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Rose Valland

One of the greatest unknown heros of World War II

1940

In 1940, the Germans invaded France, causing mass hysteria and havoc. Adolf Hitler was determined to bring down the country, the culture, and the lives of the innocent. In order to be successful in that destruction, Hitler formed an organization made up of Nazis known as the ERR or Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg. This organization was ordered to break into art shops, galleries, museums, and take with them the collections. They inspected each piece and if they were to come across one that they believed was “corrupt” they would destroy it. The majority of the damaged and even burned pieces were created or owned by Jewish families across France. It’s been estimated that around a third of the private collections around the country were taken and stolen by the ERR.

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Heinrich Hoffmann

Barker (Lt) No 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit (army 1940)

As this organization began gathering thousands of artifacts, they would bring them to the Jeu de Paume. Later on, the Jeu de Paume became known as a warehouse for these stolen treasures. Hermann Goering, the second in command to Hitler, would visit the Jeu de Paume every so often and search for pieces he deemed appropriate for Hitler’s up and coming museum and his own office. For the other inspected pieces that were accepted, they were either transported to places such as Germany or sent to other high-ranking officials.The ERR’s task of confiscating these collections not only in France but many neighboring countries became known as the Nazi Plunder.

Life Before War

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Rose Valland was born and raised in Saint-Étienne-de-Saint-Geoirs, France in 1898 to a modest family. She grew up appreciating the arts and became extremely educated, earning multiple degrees from art schools across France, such as the National School of Fine Arts of Paris and Lyon. As she continued her education, she began her career by working throughout different art shops and galleries around town. Eventually, after being a volunteer for a while, Rose became a curator for the Jeu de Paume, a center for modern art near the Louvre in Paris.

User:TCY

Last week, we had the amazing opportunity to sit down and talk with Vanessa Selk, French Cultural & Education Attaché. A classmate asked what was something she liked and also disliked about living in the US in comparison to her home country of France. Vanessa mentioned how she loved the mentality behind the American Dream. This idea that people believe anything is possible if you try. The belief can be extremely motivating and gives people the opportunity to go after dreams and achieve goals. But it’s also a hazard for not only the individual, but the community. If the individual tries to succeed within a new field, it opens a window for failure as well. This failure of course impacts the individual and also the community. The community’s rate on unemployment and homelessness increases significantly. The American Dream is something Vanessa admires, but also disapproves of because in France the career mentality is the opposite. If you study art and decide to become a banker halfway through your career, it is more difficult to achieve than it is in the US. Since you do not have the background in banking, the bank can easily turn you away. With this, there are advantages because people stick to their careers longer and security from these professions are formed. This causes the community rates of unemployment and homelessness to be much less, in comparison to the US. But on the other hand, individuals are much more limited when it come to their career flexibility.

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1940
Life Before War
1944

1944

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Meister

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As the ERR continued to ransack galleries and bring back valuable collections, Rose Valland was instructed to not leave her working post and observe as much as she could. The ERR organization commanded Rose to take inventory of each and every piece that would enter or leave the “warehouse”. On these inventory cards, she was to note whether or not the piece was damaged and who it was owned by. Rose did so. Although modest and of simple demeanor, the ERR never would suspect that Rose Valland, the educated woman that she was, was actually fluent in German.

TCY

Every time the ERR would enter the Jeu de Paume, they would not think twice about talking out loud of the location of the treasures. Rose was able to gather information from not only the organization members, but also the drivers and packers who were taking the artifacts to new locations. This information, along with copies of the inventory cards, was sent to Jacques Jaujard, who at the time was the Director of the French National Museums.  

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Department of Defense. Department of the Army. Office of the Chief Signal Officer

Hitler's plan was set on eliminating Jews. He understood that in order to eliminate them completely, he had to get to the heart. The heart in any community, religion, race, is its culture. This includes traditions, language, food, pastimes, music, and of course art. As the ERR was confiscating and at times damaging the pieces, they were slowly erasing years of memories and history that makes up a society. They highlighted the insane importance that goes into preserving these collections for generations to come. Without the courageous work that Rose did, an entire culture could have been annihilated.

