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138-641: Italian SIM was highly efficient and even compared favourably with its German counterpart. According to Brigadier Edgar Williams , Montgomery 's Chief Intelligence Officer, the Italians “made far more intelligent deductions from the information they received than did the Germans.” According to Thaddeus Holt the SIM was the ablest Axis secret service on the technical level, and it excelled by far any other secret service in Europe outside

276-439: A brigadier was established by Philip V in 1702 as an intermediate rank between colonel and true generals . In some Iberoamerican republics (see below), the rank survived after independence. In Spain , brigadiers came to be considered full generals in 1871, and in 1889 they were renamed general de brigada . The historical rank is distinct from the current NCO rank of brigada , although sometimes translators confuse

414-602: A brigadier general or commodore , typically commanding a brigade of several thousand soldiers. In other countries, it is a non-commissioned rank. The word and rank of "Brigadier" originates from France . In the French Army , the Brigadier des Armées du Roi (Brigadier of the King's Armies) was a general officer rank, created in 1657. It was an intermediate between the rank of Mestre de camp and that of Maréchal de camp . The rank

552-554: A bronze cubist style statue of a female dancer by the artist Marg Moll , are now on display at the Neues Museum . From 2013 up to 2015, a committee researched the collection of the Dutch Royal family . The committee focussed on all objects acquired by the family since 1933 and which were made prior to 1945. In total, 1,300 artworks were studied. Dutch musea had already researched their collection in order to find objects stolen by

690-650: A British ammunition dump in Massaua (Eritrea). After crossing the Red Sea in the motorboat Zam Zam , De Martini fled to Saudi Arabia . He made contact with the Italian consulate in that country, and from the Yemeni coast organized a group of Eritrean sailors (with small boats called sambuco ) in order to identify, and notify Rome with his radio, of the Royal Navy movements throughout

828-578: A NATO rank code of OR-8 (and is thus a senior NCO). The Spanish rank brigada is distinct from the Spanish-language brigadier [-general] used for senior officers in Latin America (and historically in Spain). Nazi plunder Nazi plunder ( German : Raubkunst ) was organized stealing of art and other items which occurred as a result of the organized looting of European countries during

966-424: A brigade. The army brigadier wears the colonel's uniform and insignia. The rank was definitively abolished in 1945. Until 1788, a rank of brigadier des armées ("brigadier of the armies"), which could be described as a senior colonel or junior brigade commander, was used in the French Army . The normal brigade command rank was field marshal ( maréchal de camp ) (which elsewhere is a more senior rank). During

1104-505: A considerable effort to locate the paintings but was unsuccessful. Over the years, numerous efforts have been made to recover them, articles have been published, and an advertisement appeared in the German magazine, Die Weltkunst , 15 May 1959. A considerable reward has been offered, subject to usual conditions, but there has been no response. However, restitution efforts initiated by German politicians have not been free of controversy, either. As

1242-463: A corridor to the sea at the port of Assab . In return, all of Tigray and border areas of Eritrea and Somalia would be ceded to Italy, and unconquered Ethiopia would be placed under a strong Italian protectorate on the model of Manchukuo . The plan, however, never materialized, and Italian troops entered the capital, Addis Ababa , on 5 May 1936. Ethiopia was annexed to Italy on 7 May. The biggest Italian intelligence victory scored during World War II

1380-461: A general officer rank, it is always considered equivalent to the brigadier general and brigade general rank of other countries. In NATO forces, brigadier is OF-6 on the rank scale. "The grade of brigadier-general, also called, almost interchangeably, brigadier, first appeared in the British army during the reign of King James II. A warrant of 1705 placed the grade directly below major-general, but

1518-522: A process for returning the works to their owners and rightful heirs." In 1998, an Austrian advisory panel recommended the return of 6,292 objets d'art to their legal owners (most of whom are Jews ), under the terms of a 1998 restitution law. Nazi concentration camp and death camp victims had to strip completely before their murder, and all their personal belongings were stolen. The very valuable items, such as gold coins , rings , spectacles , jewelry , and other precious metal items, were sent to

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1656-475: A purely military intelligence and counter-intelligence service into a modern comprehensive structure capable of offering full intelligence coverage on domestic and overseas issues. On February 6, 1927, it was placed directly under the head of the High Command and charged with responsibility for internal and external security for all three armed forces. In 1934 funds available to the new service were doubled, as also

1794-575: A result Carboni was dismissed from his post at the SIM. During the war SIM, whose sphere of action was generally limited to military objectives, is credited with operational efficiency. This included the forecasting of the Allied landing in North Africa , a contingency not considered by the Abwehr . However, this service often was not consulted by Mussolini and the military hierarchy. SIM was dissolved in 1944 and

1932-552: A systematic manner with organizations specifically created for the purpose, to determine which public and private collections were most valuable. Some were earmarked for Hitler's never realized Führermuseum , some went to other high-ranking officials such as Hermann Göring , and others were traded to fund Nazi activities. In 1940, an organization known as the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg für die Besetzten Gebiete ( Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce ), or ERR,

2070-501: A way of giving at least the appearance of honesty, by a token payment or promise thereof to the confiscation authorities. Although he and his agents never had an official connection with the German confiscation organizations, they nevertheless used them to the fullest extent possible." The Third Reich amassed hundreds of thousands of objects from occupied nations and stored them in several key locations, such as Musée Jeu de Paume in Paris and

2208-556: Is estimated at 20 billion dollars, or an estimated 43 percent of Polish cultural heritage ; over 516,000 individual art pieces were looted, including 2,800 paintings by European painters; 11,000 paintings by Polish painters; 1,400 sculptures; 75,000 manuscripts; 25,000 maps; 90,000 books, including over 20,000 printed before 1800; and hundreds of thousands of other items of artistic and historical value. Germany still has much Polish material looted during World War II. For decades, there have been negotiations between Poland and Germany concerning

2346-490: Is otherwise similar to that of a colonel (colonel's rank insignia have a crown/emblem with two stars/"pips".) The Canadian Army used the rank of brigadier (following British tradition, with identical insignia) until the unification of the Canadian Forces in 1968. The rank then became brigadier-general with the insignia of St. Edward's Crown surmounting a crossed sword and baton over one gold maple leaf. The rank of

2484-462: Is the rank below brigade general , both ranks falling between colonel and divisional general. However, both the Argentine and Brazilian Air Forces use a curious system of variations on brigadier for all ( Argentina ) or most ( Brazil ) general officers. The origin of this system is not entirely clear, but in the case of Argentina may be due to army air units being commanded by brigade generals before

2622-516: The brigadier rank is the reason that there is no one-star insignia in the French Army. The rank of brigadier is still nonetheless used in some regiments as an equivalent of corporal . By extension, this also applies to the gendarmerie , equivalent in rank to a corporal in the infantry. In many countries, especially those formerly part of the British Empire , a brigadier is either

2760-561: The Central Collection Point in Munich until they could be returned. The identifiable works of art, that had been acquired by the Germans during the Nazi rule, were returned to the countries from which they were taken. It was up to the governments of each nation if and under which circumstances they would return the objects to the original owners. When the Munich collection point was closed,

2898-590: The Commission for Art Recovery . Their goal was to further expand on the existing database of objects stolen by the Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce ( Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg ), one of the primary Nazi agencies involved with the plunder of cultural artifacts in Nazi-occupied nations during World War II. This data on Jewish objects looted during WWII provides a deeper understanding of

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3036-777: The Department for Culture, Media and Sport on such claims. IFAR , a not-for-profit educational and research organization, maintains a database of looted art. In 2013, the Canadian government created the Holocaust-era Provenance Research and Best-Practice Guidelines Project, through which they are investigating the holdings of six art galleries in Canada. On 14 January 1992, historian Marc Jansen reported in an article in NRC Handelsblad that archival collections stolen from

3174-517: The French Revolution , the ranks of brigadier des armées and maréchal de camp were replaced by brigade general ( général de brigade ). In common with many countries, France now uses the officer rank of brigade general (Général de brigade) instead of a "brigadier" rank. The brigadier des armées held a one-star insignia, while the général de brigade inherited the maréchal de camp two-stars insignia. The disappearance of

3312-573: The Führermuseum . Hitler wanted to fill his museum with the greatest art treasures in the world and believed that most of the world's finest art belonged to Germany after having been looted during the Napoleonic and First World wars. The Hermann Göring collection , a personal collection of Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring , was another large collection including confiscated property, consisted of approximately 50 percent of works of art confiscated from

3450-528: The Indonesian Police , Army and Marine Corps respectively. In the Italian Carabinieri and Guardia di Finanza , the ranks of vice-brigadier ( vice brigadiere ), brigadier ( brigadiere ), and chief brigadier ( brigadiere capo ) correspond roughly to the army ranks based on sergeant . The rank of brigade general ( generale di brigata ) is used throughout the armed forces as

3588-479: The International Council of Women and International Woman Suffrage Alliance , among many photographs were returned. Approximately half of the original collection is still unrecovered. In early 2012, roughly 1,500 pieces of art were discovered at the home of Cornelius Gurlitt , the son of Hildebrand Gurlitt . About 200–300 pieces are suspected of being looted art, some of which may have been exhibited in

3726-561: The KGB 's Osobyi Archive  [ de ] ( Russian : Особый архив ), meaning special archive, which was housed in Moscow . Though agreements were drafted almost immediately after the discovery, bureaucratic delays kept the archives from being returned for 11 years. In 2003, the partial recovery of the papers of some of the most noted feminists in the prewar period, including Aletta Jacobs and Rosa Manus , some 4,650 books and periodicals, records of

3864-617: The Kaiser Friedrich Museum . The collecting point also received materials from the Reichsbank and Nazi-looted, Polish, liturgical collections. At its height, Wiesbaden stored, identified, and restituted approximately 700,000 individual objects, including paintings and sculptures, mainly to keep them away from the Soviet Army and wartime reparations. The Allies collected the artworks and stored them in collecting points, in particular

4002-506: The Red Sea . Major Max Harari, head of the British military intelligence, offered a reward for his capture. On 1 August 1942, while attempting to come back to Eritrea, De Martini was captured on Dahlak Island by sailors from HMS Arpha and imprisoned in Sudan until the end of the war. On 18 May 1942, Maltese irredentist and SIM spy Carmelo Borg Pisani was sent on an espionage mission to Malta, to check British defences and help prepare for

4140-681: The Reichsbank for conversion to bullion . The value was then credited to SS accounts. Pieces of art looted by the Nazis can still be found in Russian/Soviet and American institutions: the Metropolitan Museum of Art revealed a list of 393 paintings that have gaps in their provenance during the Nazi Era, the Art Institute of Chicago has posted a listing of more than 500 works "for which links in

4278-839: The USSR . The Servizio Informazioni Militari was instituted in October 1925 under the Fascist regime . Its activity was supported by the Air Force Information Service (Servizio Informazioni Aeronautiche, SIA) and the Navy Secret Information Service ( Servizio Informazioni Segrete , SIS). The SIM had its headquarters at Forte Braschi , in the Quarter Q. XIV Trionfale , within the Municipio XIV . Within ten years, SIM evolved from

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4416-482: The Vatican . Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano noted in his diary that Sezione 5 cryptanalysts routinely read British, Romanian, and neutral Turkey's diplomatic traffic. Notes Bibliography Brigadier Brigadier ( / ˌ b r ɪ ɡ ə ˈ d ɪər / BRIG -ə- DEER ) is a military rank , the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel , equivalent to

4554-447: The degenerate art exhibition held by the Nazis before World War II in several large German cities. The collection contains works by Marc Chagall , Otto Dix , and Henri Matisse , Renoir , and Max Liebermann among many others. In January 2014, researcher Dominik Radlmaier of the city of Nuremberg announced that eight objects had been identified as lost art with a further 11 being under strong suspicion. The city's research project

4692-592: The 1913 painting Berliner Straßenszene of expressionist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner , which was in Berlin's Brücke Museum . On display in Cologne in 1937, it had been sold for 3,000 Reichsmark by a Jewish family residing in Switzerland to a German collector. This sum is considered by experts to have been well over the market price. The museum, which obtained the painting in 1980 after several ownership changes, could not prove that

4830-471: The British in North Africa such as its current positions, sustained losses, expected reinforcements, current supply situation, future plans, morale, etc. which it quickly reported to the Italian and German military in North Africa. The leak ended on June 29, when Fellers switched to the new U.S. code system. During the 8 months or so of reading Fellers’ dispatches to Washington, Rommel would refer to Fellers as “die gute Quelle” (the good source). Shortly before

