Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce

The Reichsleiter Rosenberg Taskforce (German: Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg or ERR) was a Nazi Party organization dedicated to appropriating cultural property during the Second World War. It was led by the chief ideologue of the Nazi party, Alfred Rosenberg, from within the NSDAP Office of Foreign Affairs (Außenpolitischen Amt der NSDAP or APA). Between 1940 and 1945, the ERR operated in France, the Benelux countries, Poland, the Baltic States, Greece, Italy and on the territory of the Soviet Union in the Reichskommissariat Ostland and Reichskommissariat Ukraine. Much of the looted material was recovered by the Allies after the war, and returned to rightful owners, but there remains a substantial part which either has been lost or remains with the Allied powers.

The ERR was initially a project of Hohe Schule der NSDAP, a Nazi-oriented elite university, which was subordinate to Alfred Rosenberg. Rosenberg wanted it to be a research institute filled with cultural material on the opponents of the Nazi ideology. These included Jewish, Masonic, Communist and democratic organizations from throughout Germany and from the occupied countries. Plans to build monumental buildings for the University on the shores of Lake Chiemsee failed to materialize after the outbreak of World War II.

Shortly after the occupation of France the staff of the ERR joined the SS in the search for books, archival material, and huge stocks of artifacts that were in the possession of people of Jewish descent. Soon after the German Embassy in Paris and SS-Einsatzgruppen also began to steal the most valuable paintings from prominent national museums, galleries, and non-Jewish private collections. Rosenberg and his organization wanted to be involved in these art raids. He was able to get full authority from Hitler to be the only official art procurement organization acting in the occupied countries. For this reason, in a Führer Directive of 5 July 1940, Adolf Hitler authorized the ERR to confiscate:

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