The Rape of Europa is a fascinating documentary that tells of the story of the theft, destruction, and in some cases saving of art during World War II. Narrated by Joan Allen the film takes you through the Nazi plundering of paintings in Poland, France and other countries (especially by Nazi art collectors like Hitler and Goering) to the efforts by citizenry to save museum pieces in Paris and Leningrad, to the unfortunate destruction of Renaissance architectural wonders during allied bombings in Italy and the German army demolishing various important Russian structures in the east. It also goes into efforts that are still going on to track down pieces since missing, and tells of the work to give back personal effects to families of Jews, items the Nazis stole without thinking twice from people they considered inhuman.All this is told with a delicate balancing act, reminding the viewer of the far greater tragedy of the war: the tens of millions of lives lost, most of them civilians. The misfortune of art during the war is not even close to that level of tragedy, but that doesn't mean it should be ignored. Art is part of one's culture and means a lot to great number of people. This is a story that deserves to be told, and though maybe this documentary goes in a few too many directions I found it quite interesting to see this perspective of the War that people rarely talk about.

What the movie does not show enough is that the spoils of war are now returned to families out of sheer GREED by the families. They are not returned to stay in the museum of their choice, but given back to the families after several generations to keep or sell as they choose, even when the will says to donate it to the country. Few family members were alive to see the works or have any personal significance to them.The attitude from the Russians is simple--we took it, it belongs to us. I think that is stealing but because it is the Russians, no one does anything about it. i bet the Jews of Russian heritage do not claim a single Russian piece of art. Russia is about a democratic as Mao Zedong.What the movie also does not say is that works of art have been taken by all nations since time began. It makes it out to be only the Jews that suffer this indignant slap.In addition, the movie never discusses the Jews blame for the war waged on them--see the 1933 declaration of war by the Jews against Germany and Herschel Grynspan killing the German ambassador in Paris, the Versailles treaty which humiliated the Germans that was a Jewish creation, as causes for the hatred.No Jew deserved to die, but they were not as innocent as is portrayed. The Rape of Europa is about the greed of nations and individuals to reclaim what was theirs when they left it or was taken from them.Shall we give the US back to the native Americans or the gold in Spain back to the Incas?The greed here is more one sided than shown.

I think somebody should make a documentary about the British Museum for starters. Let's count the artifacts there, they have looted. When the Prussians started to push the Germans back they took almost everything from the countries they marched trough. War is brutal and mindless. All war waging countries will loot & destroy. Growing up in eastern Europe I have a bit different opinion about WW2.I liked the archive footages, they were great. The narrator did a good job, but I liked it more with some real documentary firmness. Anyways, you should see the movie with an opened mind and make the judgment yourself after it.

European museums are filled with antiquities from all over the world. Did the Louvre hide those treasures, or were they forgotten by the German Army – or by these film makers in the editing room? The truth is that "war-booty" is a common European cultural heritage. Change the subject to the art and artifacts of conquests and murders in the past and the debate is very different. The New World Peoples have their religious artifacts strewn throughout European museums. When will they be returned? That's not the subject of the film some would say. Wrong! That's exactly the subject of the film, but we see only the part of the debate the film makers want to show us, as if the German army invented "war-booty," as if European "art" were the only valuables in the subject museums.Where is the concern about the "plundered" antiquities in Iraq? The film makers look at the past and make no comment about the "plundering" occurring today? These film makers believe the entire world is blind and in doing so show their own blindness. Return all antiquities/art to the countries from which they were removed.