pefrss After watching George Clooney's Monument Men in the movie theater, I decided to revisit the documentary "The Rape of Europe" as it had been quite a few years since I saw it , I found it on DVD in the public library.The documentary is much more informative and I think more fascinating than the movie. It is also much more thought provoking. Unfortunately it seems like art is more important than humans. Beside some Egyptian mummies or Neanderthalers there is no price tag attached to a human being (well, of course insurance agencies and divorce lawyers attach price tags), while pieces of art seem to get astronomic prices the longer they survive. And while human trafficking is a huge and booming business, the individual human being sold does not bring the same money as a piece of good art brings. But if a Klimt belongs in a museum or makes the grandchildren of the painter's model multi-multi-millionaires was not the big question I was asking myself after viewing this documentary again.What really stuck in my mind was one question raised by one art professor: What if the Viennese art school would have admitted Hitler? Would that have changed the world as we know it today? I am tempted to say yes. One little decision altered or ended the lives of millions of people and destroyed multiple countries.Hitler would have concentrated his energies on becoming a successful artist, maybe he would have learned to appreciate modern art with the proper training It is frightening to think that one small little thing like a decision of an admission committee could have changed the world....Though it seems so difficult to me today to understand the charisma of Hitler , it is also difficult for me to understand that G.W. Bush got elected twice, that the Kardashians are so popular and that we fall for advertising. One can only understand what happens in the context of the time when it happened. . .

runamokprods One of those documentaries that grows in impact as it goes along. For the first hour or so I found this study of the Nazi's plundering and stealing Europe's great works of art, along with the allies attempts to spare art during the war, intellectually interesting, but a bit dry and even repetitive. But as the film moves on to the aftermath of the war, and we get more of the human side of the story; great art treasures are returned to the lands whose cultures they represent and we see the joy that it brings, both sides of the Russian debate about keeping the art they took from Germany as a sort of reparation for the horrible human cost of the war, restorations still going on 60 years later with care and passion, a Christian German who has made it his mission to return beautiful and intricate Torah scroll caps to their rightful Jewish owners, the film blossoms into a very human examination of just how important art is to human beings and to our sense of selves. Ultimately, what starts feeling like a somewhat academic exercise ends up as a very moving and human documentary.

can545-1 What the movie does not show enough is that the spoils of war are now returned to families out of sheer GREED by the families. They are not returned to stay in the museum of their choice, but given back to the families after several generations to keep or sell as they choose, even when the will says to donate it to the country. Few family members were alive to see the works or have any personal significance to them.The attitude from the Russians is simple--we took it, it belongs to us. I think that is stealing but because it is the Russians, no one does anything about it. i bet the Jews of Russian heritage do not claim a single Russian piece of art. Russia is about a democratic as Mao Zedong.What the movie also does not say is that works of art have been taken by all nations since time began. It makes it out to be only the Jews that suffer this indignant slap.In addition, the movie never discusses the Jews blame for the war waged on them--see the 1933 declaration of war by the Jews against Germany and Herschel Grynspan killing the German ambassador in Paris, the Versailles treaty which humiliated the Germans that was a Jewish creation, as causes for the hatred.No Jew deserved to die, but they were not as innocent as is portrayed. The Rape of Europa is about the greed of nations and individuals to reclaim what was theirs when they left it or was taken from them.Shall we give the US back to the native Americans or the gold in Spain back to the Incas?The greed here is more one sided than shown.

samkan Really fascinating glimpse on WWII from a perspective not often viewed. I didn't like the USER COMMENTS herein about war-is-war, same-old-stuff, what-do-you-expect, etc. Such might be true but here we get to see the effects of modern war on the theme of plunder and booty: bombing, communications, transit, etc.I will concede that some of the narrators/narration had sort of a lofty, elevated sense of themselves and/or their concern. Hey, war is a fact of life and if the uneducated rabble didn't fight it you art affectionadoes wouldn't be around to bid 6 million at Soothebys. But the film is great, however intended, because it conveys so many human traits at work; e.g., pride, nostalgia, sense-of-self, etc., as well as greed, pretensions, etc.I especially liked learning that we Americans actually appointed guys to preserve, protect, etc., art. Don't think for a second such was done for any reason other than political concerns! Also, I couldn't help think that when tired, ragged, homesick GI's uncovered some of the troves they cared not about art but rather the hooters on those painted babes.