ROSE VALLAND: HEROINE OF THE LOUVRE; HEROINE OF ART
(Rose Valland)
Rose Valland was, by the highest standards, a woman of remarkable courage and determination. As a curator of the Louvre museum during World War II, she managed to continue working at the adjacent Jeu de Paume Museum during the Nazi occupation of Paris. Using her extraordinary memory, and her knowledge of the German language, Rose kept a secret diary of all the paintings coming in to the Jeu de Paume museum as a result of the Nazis’ confiscation of thousands of works of art from collectors in Paris, in particular Jews. Upon delivery to the Jeu de Paume, located in the Tuleries Gardens, they were inventoried and subsequently arranged for visits by Hermann Goring, who would select those works of art destined for the Furher Museum to be built in Linz, or those he intended to add to his growing personal collection. As head of the air force and rail system, Goring had the ability to transport stolen works of art on a scale without precedent.
Working in coordination with the French Resistance, and later Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives officials, Rose made her secret diary available which proved invaluable in enabling Monuments Men to quickly find so many of the works of art stolen by the Nazis in France. In some instances she even provided them with copies of shipping invoices!!!
(Rose Valland receiving an award for her courageous efforts.)
For her service during the war, Rose received numerous awards including not only the French Legion of Honor, Medal of the Resistance, and the Order of the Arts and Letters, but also the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit from the Federal Republic of Germany. However, even more remarkable, in my view, was her being awarded by the United States the Presidential Medal of Freedom, a very rare honor for a foreign citizen.
(The Train, 1964)
The work of Rose Valland was recognized in a 1964 film entitled, “The Train“, starring Burt Lancaster. It does no service to the heroism of Rose nor does it capture the excitement of her remarkable actions, but it does tell the story of the final days of Paris upon liberation, during the summer of 1944, and the last ditch effort by the Nazis to get as much stolen art out of Paris as possible. In completing research several weeks ago, I came across a letter to the editor of the New York Times written by Elaine Rosenberg, which I am reprinting as follows:
The Resistance sought the help of Rose Valland, the heroine of the Louvre. She immediately notified the French Second Armored Division, which had just liberated Paris. A young lieutenant volunteered to take six men and stop the train. The soldiers banged on the boxcars’ doors (holding their fire in case they were prisoners inside), and out straggled some old German soldiers who had been assigned to accompany the booty to Germany.
By extraordinary coincidence, that young lieutenant was my husband, Alexandre Rosenberg, of the Leclerc Division. Among the items found on the train were paintings belonging to his father, Paul Rosenberg the prominent Paris art dealer. Alexandre had last seen some the paintings in the family’s apartment in Paris.
This is but one of the amazing stories that I will be sharing in months to come. Not a week passes without us adding several such stories to our list. Fortunately, Elaine Rosenberg years ago provided readers with this personal insight into the Rose Valland story. However, there are so many equally remarkable and unique stories yet to be recorded, hence the urgency in our ongoing research. Sadly, the number of people alive to tell them diminishes every day. If you know of such stories, perhaps from a relative who had service during the war, please provide them to me so we can add them to our database where, in time, all will be published in one form or another.