4968-700: The Cagoule, taking advantage with great skill of the opportunities this provided to penetrate the Deuxième Bureau . Information obtained by SIM in France enabled Italian authorities to arrest the members of a French spy ring in Italy in 1939. Before the Ethiopian campaign, SIM secured the text of the secret Hoare–Laval Pact , which sanctioned an Anglo-French agreement for the partition of Ethiopia among France , Britain and Italy on

5106-696: The ERR seized 21,903 art objects from German-occupied countries. Other Nazi looting organizations included the Führermuseum , the organization run by the art historian Hans Posse , which was particularly in charge of assembling the works for the Führermuseum, the Dienststelle Mühlmann, operated by Kajetan Mühlmann which operated primarily in the Netherlands and in Belgium, and a Sonderkommando Kuensberg connected to

5244-598: The ERR, issued an order that effectively changed the mission of the ERR, mandating it to seize "Jewish" art collections and other objects. The war loot had to be collected in a central place in Paris, the Museum Jeu de Paume . At this collection point worked art historians and other personnel who inventoried the loot before sending it to Germany. Göring also commanded that the loot would first be divided between Hitler and himself. Hitler later ordered that all confiscated works of art were to be made directly available to him. From

5382-773: The Eastern Front. To investigate and estimate Nazi plunder in the USSR during 1941 through 1945, the Soviet State Extraordinary Commission for Ascertaining and Investigating the Crimes Committed by the German-Fascist Invaders and Their Accomplices was formed on 2 November 1942. During the Great Patriotic War and afterward, until 1991, the Commission collected materials on Nazi crimes in

5520-426: The Ethiopian war it participated in the subversion of local chieftains who should have been loyal to Haile Selassie. Shortly before Italy's entry into World War II, Brigadier general Giacomo Carboni , chief of the SIM, wrote a series of reports to Benito Mussolini wherein the Italian preparation to the war was described as inadequate. Carboni drafted pessimistic reports on Italian and German military capabilities. As

5658-652: The French gendarmerie and in "mounted" arms of the French army, the brigadier ranks are: In the French National Police , the sub-officer variations are used for non-commissioned officers are: In the Indonesian National Police force, this rank is referred to as the Constable ranks in the regular police units. It is equivalent to the "sergeant" rank in the armed forces. This rank is the most junior rank in

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5796-465: The German law for restitution applies to "cultural assets lost as a result of Nazi persecution, "which includes paintings that Jews who emigrated from Germany sold to support themselves , pretty much any trade involving Jews in that era is affected, and the benefit of the doubt is given to claimants. German leftist politicians Klaus Wowereit (SPD, mayor of Berlin ) and Thomas Flierl ( Linkspartei ) were sued in 2006 for being overly willing to give away

5934-657: The Germans apprised of any of the doubling of Allied agents which SIM conducted with great success. As the war went on relations became strained since the Germans came to distrust the Italians. After the Fall of the Fascist regime in Italy when Benito Mussolini was deposed on 24–25 July 1943, the Servizio Informazioni Militare turned to OKW/Chi for help and cooperation. Generaloberst Alfred Jodl , however, forbade any further liaison, and from that point on, no agency contact

6072-609: The Germans, e.g., the art dealers De Boer and Hoogendijk in the Netherlands. By the end of the war, the Third Reich amassed hundreds of thousands of cultural objects. On 21 November 1944, at the request of Owen Roberts , William J. Donovan created the Art Looting Investigation Unit (ALIU) within the OSS to collect information on the looting, confiscation, and transfer of cultural objects by Nazi Germany , its allies and

6210-739: The Germans, especially items of scientific, technical, or other informational value. Art collections from prominent Jewish families, including the Rothschilds , the Rosenbergs, the Wildensteins, and the Schloss Family, were the targets of confiscations because of their significant value. Also, Jewish art dealers sold art to German organizations—often under duress, e.g., the art dealerships of Jacques Goudstikker , Benjamin and Nathan Katz, and Kurt Walter Bachstitz . Also, non-Jewish art dealers sold art to

6348-564: The Gestapo, and as a result of personal looting among the Army officers and troops. These ERR teams were, however, very effective. One account estimates that from the Soviet Union alone: "one hundred thousand geographical maps were taken on ideological grounds, for academic research, as means for political, geographical and economic information on Soviet cities and regions, or as collector's items". After

6486-401: The Grand Hotel National in Lucerne, Switzerland . The artworks on offer had been "de-accessioned" from German museums by the Nazis, yet many well known art dealers participated alongside proxies for major collectors and museums. In addition to public auctions, there were many private sales by art dealers. The Commission for Art Recovery has characterized Switzerland as "a magnet" for assets from

6624-402: The Hitler's policy of spoliation of Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe. The ALIU's final report included 175 pages divided into three parts: Detailed Interrogation Reports (DIRs), which focused individuals who played pivotal roles in German spoliation; Consolidated Interrogations Reports (CIRs); and a "Red Flag list" of people involved in Nazi spoliation. The ALIU Reports form one of the key records in

6762-464: The Nazi headquarters in Munich . As the Allied forces gained advantage in the war and bombed Germany's cities and historic institutions, Germany "began storing the artworks in salt mines and caves for protection from Allied bombing raids. These mines and caves offered the appropriate humidity and temperature conditions for artworks." Well known repositories of this kind were mines in Merkers , Altaussee , and Siegen . These mines were not only used for

6900-481: The Nazis have still not been located." Some objects of great cultural significance remain missing, though how much has yet to be determined. This is a major issue for the art market , since legitimate organizations do not want to deal in objects with unclear ownership titles. Since the mid-1990s, after several books, magazines, and newspapers began exposing the subject to the general public, many dealers, auction houses, and museums have grown more careful about checking

7038-415: The Nazis took 50,000 books from the Alliance Israélite Universelle ; 10,000 from L'Ecole Rabbinique, one of Paris's most significant rabbinic seminaries; and 4,000 volumes from the Federation of Jewish Societies of France, an umbrella group. From there, they went on to take a total of 20,000 books from the Lipschuetz Bookstore and another 28,000 from the Rothschild family's personal collection, before scouring

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7176-412: The Nazis. It appeared that one painting of the forest near Huis ten Bosch by the Dutch painter Joris van der Haagen came from a Jewish collector. He was forced to hand the painting over to the former Jewish bank Lippmann, Rosenthal & Co. in Amsterdam, which collected money and other possessions of the Jews in Amsterdam. The painting was bought by Queen Juliana in 1960. The family plans to return

