The SS bosses were allowed to escape scrutiny? There are few more deserving of execution at Nuremburg with due process. It’s hard to believe they didn’t do a deep dive into their assets.
How much of that they hid in switzerland, and as I’m baselessly telling people later used it to start Nestle, remains unknown.
It’s a bit more complicated than that. This specific SS boss had already been assassinated by Dutch resistance in 1943.
What likely happened is that after the Jewish owner of the portrait died in May 1940, his collection was placed in possession of Göring. He then sold many of the works in October 1940, and presumably this is when Seyffardt purchased it (we don’t know for certain). After he died in 1943, the painting presumably passed through his son and ended up with his granddaughter.
The case only came to light now because another family member discovered that he was family of Seyffardt, which he didn’t know because the Seyffardts changed their name to avoid association with the Nazi collaborator.
So since there was no knowledge or record that this painting was ever in possession of Seyffardt, and he had already been busy being dead for 2 years when the war ended, the trail just ran cold.
SS bosses were allowed to escape scrutiny?
That particular guy having been asassinated by resistance fighters aside, sorry to break it to you, but apart from a very select few of very high profile Nazi criminals, pretty much all of them got away with it. Don’t people learn basic history in school or how is this not widely known?
