SALT MINES AND CASTLES
The Special Evacuation Team. Lieutenants Kovalyak, Moore and Howe, whoremoved the Göring Collection from Berchtesgaden to Munich, were photographedin the Luftwaffe Rest House at Unterstein.
Hermann Göring, his daughter Edda, Frau Göring and Adolf Hitler.This photograph was taken at Karinhall, the Reichmarschall’s estatenear Berlin.
Salt Mines
and
Castles
The Discovery and Restitution of
Looted European Art
By
THOMAS CARR HOWE, JR.
THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY
PUBLISHERS
INDIANAPOLIS · NEW YORK
COPYRIGHT, 1946, BY THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
First Edition
To My Mother
NOTE
From May 1945 until February 1946, I served as a Monuments,Fine Arts and Archives Officer in Germany. During the first fourmonths of this assignment, I was engaged in field work which includedthe recovery of looted works of art from such out-of-the-wayplaces as a monastery in Czechoslovakia, a salt mine in Austria, anda castle in Bavaria. Later, as Deputy Chief of the Monuments,Fine Arts and Archives Section, Office of Military Government,U. S. Zone, I participated in the restitution of recovered art treasuresto the countries of rightful ownership.
This book is primarily an account of my own experiences in connectionwith these absorbing tasks; but I have also chronicled theactivities of a number of my fellow officers, hoping thereby to providethe reader with a more comprehensive estimate of the workas a whole than the resumé of my own duties could have afforded.
For many helpful suggestions, I am indebted to Captain EdithA. Standen, Lieutenant Lamont Moore and Mr. David Bramble;and for invaluable photographic material, I am particularly grateful