Heidi subscribed (signed up for?) the Smithsonian Magazine when were in D.C. I flipped through the latest issue Sunday and read an interesting article about the Monument Men, the group of Army soldiers responsible for repatriating art work and treasures that the Nazis stole during WWII. In the article was this fascinating observation by one of the last remaining Monument Men:
“That’s what made our war different,” Ettlinger, now 82, recalls. “It established the policy that to the victor do not go the spoils. The whole idea of returning property to its rightful owners in wartime was unprecedented. That was our job. We didn’t have much time to think about it. We just went to work.”
I couldn’t help but think about our current war and about how this one little statement really shows the difference between the two wars. The war in Iraq has been set up as an exclusive haven for U.S. companies, where KBR and Halliburton bring in foreign workers even though there are Iraqis without jobs there. In fact, I remember reading on many blogs and newspaper editorials that it was right that the U.S. showed preferential treatment to U.S. corporations. The spoils, as it were, were for us, not for them.
Don’t want to read too much into this, just thought it was a pretty insightful point.
The article is online and worth reading. A number of these soldiers were Jewish, and I can’t imagine what it was like for them cataloging and going through the Torahs and other items obviously stolen from synagogues, families, and Jewish communities.