7314-461: The Netherlands including the records of the International Archives for the Women's Movement ( Dutch : Internationaal Archief voor de Vrouwenbeweging (IAV) ), which had been looted in 1940, had been found in Russia. The confiscated records were initially sent to Berlin and later was moved to Sudetenland for security reasons. At the end of the war, the Red Army took the documents from German-occupied Czechoslovakia and, in 1945–1946, stored them in

7452-413: The SIM Cryptographic Bureau, requested cooperation in the cryptanalytic field at the Cipher Department of the High Command of the Wehrmacht (OKW/Chi). The Germans agreed to share results on French diplomatic and military systems. This collaboration was expanded and provided the Germans with important cryptologic material like the U.S. Military Intelligence code. OKW/Chi had previously worked hard on solving

7590-440: The South and of the Italian resistance . SIM spy Rodolfo Siviero coordinated the Italian partisans' intelligence activities from the Jewish art historian Giorgio Castelfranco's house on the Lungarno Serristori in Florence (now the Casa Siviero museum). Today he is known mainly for his role in the recovery of artworks stolen from Italy during the Second World War as part of the ' Nazi plunder '. In 1938 General Gamba, chief of

7728-536: The State Commission for the Restitution of Cultural Valuables to replace the Soviet Commission. Experts from this Russian institution originally consulted the work of the Soviet Commission, yet continue to catalog artworks lost during the war museum by museum. As of 2008 , lost artworks of 14 museums and the libraries of Voronezh Oblast , Kursk Oblast , Pskov Oblast , Rostov Oblast , Smolensk Oblast , Northern Caucasus , Gatchina , Peterhof Palace , Tsarskoye Selo (Pushkin), Novgorod , and Novgorod Oblast , as well as

7866-452: The US Government Archives of Nazi Era Assets The first group of reports detailing the networks and relations between art dealers and other agents employed by Hitler, Göring, and Rosenberg are organized by name: Heinrich Hoffmann , Ernst Buchner , Gustav Rochlitz , Gunter Schiedlausky, Bruno Lohse , Gisela Limberger, Walter Andreas Hofer , Karl Kress, Walter Bornheim, Hermann Voss , and Karl Haberstock . A second set of reports detail

8004-411: The USSR, including incidents of plunder. Immediately following the war, the Commission outlined damage in detail to 64 of the most valuable Soviet museums, out of 427 damaged ones. In the Russian SFSR , 173 museums were found to have been plundered by the Nazis, with looted items numbering in the hundreds of thousands. After the dissolution of the USSR , the Government of the Russian Federation formed

8142-401: The Undersecretary of War for the performance of duties of a non-military nature. SIM had five major sections: In 1934 Mussolini doubled SIM's budget to fund a greatly expanded effort against Great Britain and to permit SIM to add assassination and subversion to its activities. In 1940, upon Italy's entrance into the war, SIM numbered 150 officers, 300 NCOs, and 400 other ranks. By the time

8280-427: The World War II era. One particular piece of art, "Still Life with Fruit and Game" by the 16th-century Flemish painter Frans Snyders , was sold by Karl Haberstock , whom the World Jewish Congress describes as "one of the most notorious Nazi art dealers." In 2000, the New York City's Museum of Modern Art still told the US Congress that they were "not aware of a single Nazi-tainted work of art in our collection, of

8418-428: The appointment was always considered temporary and not continuous. The British were ambiguous over whether the holder was considered a general officer or a senior field grade office". The title is derived from the equivalent British rank of brigadier-general, used until 1922 and still used in many countries. "Brigadier" was already in use as a generic term for a commander of a brigade irrespective of specific rank. Until

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8556-442: The armistice. In March 1944 the SID departments were briefly as follows: The SID was dismantled soon after the liberation of Italy , on 25 April 1945. SIM elements committed a whole series of crimes. On the direct order of Mussolini SIM arranged the assassination of the Rosselli brothers. The murder was carried out by French fascist -leaning and anti-communist Cagoulards , in exchange for 100 semiautomatic Beretta rifles and

8694-521: The art inside as well. Between the years 1943 and 1945, salt mines in Altaussee held the majority of Nazi looted art. Some from Austria and others from all around Europe. In 1944, around 4,700 pieces of art were then stored in the salt mines. After Hitler became Chancellor, he made plans to transform his home city of Linz, Austria , into the Third Reich's capital city for the arts. Hitler hired architects to work from his own designs to build several galleries and museums, which would collectively be known as

8832-412: The art looting activities of Göring (The Goering Collection), the art looting activities of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR), and Hitler's Linz Museum. The Art Looting Intelligence Unit published a list of "Red Flag Names", organizing them by country: Germany, France, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, and Luxembourg. Each name is followed by a description of

8970-460: The art works in lieu of the heirs. Although most of the stolen artworks and antiques were documented, found, or recovered "by the victorious Allied armies [...] principally hidden away in salt mines, tunnels, and secluded castles", many artworks have never been returned to their rightful owners. Art dealers , galleries , and museums worldwide have been compelled to research their collection's provenance in order to investigate claims that some of

9108-405: The artworks looted by the Nazis were recovered by the Allies ' Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program (MFAA, also known as the Monuments Men), following the war; however many of them are still missing or were returned to countries but not to their original owners. An international effort to identify Nazi plunder which still remains unaccounted for is underway, with the ultimate aim of returning

9246-544: The bodies of the Russian State Archives and CPSU Archives, were cataloged in 15 volumes, all of which were made available online. They contain detailed information on 1,148,908 items of lost artworks. The total number of lost items is unknown so far, because cataloging work for other damaged Russian museums is ongoing. Alfred Rosenberg commanded the so-called ERR, which was responsible for collecting art, books, and cultural objects from invaded countries, and also transferred their captured library collections back to Berlin during

9384-464: The brigadier ranks are used as in the army, i.e. as junior enlisted ranks ( gradés ), while the French police use brigadier ranks as their sub-officer ( sous-officier ) ranks. Since all professional police and gendarmes have sub-officer status in France, the gendarmerie brigadier ranks are rarely used, since they are used only by auxiliaries. On the other hand, the police brigadier ranks, which are used to indicate professional ranks, are common. In

9522-419: The building of the Führermuseum and the wider war effort, Hermann Göring personally appointed a series of ERR approved dealers to liquidate these assets and then pass the funds to swell his personal art collection, including Hildebrand Gurlitt . With the looted degenerate art sold onward via Switzerland , Rosenberg's collection was scattered across Europe. Today, some 70 of his paintings are missing, including:

9660-410: The central synagogue of Rome contained two libraries, one was owned by the Italian Rabbinic College and the other one was the Jewish community Library. In 1943, the Nazis came through Italy, packaged up every book from the synagogue, and sent them back to Germany. The Allies created special commissions, such as the MFAA organization to help protect famous European monuments from destruction and, after

9798-501: The chain of ownership for the years 1933–1945 are still unclear or not yet fully determined." The San Diego Museum of Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art provide lists on the internet to determine if art items within their collection were stolen by the Nazis. Stuart Eizenstat , the Under Secretary of State and head of the US delegation sponsoring the 1998 international conference on Nazi-looted assets of Holocaust victims in Washington conference stated that "From now on, [...]

