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Cultural Property at War: Protecting Heritage during Armed Conflict

 

 

 

Eisenhower

General Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1945 inspecting art looted by the Germans and stored in the Merkers salt mine during World War II (behind him are General Omar N. Bradley, left, and Lieutenant General George S. Patton Jr., right). Photo: Courtesy of U.S. National Archives.

By Corine Wegener and Marjan Otter

At the end of 1943, as war raged in Europe, General Dwight D. Eisenhower wrote to his commanders in Italy, clearly expressing his intent to spare cultural property from damage whenever possible:

“Today we are fighting in a country which has contributed a great deal to our cultural inheritance, a country rich in monuments which by their creation helped and now in their old age illustrate the growth of the civilization which is ours. We are bound to respect those monuments so far as war allows.”

This statement and other protective measures for cultural property were a direct result of concerted efforts by governments, the military, and cultural heritage professionals of many of the Allied nations to protect Europe’s cultural heritage during World War II. Nonetheless, countless icons of our shared cultural heritage were damaged, looted, or destroyed during the conflict. In response, the nations of the world gathered in the Netherlands to draft the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, in an attempt to ensure that such losses of cultural heritage during war would never again occur.

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