Rose Valland- Little Known WW2 Hero

Last week I went to see The Monuments Men. Some critics thought it was so-so but I thought it was great. I knew that the Germans had plundered all kinds of paintings, sculptures and so much more and hid much of it in secret locations and mines but I did not know that there was a group of men called the Monuments Men and their job was to track down and locate and return all this treasure as the Allies advanced across France and into Germany.

And I had never heard of Rose Valland before. What a hero she was. She worked at  the Jeu de Paume museum which was right next to the Louvre. This museum was the headquarters for all the art the Germans stole. The Germans let her continue to work in the Museum probably because she appeared to be quite unassuming and had a quiet demeanor. Unknown to the Germans Rose knew German and could follow everything they said. And she also kept a secret journal of what art was taken and where it was shipped to (over 20,000 thousand pieces). She also passed a lot of her information on to the Resistance. Had the Germans known what she was up to,  she would have been shot.

As the Allies freed Paris, she gave the journal to one of the Monuments Men, James Rorimer, which greatly aided the Americans locating all the artwork as they advanced into Germany. After the war was over she continued her work and was recognized for her heroic efforts. She received the Legion of Honor, the Medal of Resistance and was made Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government. The United States awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom  and Germany gave her the Officers Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. And finally in 1953 she was awarded the title of Curator! I think she deserved it! And there is a memorial plaque on the outside wall of the Jeu de Paume. The next time I am in Paris I am going to make sure I go there and see that plaque and walk through the Museum and walk where she walked.

She died in 1980 and is buried in her home town of Saint-Etienne-de-Saint-Geoirs. A foundation has been established there to honor her life and accomplishments and there is also a web page http://www.rosevalland.com. And Amazon has a biography of her life available for download on the Kindle.  I am going to get that and read about this wonderful woman, this truly great hero, who thanks to her efforts, and all the risks she took, she basically saved the culture of hundreds of years for most of Europe. What an amazing lady. The next time I am in France I would like to go to her grave and place a bouquet of roses there in her memory.

I would recommend going to see the movie. And I just finished the book The Monuments Men, by Robert Edsel.  And he has written 2 others. One is a pictorial book on all the artwork that was recovered and another book is just on the artwork that was recovered in Italy. He had too much material and it all couldn't fit in the Monuments Men so he did another book. And one quick back story on the movie. The producer was in an airport book store, waiting for his flight, and he saw the book, The Monuments Men, and thought that this would make a good movie. And he was right. And isn't that every author's dream? I  think Robert Edsel is selling a lot of books now and enjoying his movie earnings!