Hitler's Last Hostages: Looted Art and the Soul of the Third Reich

Adolf Hitler's obsession with art not only fueled his vision of a purified Nazi state—it was the core of his fascist ideology. Its aftermath lives on to this day.

Nazism ascended by brute force and by cultural tyranny. Weimar Germany was a society in turmoil, and Hitler's rise was achieved not only by harnessing the military but also by restricting artistic expression. Hitler, an artist himself, promised the dejected citizens of postwar Germany a purified Reich, purged of "degenerate" influe...