Booklist: The Monuments Men, by Robert M. Edsel

The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History, by Robert M. Edsel
Hachette Book Group 2009
426 pages, plus cast of characters, Notes, Bibliography, Acknowledgments and Index. 16 pages of b&w photos

Description
As Hitler was attempting to conquer the Western world, his armies were methodically pillaging the finest art in Europe, from Michelangelos and da Vincis to van Eycks and Vermeers, all stolen for the Fuhrer.

The Monuments Men had a mandate from President Roosevelt and the support of GEneral Eisenhower, but no vehicles, gasoline, typewriters or authority. In a race against time to save the world's greatest cultural treasures from destructions at the hands of Nazi fanatics, each man gathered scraps and hints to construct his own treasure map using records recovered from bombed cathedrals and museums, the notes and journals of Rose Valland, a French museum employee who secretly tracked Nazi plunder through the railyards of Paris, and even a tip from a dentist during a root canal.

These unlikely heroes, mostly middle-aged family men, walked away from successful careers into the epicenter of the war, risking-and some losing-their lives. Like other members of the Greatest Generation, they embodied the courageous spirit that enabled the best of humanity to defeat the worst.

This is their story.

Table of Contents
Author's Notes
Main Characters

I. The Mission
1. Out of Germany
2. The Call to Arms
4. A Dull and Empty World
5. Leptis Magna
6. The First Campaign
7. Monte Cassino
8. Monuments, Fine Art and Archives
9. The Task

II. Northern Europe
10. Winning Respect
11. A Meeting in the Field
12. Michaelangelo's Madonna
13. The Cathedral and the Masterpiece
14. Van Eyck's Mystic Lamb
15. James Rorimer Visits the Louvre
16. Entering Germany
17. A Field Trip
18. Tapestry
19. Christmas Wishes
20. The Madonna of La Gleize
21. The Train
22. The Bulge
23. Champagne

III. Germany
24. A German Jew in the US Army
25. Coming Through the Battle
26. The New Monuments Man
27. George Stout with his Maps
28. Art on the Move
29. Two Turning Points
30. Hitler's Nero Decree
31. First Army Across the Rhine
32. Treasure Map
33. Frustration
34. Inside the Mountain
35. Lost
36. A Week to Remember

IV. The Void
37. Salt
38. Horror
39. The Gauleiter
40. The Battered Mine
41. Last Birthday
42. Plans
43. The Noose
44. Discoveries
45. The Noose Tightens
46. The Race
47. Final Days
48. The Translators
49. The Sound of Music
50. End of the Road

V. The Aftermath
51. Understand Altaussee
52. Evacuation
53. The Journey Home
54. Heroes of Civilization

Cast of Characters
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
What is your connection to the story?
Index