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When I reflect on the significance a culture has on its people, I immediately think about my Cuban culture. My family left their home country as refugees to Miami. They assimilated as best they could to the American culture and even searched for that American Dream. But they never lost sight in their values, in their beliefs, in who they were at their core. Their culture defined who they were. Whether it was the rhythm in their salsa music, the sweetness of their flan dessert, or the diversity in their artwork, it’s what makes them Cuban. And it’s what makes me Cuban too. My family, both my mother and my father’s side, is from Cuba so it’s in my blood. It’s in the meals I eat at abuela’s house, arroz con picadillo y ironbeer. It’s in the guiro that my uncle plays every year at Noche Buena. It’s in the old photographs that my mom shows me of an island I’ve never visited. It’s in the flag outside abuela’s house, waving to anyone who passes by and whispering in the wind “ I am proud of who I am”. Every aspect of my culture makes me who I am and if you were to strip us of it, then we become lost, unknown, and forgotten.

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Life After War

Life After War

Once France was liberated and the war ended, Rose was determined to continue to search and find each confiscated piece. The valuable information she was sending to the French Resistance eventually got into to the hands of James Rorimer, an American who was captain of the Monument Men. This was an organization made up of people who were just as determined and passionate as Rose to retrieve these treasures. Working together, Rose and the Monument Men were able to recollect many of the pieces, including twenty thousand artifacts found in a castle off of the Bavarian Alps in Germany. Despite these findings, a sad reality was that many of the collections that were found were never reclaimed by their owners.   

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Lt. Moore, U.S. Army

After years of dedication and courage, Rose was recognized by her home country of France, awarded by Germany, and even received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from the United States for her heroic actions. Rose Valland continued to actively search for the missing valuables until she passed in 1980.

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Heinz Fremke

The Future

Rose’s story and bravery should continue to be recognized even today. But unfortunately, many of the articles I would come across while doing research labeled her as an unknown heroine of the second world war. This is extremely disappointing and a bit frustrating. It seems to be a recurring theme throughout history: women, who make history, are forgotten. For example, Katherine Johnson, an African-American mathematician who calculated the path needed to take to get us to space. Despite their discoveries, service, and efforts, a large portion of women were left out of textbooks solely because they were women. I believe our generation is now more understanding and is acknowledging/appreciating these women just as much as their counterparts.

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Like many women throughout history, Rose was a powerful woman and understood where her values lied. Despite being walked all over and taken for granted by the infestation throughout her country, she continued to fight for what she believed was right. And in this case, it was preserving years of history and culture that can never be restored. The famous quote, “don’t judge a book by its cover” applies perfectly to the ERR. Her simple appearance and the fact that she was a woman made her a shadow, an unsuspecting intellect, which would turn out to be one of the greatest spies of the war. If they would have found out and caught her, she would have been shot and killed immediately.

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Rose’s courage is empowering to not only women, but to those who understand the importance of standing up for what you believe and value, despite the consequences. She has instilled in me a new sense of appreciation for my culture and its preservation throughout generations. Rose Valland is a role model and should be remembered, just as those found treasures can now be remembered nearly 80 years later because of her!

Just like Rose’s empowering story, the story of other empowering women have also stemmed from France. During the French Revolution, a group of women, nearly 7,000 people, marched from their homes to the royal palace of Versailles. These women were fed up with the state of the country and demanded a solution.

Bibliothèque nationale de France

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People were dying in the streets of starvation and diseases from lack of hygiene. Demanding to see the King, the women, alongside frustrated men and children, gathered outside of the palace hoping to speak to the royal family about the needed change. This would later be known as the March on Versailles.

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Unknown or not provided

During World War II, women were inspired to take a stand and join the resistance. As Paris was being occupied, men seemed to have vanished, whether it was because they were prisoners of war, they escaped to London, or because they were hiding. This gave women the opportunity to take charge, including working class mothers, young girls, and old aged women. But once the war ended, women were stripped of jobs and their heroism because the men were coming back home. They were to stay home and make babies as they used to. The women who were saved and brought back home no longer felt at home, rather they felt forgotten. Throughout the chaos that was rebuilding Paris after the war, women were given the permission to vote in 1944.

The Future

These stories of women taking a stand in what they believe in and no longer being tossed to the side are the stepping stones the France has taken to give women rights. France’s progressive history of women’s rights has affected not only their history and society, but has also made a global impact. Women’s education, fashion, access to vote, and access to a career, would not be remotely the same if it wasn't for these stories. If it wasn’t for the women who marched in the rain to Versailles, for the women who joined a resistance against the people who were destroying all they loved, for the women who despite their appearance continued to fight for their values and beliefs, for the women who didn’t take no for an answer, for the women who demanded they be listened to, heard, and given a chance to say “I AM HERE”. It’s all because of them and it’s our responsibility to never forget.  

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The Future
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