasure as a bargain-