Evento

The Monuments Men: Searching for Hitlers Hidden Treasures -- James Huchthausen

Thursday March 15, 2018 10am - 11:45am

San Luis Obispo Public Library Community Room

$5 for LLCC members, $10 for non-members

Register Soon for "Monuments Men"on Brown Paper Tickets

Unless you have read the book and/or seen the movie, most of you have not heard about the Monuments Men. Here is your chance to beintroduced to the story of theMonuments Men and to follow their missions through Germany and Austria as they searched for Hitlers hidden art treasures.It is a suspenseful story as it was a race against time to capture the artwork asThe Soviet Army wasclosing in from the east.

Your instructor will also share with you what he knows about the life of hisuncle, Walter Huchthausen, from his days as a professor at the University of Minnesota in the early 1930's, to his death while searching for art treasures just five weeks before V-E Day.

The Army created the Monuments Men midway through World War II. Their goal was to track down the stolen artwork that Hitler had hidden. The Monuments Men were on the fighting front as the Allies began liberating European countries.

My uncle was one of 355 Monuments Men.After the Allies liberated Aachen, Germany, he became the the group's de facto leader becausehe was fluent in German. On April 2, he and his driver were dispatched to search for art treasures in southwestern Germany. Nazi snipers opened fire on their jeep, and my uncle was instantly killed.He and Ronald Balfour of Britain were the only two Monuments Men killed prior to V-E Day on May 8.

A new wing of the World War II Museum in New Orleans will open in two years.It will be dedicated to the Monuments Men and will include many of my uncles paintings and Purple Heart which I have donated to the Monuments Men Foundation in Dallas.

If you would like to, you could read the book The Monuments Menby Robert Edsel and/or watch the movie The Monuments Mendirected by George Clooney.

James Huchthausen taught political science and American history for 33 years, most recently at College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita. He was granted a Fulbright scholarship to study in Perugia, Italy in the 1980s.He also received a U.S. Department of Education grant to study in Shanghai, China. He was a member of a human rights delegation to observe events in Nicaragua on the tenth anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution.