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      Camille Pissarro: Transatlantic struggle for painting stolen by Nazis

      Egypt · Saturday, 29 January, 2022 - 23:47 · 1 minute

    Eighty years ago, Nazi officers entered a local bank in a sleepy corner of southwest France and raided a safe deposit box there.

    Hidden inside, they found a stack of artworks, including a painting by Impressionist artist Camille Pissarro, showing a shepherdess bathed in warm light greeting her flock.

    The painting had been hidden there by a Jewish couple, Raoul and Yvonne Meyer, the heirs of famous French department store Galeries Lafayette. It was 1941, and France had already been under German control for a year. The Pissarro canvas disappeared into Nazi custody.

    A 'model' rotation agreement

    No one disputes this story. But the painting itself found hanging in an Oklahoma art gallery in 2012, is now the subject of an unusual custody agreement, and a bitter transatlantic dispute over restitution rights in cases of stolen Nazi art.

    The painting, La Bergère Rentrant des Moutons (Shepherdess Bringing in Sheep), was traced to the US by the Meyers' adopted daughter, Léone-Noëlle, now in her 80s.

    It had been gifted to the University of Oklahoma's Fred Jones Jr Museum in 2000 by an American family who had bought it in good faith. Mrs. Meyer wanted to reclaim it and bring it back to France #world #war #wwII #nazi

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      Podcast #645: The Forgotten Story of the Lumberjack Commandos of WWII

      AoM Team · tests.marevalo.net / The Art of Manliness · Monday, 21 September, 2020 - 15:30 · 2 minutes

    Today, it’s hard to go very long without hearing about special operations forces like the Army’s Green Berets and the Navy’s SEALs. But before special operators became an ingrained part of the military’s strategy and established a prominent presence in the public eye, they existed as experimental, now largely forgotten units that were launched during the Second World War.

    One of the primary predecessors of today’s commandos was the 1st Special Service Force, which was known simply as the Force, and is described in a book of the same name by military historian Saul David . Today on the show, Saul explains how he came across the little known story of the Force and traces its origins to an idea formulated by a British civilian scientist and championed by Winston Churchill which envisioned a unit that could accompany a fleet of snow tanks into enemy territory. Saul details how the Force was composed of men from both America and Canada, how members were recruited from the rough-and-ready ranks of explorers, miners, lumberjacks, and hunters who were physically strong and used to cold temperatures and rugged terrain, and the rigorous training that turned these recruits into what was arguably the military’s fittest and best disciplined fighting force — a unit which would become known as the “Devil’s Brigade.” We then turn to the action these elite commandos saw during the war, which included scaling the sheer cliffs of a mountain to secure a Nazi stronghold. We end our conversation with why the unit was disbanded before the war was even over and how its legacy continues to live on in the special forces of today.

    If reading this in an email, click the title of the post to listen to the show.

    Show Highlights

    • The strategic thinking at the highest levels which ultimately led to the creation of the Force
    • Geoffrey Pyke, gentleman inventor
    • Why was it US and Canadian forces that were chosen to fight together?
    • The makeup of this motley crew of soldiers
    • What was this group’s intense training like?
    • Did the Force have a certain reputation? Was it earned/deserved?
    • Why was the Force in limbo for a while?
    • The epic achievements of the Force
    • What ultimately happened to the group?

    Resources/People/Articles Mentioned in Podcast

    the force by saul david book cover.

    Connect With Saul

    Saul’s website

    Saul on Twitter

    Listen to the Podcast! (And don’t forget to leave us a review!)

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    Read the Transcript

    Coming soon!

    The post Podcast #645: The Forgotten Story of the Lumberjack Commandos of WWII appeared first on The Art of Manliness .