John Pistone was among the U.S. soldiers who entered Adolf Hitler's home nestled in the Bavarian Alps as World War II came to a close. Inside, he found an album with photographs of paintings and took it as a souvenir.
The 87-year-old veteran recently learned that the album that sat on a bookshelf in his Ohio home for six decades is part of a series compiled for Hitler. The albums feature art Hitler wanted for his "Fuhrermuseum," a planned museum in Linz, Austria.
Pistone's album is expected to be formally returned to Germany in a ceremony at the U.S. State Department in January. Germany has 19 other albums discovered at the Berchtesgaden complex that are part of a 31-album collection of works either destined for or being considered for the Linz museum.
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On the Net:
Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art: http://www.monumentsmenfoundation.org
U.S. State Department, Holocaust Issues: http://www.state.gov/p/eur/rt/hlcst/
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