9936-515: The code, but had set it aside as too difficult. The Servizio Informazioni Militare provided also OKW/Chi with a captured Swedish diplomatic codebook and with a Turkish code that Chi was trying hard to break. There was less cooperation between SIM and the Abwehr on the working level. The SIM did not trust the Abwehr to honour agreements such as not to run clandestine networks in Italy. They monitored German intelligence activities and agents in Italy. Nor were

10074-610: The conference with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum from 30 November to 3 December 1998. After the conference, the Association of Art Museum Directors developed guidelines which require museums to review the provenance or history of their collections, focussing especially on art looted by the Nazis. The National Gallery of Art in Washington identified more than 400 European paintings with gaps in their provenance during

10212-464: The course of the German occupation, some 12 million pigs and 13 million sheep were seized by Nazi forces. The value of this plunder is estimated at 4 billion Reichsmarks. This relatively low number in comparison to the German-occupied nations of Western Europe can be attributed to the indiscriminate scorched-earth policy pursued by Nazi Germany and the retreating Soviet Union forces in

10350-639: The details of British military activities in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations . The British, hoping to eventually get the Americans into the war against the Axis powers , were very accommodating to Fellers giving him nearly full access to British operations in North Africa . Fellers, who was something of an Anglophobe , usually authored his dispatches in a less than favourable manner casting great doubt about

10488-587: The elderly Colonel Gino Mancini that produced codes and ciphers for the Royal Italian Army and higher-level enciphered codes for the Regia Marina . SIM's cryptographic section concentrated on military and diplomatic traffic. By the time the war was at its peak, SIM's interception and decryption operations had taken on immense proportions. On average 8,000 radio messages were intercepted each month, 6,000 were studied and out of these 3,500 were translated. The flow

10626-611: The end of 1940 to the end of 1942, Göring traveled 20 times to Paris. In the Jeu de Paume museum , art dealer Bruno Lohse staged 20 expositions of the newly looted art objects, especially for Göring, from which Göring selected at least 594 pieces for his own collection. Göring made Lohse his liaison-officer and installed him in the ERR in March 1941 as the deputy leader of this unit. Items which Hitler and Göring did not want were made available to other Nazi leaders. Under Rosenberg and Göring's leadership,

10764-448: The enemies of the Reich. Assembled in large measure by art dealer Bruno Lohse, Göring's adviser, and ERR representative in Paris, in 1945, the collection included over 2,000 individual pieces including more than 300 paintings. The US National Archives and Records Administration 's Consolidated Interrogation Report No. 2 states that Göring never crudely looted, instead he always managed "to find

10902-587: The establishment of the Air Force as an independent armed force. In the UK, brigadier and sub-brigadier were formerly subaltern ranks in the Royal Horse Guards . Brigadier also exists as a non-commissioned rank. This usage derives from the use of "brigade" to denote a squad or team, similar to the occasional English civilian usage "work brigade". In France , and some countries whose forces were structured based on

11040-521: The eve of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War . The surfacing of the draft of this pact brought about its failure and the resignation of both Samuel Hoare and Pierre Laval and the subsequent start of unilateral Italian military operation for the conquest of Ethiopia. A. J. P. Taylor argued that it was the event that "killed the League of Nations ". In February 1936 Emilio Faldella , head of

11178-502: The family actually received the money. It was restituted to the heiress of the former owners, and she had it auctioned off for $ 38.1 million. In 2010, as work began to extend an underground line from Alexanderplatz through the historic city centre to the Brandenburg Gate , a number of sculptures from the degenerate art exhibition were unearthed in the cellar of a private house close to the "Rote Rathaus". The sculptures, including

11316-468: The greatest displacement of art in human history." At the end of World War II, "The United States Government has estimated that German forces and other Nazi agents before and during World War II had seized or coerced the sale of one fifth of all Western art then in existence, approximately a quarter of a million pieces of art." Because of such wide displacement of Nazi looted art from all over Europe, "to this day, some tens of thousands of artworks stolen by

11454-846: The highest field rank or most junior general appointment, nominally commanding a brigade . It ranks above colonel and below major general . The rank is used by the British Army , the Royal Marines , the Australian Army , the Bangladesh Army , the Indian Army , the Sri Lankan Army , the New Zealand Army , the Pakistan Army and several others. Although it is not always considered

11592-457: The highest Italian military award, by King Victor Emmanuel III a few days after his death. SIM had a large, well-organized cryptanalytic department, Sezione 5, which attacked foreign crypto-systems . This section was headed by General Vittorio Gamba, a published student of cryptology who had been breaking codes since World War I , and was located in Rome. Also under Gamba was a subsection headed by

11730-703: The items to their rightful owners, their families, or their respective countries. Adolf Hitler , an unsuccessful artist denied admission to the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts , thought of himself as a connoisseur of the arts, and in Mein Kampf , he ferociously attacked modern art as degenerate. He considered Cubism , Futurism , and Dadaism products of a decadent 20th-century society. When Hitler became chancellor of Germany in 1933, he enforced his aesthetics. The Nazis favored classical portraits and landscapes by Old Masters , particularly those of Germanic origin. Modern art

11868-554: The large Picasso watercolor Naked Woman on the Beach , painted in Provence in 1923; seven works by Matisse; and the Portrait of Gabrielle Diot by Degas . One of the things Nazis sought after during their invasion of European countries was Jewish books and writings. Their goal was to collect all of Europe's Jewish books and burn them . One of the first countries to be raided was France , where

12006-567: The long-term success of the British and her Commonwealth allies fight against the Italo-German army in North Africa. His reports were read by Franklin D. Roosevelt , the head of American intelligence, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Using the encipherment tables the Italian SIM was able to decipher Fellers’ communiques with Washington in a matter of hours often gleaning important information about

