How many treasures did the Germans rob in World War II? Where did 4000 boxes of cultural relics and 1 10,000 famous paintings go?
During World War II, the Germans swept across Europe, and every time they captured a country, they plundered and treasured artworks by various means. To this end, Germany set up a special force, one of their tasks is to rob cultural relics of various countries.
After Germany annexed Austria, the Germans took away 32 boxes of jewels hidden in Vienna after the demise of the Holy Roman Empire. After Poland surrendered, it took the Germans only about half a year to receive all Polish cultural relics. Before the invasion of France, the Germans had already made a catalogue of cultural relics looting, and they almost emptied the Louvre in France; During the Great Patriotic War, 400 museums in the Soviet Union were looted by the Germans. ...
According to the declassified data after the war, as of July 1944, the Germans plundered 4 174 boxes of cultural relics from western Europe, accounting for more than 20,000 pieces, including more than 20,000 pieces of peerless paintings. In order to transport these cultural relics back to Germany, the Germans used 130 railway wagons.
Before the defeat, the Germans took great pains to hide the looted cultural relics, but in the end, with the rapid advancement of the Soviet Union and allied forces, many cultural relics could not be transferred at all, and there was no place to transfer them. For example, Goering collected a large number of cultural relics. Before the Soviet army approached Berlin, he burned part of it, and the rest was transferred to Stan, Feilden. Before long, the allies came, and he commandeered four trucks to transport the cultural relics to the border town.
The most shocking thing is the cultural relics found by the US military in a mine in the German village of Merkes, which is filled with 7,000 bags full of things and various famous paintings. There are countless gold and silver
No one knows how many cultural relics the Germans plundered during the whole World War II. Up to now, there are still many cultural relics and treasures looted by Germany in the past.