APPENDIX ONE

INTERNATIONAL LAW

Observations on the Treaties and Other Sources of International Law That Govern Protection of Art in War

A brief resume of internationally accepted codes will enable us to decide for ourselves how far the rules of decency and justice permit the kind of criminal action we have seen manifested by the Nazis. In the declaration formulated at the Brussels Conference of 1874,[1] Article 8 states:

[T]he property of municipalities, that of institutions dedicated to religion, charity, and education, to the arts and to the sciences, even when belonging to the State, shall be treated as private property.

All seizures of, destruction or willful damage done to institutions of this character, historic monuments, works of art or of the sciences, should be prosecuted by the competent authorities.

In this same spirit on July 13, 1898, President William McKinley issued a letter from the executive mansion in Washington, which was published by order of the secretary of war as General Order No. 101.

All churches and buildings devoted to religious worship and to the arts and sciences, and all schoolhouses are, so far as possible, to be protected, and all destruction or intentional defacement of such places, or of historical monuments or archives, or of works of science or art is prohibited, save when required by urgent military necessity.

Since the first Hague Peace Conference of 1899, these principles, with slight modifications in wording, have been incorporated in the conventions of international law, known in our day as the Rules of Land Warfare. In addition, all the holdings of cultural institutions were placed on the same footing as those of municipalities whose patrimony is free from seizure in time of war.

In the annex to the Hague Convention No. IV of October 18, 1907, the regulations were extended to include the following:

In sieges and bombardments all necessary steps must be taken to spare, as far as possible, buildings dedicated to religion, art, science, or charitable purposes, historic monuments, hospitals, and places where the sick and wounded are collected, provided that they are not being used at the time for military purposes.

It is the duty of the besieged to indicate the presence of such buildings or places by distinctive and visible signs, which shall be notified to the enemy beforehand. [Article 27]

The besieging forces are not required to observe the signs indicating inviolability of buildings that are known to be used for military purposes, such as quarters for officers and men, observatories, or signaling stations.

The pillage of a town or place, even when taken by assault, is prohibited. [Article 28]

It is especially forbidden . . . to destroy or seize the enemy’s property, unless such destruction or seizure be imperatively demanded by the necessities of war. [Article 23]

It was reiterated that:

The property of municipalities, that of institutions dedicated to religion, charity, and education, the arts and sciences, even when State property, shall be treated as private property.

All seizures of, destruction, or willful damage done to institutions of this character, historic monuments, works of art, science, is forbidden and should be made the subject of legal proceedings. [Article 56]

The intricate workings of official bodies for the protection of cultural monuments in World War II, and their accomplishments, are recorded elsewhere, particularly in the 1946 Report of the American Commission, published by the United States Government Printing Office in Washington. The work of the American Council of Learned Societies and the American Defense-Harvard Group is outlined therein. The concluding sentence of this 237-page report states: “The task was nothing less than to preserve as much as they could of man’s creative past.” The report summarizes activities in Washington and London and those of the various echelons in the Mediterranean, European, and Far Eastern Theaters of Operations.

The commission reports that it:

made frequent representation to the War Department on the appointment from civilian ranks of specialist personnel for arts and monuments work, and on the securing of adequate rank for the officer and enlisted specialist personnel for arts and monuments work, and on the securing of adequate rank for the officer and enlisted specialist personnel already serving in the Theaters. In both instances the Commission was not successful in securing favorable action on the part of the War Department, as it was the Department’s policy to limit rigidly the direct commissioning of officer personnel from civilian ranks, while recommendations for higher rank were at the discretion of Theater commanders.

Up to December 1, 1944, during the first 4 months of operations within Headquarters Communications Zone (Com Z) alone, a total of 1,240 sites and 597 towns were visited by an average of 2½ MFA & A officers in the field. This amounted to 125 sites and 60 towns per man per month. A recapitulation of the official lists for France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Germany reveals a total of 3,415 items.  For the major part of operations, the MFA & A officers in the field averaged 10 in number, 3 at Headquarters Com Z, and 1 each with the First, Third, Seventh, Ninth, and Fifteenth U. S. Armies, Second British Army, and First Canadian Army.  This meant 341½ officially listed monuments per officer, and did not include several thousand other structures eventually to come within their purview, or the approximately 350 known repositories of works of art which were to come within the area of U. S. forces in Germany by May 7, 1945.

Working under incredible handicaps of personnel, equipment, and transportation, a few men bore the brunt of saving “man’s creative past.” At no time in history were so few charged with safekeeping so much.

[1] At the 1874 Brussels Conference, called by Czar Alexander II of Russia, 15 European nations met to pursue codification of the laws of war. Although not universally adopted by the conference participants, the resulting declaration became one of the foundation documents for the treaty adopted later as the Hague Conventions of 1899, 1907, and 1954, which, with additions and modifications, continue to apply today.