12144-476: The looting agencies of the Nazis, the current whereabouts of individual artifacts, and details on persecuted Jewish artists. It can provide further guidance to families and heirs on art, museums, and the art market. Lastly, it can memorialize Jewish artists who were victims of the Nazi party, and celebrate their artistic legacies. The goal of the JDCRP is not to replace existing databases and publications but to supplement

12282-406: The method used in France, some branches of the army and the gendarmerie use brigadier for a rank equivalent to caporal ( corporal ), and brigadier-chef for a rank equivalent to caporal-chef . Brigadier is used by arms of the army that are by tradition considered "mounted" arms, such as logistics or cavalry units. A similar usage exists elsewhere. In the French gendarmerie,

12420-454: The minister of foreign affairs Joachim von Ribbentrop , which operated first in France, then in Russia and North Africa. In Western Europe, with the advancing German troops, were elements of the "von Ribbentrop Battalion", named after Joachim von Ribbentrop. These men were responsible for entering private and institutional libraries in the occupied countries and removing any materials of interest to

12558-469: The more than 100,000" they held. In 1979, two paintings, a Renoir, Tête de jeune fille , and a Pissarro, Rue de village , appeared on Interpol's "12 Most Wanted List", but, to date, no-one knows their whereabouts (ATA Newsletter, Nov. '79, vol. 1, no. 9, p. 1. '78, 326.1–2). The New Jersey owner has asked the International Foundation for Art Research (IFAR) to republish information about

12696-513: The most junior general rank, and corresponds to the British rank title of brigadier. Brigadier is traditionally the most senior non-commissioned rank in the Dutch police, for example the National Police Corps ( Korps Nationale Politie ). Its predecessors also used this rank. The Royal Marechaussee (military police/gendarmerie) does not use this rank. In Spain , a brigada has

12834-563: The occupation of Poland by German forces in September 1939, the Nazi regime committed genocide against Polish Jews and attempted to exterminate the Polish upper classes as well as its culture . Thousands of art objects were looted, as the Nazis systematically carried out a plan of looting prepared even before the start of hostilities. 25 museums and many other facilities were destroyed. The total cost of German Nazi theft and destruction of Polish art

12972-606: The occupation of Yugoslavia, the SIM turned its attention to the communications of partisan groups and by mid-1943 had solved two systems used by the Chetniks and one used by Tito ’s Partisans. SIM played an important role in Italian guerrilla war in Ethiopia . Francesco De Martini , captain of the SIM, was one of the leaders of Italian insurgency in East Africa . In January 1942, he blew up

13110-619: The owners of many of the objects had not been found. Nations were also unable to find all the owners or to verify that they were dead. There are many organizations put in place to help return the stolen items taken from the Jewish people. For example: Project Heart, the World Jewish Restitution Organization, and the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany . Depending on the circumstances, these organizations may receive

13248-460: The painting to the heirs of the owner in 1942, a Jewish collector. Approximately 20 percent of the art in Europe was looted by the Nazis, and there are well over 100,000 items that have not been returned to their rightful owners. The majority of what is still missing includes everyday objects such as china, crystal, or silver. The extent to which looted art was taken was seen according to Spiegler as, "The Nazi art confiscation program has been called

13386-581: The person's activities, their relations with other people in the spoliation network and, in many cases, information concerning their arrest or imprisonment by Allied forces. After the initiation of Operation Barbarossa , Eastern Europe was relentlessly plundered by Nazi German forces. In 1943 alone, 9,000,000 tons of cereals, 2,000,000 t (2,000,000 long tons; 2,200,000 short tons) of fodder, 3,000,000 t (3,000,000 long tons; 3,300,000 short tons) of potatoes, and 662,000 t (652,000 long tons; 730,000 short tons) of meats were sent back to Germany. During

13524-666: The planned Axis invasion of the island ( Operazione C3 ). Borg Pisani was recognized by one of his childhood friends, Cpt. Tom Warrington, who denounced him. British Intelligence kept him under arrest in a house in Sliema till August. He was then transferred to Corradino prison , accused of treason . On 12 November 1942, he stood trial under closed doors in front of three judges, headed by Chief Justice of Malta Sir George Borg , and defended by two lawyers. His plea that he had renounced British citizenship by returning his passport and acquisition of Italian citizenship (which would have granted him

13662-688: The private homes of Paris and coming up with thousands of more books. After sweeping France for every Jewish book they could find, the Nazis moved on to the Netherlands where they would take millions more. They raided the house of Hans Furstenberg, a wealthy Jewish banker and stole his 16,000 volume collection; in Amsterdam, they took 25,000 volumes from the Bibliotheek van het Portugeesch Israelietisch Seminarium; 4,000 from Ashkenazic Beth ha- Midrasch Ets Haim; and 100,000 from Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana . In Italy ,

13800-627: The promise of future shipments. Before the start of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War SIM supplied Ethiopians with faulty gas masks . During the Spanish Civil War, it sunk Spanish Republican ships by loading explosives in the holds and it introduced bacteria in food destined for Spain in order to spread epidemics . SIM was subordinate to the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army for the performance of strictly military functions and to

13938-428: The promotion of an officer who did not have his own regiment). Before the rank of brigadier of the armies was dissolved in 1788, it was materialized by the wearing of a single star. And when it was abolished that year, the number of stars of its immediate superiors was not modified, which explains why today French generals have one more star on their insignia than their foreign counterparts (notably American). Note that

14076-519: The provenance of objects that are available for purchase in case they are looted. Some museums in the US and elsewhere have agreed to check the provenance of works in their collections. In addition to the role of courts in determining restitution or compensation, some states have created official bodies for the consideration and resolution of claims. In the UK, the Spoliation Advisory Panel advises

14214-592: The rank of "Chef de brigade" created during the French Revolution replaced that of Colonel. A brigade commander then commanded... a half-brigade (a name that replaced the regiment). The rank of Brigadier of the Armies reappeared during the Third Republic. It designates a colonel, experienced as a regimental commander, who has under his command several regiments without having the annexed units that would make this group

14352-481: The rank was dissolved in 1922, brigadier-generals wore a crossed sword and baton symbol on its own. From 1922 to 1928, the British rank title used was that of colonel-commandant, with one crown and three 'pips', a rank which, although reflecting its modern role in the British Army as a senior colonel rather than a junior general, was not well received and was replaced with brigadier after six years. Colonel-commandant

