Best-Selling Author Series: Scholar Dr. Jonathan Petropoulos to discuss the extraordinary art collections amassed by Nazis during World War II | Press Releases

On Wednesday Nov. 8 at 4 p.m. at Fairfield University, the esteemed historian Jonathan Petropoulos, Ph. D., who has served as a consultant for Holocaust victims trying to recover lost artworks, will present a talk and slide presentation entitled "Hitler and the Princes: From Nazi-Royal Alliance to Class Warfare." His most recent book is entitled, "Royals and the Reich: The Princes von Hessen in Nazi Germany" (Oxford, 2006).

The event is part of the Best-Selling Author Series. It is presented by University College, the Carl and Dorothy Bennett Center for Judaic Studies, the Departments of Art History and History, and Congregation B'nai Israel, Bridgeport. It will take place in the Oak Room of the Barone Campus Center on the Fairfield campus. The event is open to the public. Tickets are $10. Please phone (203) 254-4307. Tickets for Fairfield University students are
free, with valid university photo ID.

If being a prince were a profession, then German princes would arguably have been the most Nazified group in the Third Reich, even surpassing physicians. German princes helped legitimate Hitler and bring him to power. They were rewarded with posts in the regime and economic favors, and helped create a glittering "Nazi high society" that flourished in the 1930s. They also helped Nazi leaders amass extraordinary art collections, especially during World War II when German plundering units ravaged the Continent. But this alliance between the old and new ruling elite broke down amidst the strains of war. Discover why at the talk, and also learn about the myths and cover-up that emerged in the postwar period and have endured to this day.

Dr. Petropoulos is the first scholar to have been granted access to a princely family's archive from the Third Reich. He is the John V. Croul Professor of European History at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, Calif., where he also serves as director of the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies and the associate director of the Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights.

He has served as a consultant for a number of Holocaust victims trying to recover lost artworks. He wrote the expert report for the plaintiffs in Altmann v. Austria, which resulted in the return of five paintings by Gustav Klimt to the heirs. He is the author of "Art as Politics in the Third Reich" (University of North Carolina Press, 1996), and "The Faustian Bargain: The Art World in Nazi Germany" (Oxford University Press, 2000).

Philip Eliasoph, Ph.D., professor of art history, said Dr. Petropoulos has had unprecedented access to royal archives. "Dr. Petropoulos is considered the leading research scholar in the area of the cultural politics of the Third Reich. His groundbreaking texts have offered a unique insight into the devious ways Nazi propagandists used and abused the value of fine art for their own pernicious objectives. Many Jewish families have recovered artworks looted under Nazi occupation directly as a result of his heroic efforts on international restitution committees. This is truly a tale to be told straight from the source by a master narrator!"

His many accomplishments include serving as Research Director for Art and Cultural Property on the Presidential Commission on Holocaust Assets in the United States, where he helped draft the report, "Restitution and Plunder: The U.S. and Holocaust Victims' Assets" (2001). As research director, he provided expert testimony to the Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport in the U.K. House of Commons and to the Banking and Finance Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Dr. Petropoulos has helped organize art exhibitions, including "Degenerate Art: The Fate of the Avant-Garde in Nazi Germany," which opened at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1991. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1990, where he also had an appointment as a Lecturer in History. He's co-editor of "A User's Guide to German Cultural Studies" (U. Michigan Press, 1998), and "Gray Zones: Ambiguity and Compromise in the Holocaust and its Aftermath" (Berghahn, 2005).