To this blog, I plan on adding some book and movie reviews of all kinds which we can use in the classroom or as resources to help support education in our classroom. Today, I want discuss a movie which has an absolutely stellar cast and an excellent plot based on a true story – The Monuments Men.
During WW2, the Nazis confiscated countless pieces of artwork as they invaded, especially from people who were Jewish. The United States began an effort to recapture the artwork before it was lost forever. As our armies raced across Europe and into Germany, a group of men were also racing against time to seize the artwork before it was destroyed or lost. They are known as the Monuments Men or The Monements, Fine Arts, and Archives Program (MFAA).
The movie raises some deep ethical questions. Is a priceless piece of artwork worth even one soldier’s life? Whew. I’ll let you think about that today. In 1945, Hitler issued the Nero decree that all possessions of the Third Reich be destroyed lest they fall into the enemy’s hands. That included the billions of dollars of art in their possession. The Monuments Men had to stay near the front line in order to stay close to the art which was often following the retreating German army as it fell back towards its own borders. Numbers vary, but it is estimated that roughly 650,000 pieces of art (mabye millions upon millions)were plundered. That is simply mind boggling. Here is a list of a few of the more famous pieces of art which were recovered:
Ghent Altarpiece – Hubert and Jan van Eyck (cover photo is Ghent, Belgium)
Madonna and Child(Bruges) – Michelangelo
No 6 Symphony Original Manuscript – Beethoven
The Night Watch – Rembrandt
The Astronomer – Vermeer
Lady with an Ermine – Leonardo da Vinci
One especially large trove of art was found in a salt mine in Altausee, Austria. Salt miners saved the artwork after taking explosives(which were placed there by German soldiers to destroy the massive trove of art) removed the explosives. 6,577 paintings, 2,300 drawings or watercolors, 137 sculptures, 78 pieces of furniture, 122 tapestries, and 1,700 cases of books were saved.
Sadly, much of the art has yet to be returned (permanently stolen) or cannot be returned(because entire Jewish families were erased…) Some of the artwork is still being returned today.
As an educator in a classroom, an entire integrated(literacy, art, social studies, math) unit can be built around this topic – even if you don’t watch the movie! But if you do watch the movie, the cast is stellar. Matt Damon, George Clooney, Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett, John Goodman, Jean Dujardin, Bob Balaban, Grand Heslov, and Hugh Bonneville do a phenomenal job portraying the MFAA.
Topics like this are rich in content, and allow our students learn about a world which exists far beyond our pacing guides. It is absolutely the most fun you will ever have teaching. Each day is like unwrapping a gift which most have never seen before. Would we like our students to come back and talk about their TCAP success? OR we would like them to come back and tell us they had traveled the world to see the Ghent Altarpiece, because they had learned about it in our class?
I have watched this movie several times. It gets better each time. It is a fantastic movie with great acting. I’ll leave you with this quote which is such a tribute to the men and women who were able to save a part of our collective history. If they hadn’t, the loss of knowledge and beauty would have been nearly immeasurable.
You can wipe out an entire generation, you can burn their homes to the ground and somehow they’ll still find their way back. But if you destroy their history, you destroy their achievements and it’s as if they never existed. ~ Lt Frank Stokes