14490-504: The regular police units of Indonesia but is above the enlisted ranks ( Tamtama ) of the special police units such as in the Mobile Brigade corps and water police units. This rank is below the "Sub-inspector" ( Ajun Inspektur Polisi ) ranks. The police Brigadier ranks are as shown below: In addition, Police Brigadier General ( Brigadir Jenderal Polisi ) and Brigadier General ( Brigadir Jenderal ) are general officer ranks in

14628-657: The results of their work available to the Italians. On 1 December 1943, after the creation of the Italian Social Republic , the new government established the SID (Defensive Information Service), the new Republic of Salò intelligence service. The SID was operational a month before its formal establishment, and its headquarters were located in Volta Mantovana . The SID was the only RSI Armed Forces information body, with espionage, counterintelligence and military police tasks. It

14766-637: The retreat from Russia. "In their search for 'research materials' ERR teams and the Wehrmacht visited 375 archival institutions, 402 museums, 531 institutes, and 957 libraries in Eastern Europe alone". The ERR also operated in the early days of the blitzkrieg of the Low Countries. This caused some confusion about authority, priority, and the chain of command among the German Army, the von Ribbentrop Battalion and

14904-425: The return of the looted Polish property. The Anschluss (joining) of Austria and Germany began on 12 March 1938. Looting of Jewish properties began immediately. Churches, monasteries, and museums were home to many pieces of art before the Nazis came but after, the majority of the artwork was taken. Ringstrasse , which was a residence for many people but as well as a community center, was confiscated and all of

15042-504: The rise of Hitler until the end of World War II. Researching and documenting Switzerland's role "as an art-dealing centre and conduit for cultural assets in the Nazi period and in the immediate post-war period" was one of the missions of the Bergier Commission , under the directorship of Professor Georg Kreis . The Nazis plundered cultural property from Germany and every occupied territory, targeting Jewish property in particular in

15180-583: The sale, purchase, exchange and display of art from this period will be addressed with greater sensitivity and a higher international standard of responsibility." The conference was attended by more than 49 countries and 13 different private entities, and the goal was to come to a federal consensus on how to handle Nazi-Era Looted Art. The conference was built on the foundation of the Nazi Gold Conference held in London in 1997. The US Department of State hosted

15318-587: The special SIM section for East Africa (AO), infiltrated Palestinian agent Jacir Bey in Negus Haile Selassie 's entourage. Jacir Bey offered to persuade the Emperor to reach a peace agreement with Italy, effectively turning Ethiopia into an Italian protectorate . Terms involved the maintenance of Haile Selassie on the throne and continuance of Ethiopian sovereignty over an independent but reduced state in Shewa with

15456-610: The start of World War II, SIM had broken Yugoslav military codes. When, in April 1941, Italian forces in Albania were threatened by a planned Yugoslav strike, SIM operators sent coded messages to the Yugoslav divisions, ordering them to postpone the scheduled offensive and return to their start-lines. By the time the Yugoslavs realised they had been duped, the Italian defences had been restored. During

15594-508: The status of prisoner of war ) was not upheld by the military court. On 19 November 1942, he was publicly sentenced to death for espionage , for taking up arms against the Government and forming part of a conspiracy to overthrow the government . His execution by hanging took place at 7:30AM on Saturday, 28 November 1942. Borg Pisani was posthumously awarded the Gold Medal of Military Valor ,

15732-658: The storage of looted art but also of art that had been in Germany and Austria before the beginning of the Nazi rule. Degenerate art was legally banned by the Nazis from entering Germany, and so ones designated were held in what was called the Martyr's Room at the Jeu de Paume. Much of Paul Rosenberg's professional dealership and personal collection were so subsequently designated by the Nazis. Following Joseph Goebbels 's earlier private decree to sell these degenerate works for foreign currency to fund

15870-402: The theft, with the hope that someone will recognize the paintings. The owner wrote IFAR that, when his parents emigrated from Berlin in 1938, two of their paintings "mysteriously disappeared". All of their other possessions were shipped from Germany to the US via the Netherlands, and everything except the box containing these two paintings arrived intact. After World War II, the owner's father made

16008-619: The time of the Nazi Party in Germany . Jewish property was looted beginning in 1933 in Germany and was a key part of the Holocaust . Nazis also plundered occupied countries, sometimes with direct seizures, and sometimes under the guise of protecting art through Kunstschutz units. In addition to gold , silver , and currency, cultural items of great significance were stolen, including paintings, ceramics, books, and religious treasures. Many of

16146-469: The train would be an expensive and complicated operation involving a lot of funding, digging, and drilling. However, to support their claims the explorers said experts have examined the site with ground-penetrating, thermal, and magnetic sensors that picked up signs of a railway tunnel with metal tracks. The explorers requested 10% of the value of whatever is within the train if their findings are correct. Poland's deputy culture minister, Piotr Zuchowski, said he

16284-462: The transfer of their homes, businesses, artworks, financial assets, musical instruments, books, and even home furnishings to the Reich was an integral component of the Holocaust. In every country controlled by Nazis, Jews were stripped of their assets through a wide array of mechanisms and Nazi looting organizations. The most notorious auction of Nazi looted art was the "degenerate art" auction organized by Theodor Fischer on 30 June 1939 at

16422-636: The two. The name has survived as a cadet rank at the Spanish Naval Academy . Many countries in South and Central America were formerly Spanish or Portuguese (Brazil) possessions. Brigadier [-general] is used in Latin America , in the normal sense of brigade commander rank (e.g. Colombia , Chile ), although most Latin American nations instead use the rank of brigade general. In Mexico , brigadier general

16560-518: The various individuals and organizations involved; to prosecute war criminals and to restitute property. The ALIU compiled information on individuals believed to have participated in art looting, identifying a group of key suspects for capture and interrogation about their roles in carrying out Nazi policy. Interrogations were conducted in Bad Aussee, Austria . The ALIU Reports detail the networks of Nazi officials, art dealers, and individuals involved in

16698-556: The war was at its peak, it numbered over 300 officers, 1,200 NCOs and specialists, and directed the activities of more than 9,000 secret agents spread abroad. SIM was very active in the interwar period . It oversaw support for Croatian Ustaše and Macedonian nationalists in Yugoslavia and arranged the assassination of Alexander I of Yugoslavia during a visit to France (1934). By the mid-1930s Italian counterespionage, led by Colonel Santo Emanuele, had been involved in France through

16836-412: The war, to travel to formerly Nazi-occupied territories to find Nazi art repositories. In 1944 and 1945, one of the greatest challenges for the "Monuments Men" was to keep Allied forces from plundering and "taking artworks and sending them home to friends and family"; When "off-limits" warning signs failed to protect the artworks the "Monuments Men" started to mark the storage places with white tape, which

16974-402: The work was acquired after it had been stolen from its original owners. Already in 1985, years before American museums recognized the issue and before the international conference on Nazi-looted assets of Holocaust victims, European countries released inventory lists of works of art, coins, and medals "that were confiscated from Jews by the Nazis during World War II, and announced the details of

17112-602: Was "99 percent convinced" that the train had finally been found, but scientists claim that the explorers' findings are false. The Jewish Digital Cultural Recovery Project (JDCRP) is a comprehensive database that focusses on the Jewish-owned art and cultural objects plundered by the Nazis and their allies from 1933 to 1945. The JDCRP was initiated in May 2016 by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany in collaboration with

17250-636: Was also behind the assassination in Marseille of King Alexander of Yugoslavia and French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou . SIM experienced its greatest interwar successes during the Ethiopian Campaign and the Spanish Civil War , managing to cut off the flow of arms to both Ethiopia and the Spanish Republic and providing the Italian command with a complete picture of the enemy forces. During

17388-401: Was an appointment conferred on naval captains) rather than a substantive rank. In Commonwealth countries, and most Arabic -speaking countries (in which the rank is called amid ), the rank insignia comprises a crown (or some other national symbol) with three stars, (sometimes called "pips"), which are often arranged in a triangle. A brigadier's uniform may also have red gorget patches . It

17526-472: Was dubbed degenerate art by the Third Reich. All such art found in Germany's state museums was sold or destroyed. With the funds raised, the Führer's objective was to establish a European Art Museum in Linz . Other Nazi dignitaries like Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring and Foreign Affairs minister Joachim von Ribbentrop , also took advantage of German military conquests to grow their private art collections. The systematic dispossession of Jewish people and

17664-430: Was first created in the cavalry at the instigation of Marshal Turenne on June 8, 1657, then in the infantry on March 17, 1668, and in the dragoons on April 15, 1672. In peacetime, the brigadier commanded his regiment and, in maneuvers or in wartime, he commanded two or three - or even four - regiments combined to form a brigade (including his own, but later the rank was also awarded to lieutenant-colonels, which allowed for

17802-519: Was formed, headed for Alfred Rosenberg by Gerhard Utikal  [ de ] . The first operating unit, the western branch for France , Belgium, and the Netherlands, called the Dienststelle Westen (Western Agency), was located in Paris. The chief of this Dienststelle was Kurt von Behr . Its original purpose was to collect Jewish and Freemasonic books and documents, either for destruction or for removal to Germany for further "study". However, late in 1940, Hermann Göring , who in fact controlled

17940-487: Was headed by Vittorio Foschini, a former journalist known for his anti-German attitudes. In late February 1944, Foschini was kidnapped by the SS as he left Rodolfo Graziani 's villa on Lake Garda and disappeared to Germany. He was replaced by Lt-Colonel Candeloro De Leo, a Carabinieri officer described as 'capable and unscrupulous'. De Leo signed an agreement with the German Abwehr , but SID activities were hampered by Nazi Germany's intense hostility toward Italy after

18078-479: Was made or material exchanged. During the war SIM also cooperated with other Axis intelligence agencies, including those of Japan , Finland and Hungary . At regular intervals, technological and information exchanges occurred at the Penang submarine-base in Japanese-occupied Malaya , which served Axis submarine forces of the Italian Italian Regia Marina , German Kriegsmarine and Imperial Japanese Navy . The Hungarians maintained liaison officers in Rome and made

18216-430: Was only ever used for officers commanding brigades, depots or training establishments. Officers holding equivalent rank in administrative appointments were known as "colonels on the staff", also replaced by brigadier in 1928. Colonel-commandants and colonels on the staff wore the same rank badge later adopted by brigadiers. Until shortly after World War II , brigadier was an appointment conferred on colonels (as commodore

18354-413: Was replaced for a few years by a small intelligence office within the General Staff. Only in 1949 did the Allies allow the service to be re-established as SIFAR [Armed Forces Intelligence Service]. Just before the Italian surrender, Pietro Badoglio put his protégé Giacomo Carboni back in charge of SIM (September 1943). After the Armistice, many SIM agents continued to work on behalf of the Kingdom of

18492-528: Was so large that Colonel Cesare Amè, the head of SIM, began to publish a daily bulletin - Bulletin I - that summarized the most significant information. Copies of the bulletin were sent to Mussolini, to the Chief of General Staff and to king Victor Emmanuel (via his aide-de-camp Paolo Puntoni ), while a good portion of the diplomatic traffic was sent to Count Galeazzo Ciano, the Italian Foreign Minister. The codes of several countries were attacked including France, Turkey , Romania , United States , Britain and

18630-423: Was started in 2004 and Radlmaier has been investigating full-time since then. In Wałbrzych , Poland two amateur explorers—Piotr Koper and Andreas Richter—claimed to have found a rumored armored train believed to be filled with gold, gems, and weapons. The train was rumored to be sealed in a tunnel in the closing days of World War II. Only 10% of the tunnel has been explored because much of it has collapsed. Finding

18768-423: Was the acquisition of U.S. encipherment tables obtained through the break-in of the U.S. Embassy in Rome in September 1941 authorized by General Cesare Amè , head of the SIM. These tables were used by U.S. Ambassadors worldwide to communicate back to Washington, D.C. In October 1940, Colonel Bonner Fellers was assigned as military attaché to the U.S. embassy in Egypt and was to report to his American superiors

18906-416: Was the number of specialised sections and personnel. During the second half of the 1930s the activities of SIM, in particular under the leadership of Mario Roatta, took a rather sinister direction: SIM was implicated in an impressive chain of crimes and acts of violence, including the assassination of the most active anti-Fascist exile, Carlo Rosselli , together with his brother Nello , on 9 June 1937. SIM

19044-498: Was used by Allied troops as a warning sign for unexploded mines. They recovered thousands of objects, many of which had been pillaged by the Nazis. The Allies found these artworks in over 1,050 repositories in Germany and Austria at the end of World War II. In summer 1945, Capt. Walter Farmer became the collecting point's first director. The first shipment of artworks arriving at Wiesbaden Collection Point included cases of antiquities, Egyptian art, Islamic artifacts, and paintings from

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