Given to Lange Gasse book depot, 26 February 2024. ( )

The Orpheus Clock is a story that hits very close to my heart. It involves the descendant of a wealthy German-Jewish family (super-wealthy, actually) who lost it all in the Holocaust. Simon Goodman grew up in London knowing his heritage, while his father sadly (and without much success) pursued leads to reclaim a vast family collection of important artwork stolen by the Nazis.

Simon's great-grandfather had been the founder of Frankfurt's Dresdner Bank in the late 19th century, and had accumulated a vast fortune. Much of that wealth had been used by Simon's great-grandfather, and his grandfather, to amass one of the great private art collections of the day. But the Nazis (specifically Hitler and Goering themselves) were jealous of the Gutmann family collection, and were determined to get their hands on every last piece. When Eugen Gutmann (the great-grandfather) died in 1925, his son Fritz took over guardianship of the family collection, and it ended up costing he and his wife Louise their lives in concentration camps. Fortunately, their two children were out of Germany before the war, and survived the Holocaust.

But post-war, the family was left with nothing. Simon's father, Bernard, spent his 49 remaining years in trying to trace and reclaim the lost pieces of art. But, with European governments and the art community (including the two great international auction houses) throwing obstacles in front of Jewish survivors at every turn, restitution seemed nearly impossible. The German, Dutch and French governments (which allowed the Nazis to steal the Gutmann's family's assets, and then to murder Fritz and Louise) actually charged Bernard fees to reclaim his family's rightful property.

It was only after Bernard's 1994 death that Simon inherited details of the family's vast art collections. The advent of the internet helped Simon to realize how it might be possible to trace the current ownership and location of over 50 pieces, valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Suffice to say that the intransigence of the governments, museums, art community, and even some current owners had changed dramatically since the 1950s, and Simon was able to recover, or at least receive partial settlement for, many pieces of the collection. Circumstances (not the least of which is the number of heirs to the collection) made it impossible to keep most of the recovered pieces, but Simon is to be congratulated for his determination in getting it done. He was a dog with a bone, and he refused to ever let go.

This is a riches to rags to riches story that one rarely hears about relative to the Holocaust. Bravo Simon!

My own German-Jewish family (although nowhere near as wealthy as the Gutmanns) lost everything to the Nazis. But no formal list of our assets survived the war, and so nothing is recoverable. Apparently someone in Germany had the nerve to call my spinster aunt in the UK in the 50s or 60s, and offer to SELL her back our family's Bösendorfer concert grand piano, which had been stolen by the Nazis. Needless to say, as a poor civil servant with no inheritance, she refused. ( )

This book fascinated me from beginning to end. It was so well researched; no surprise, considering that the subject was the author's own family history. I appreciated the lengths that all the Gutmanns/Goodmans went to in order to reclaim stolen family heirlooms. I felt anger on behalf of all the victims of the Nazi Party. I will continue to watch for stories of rediscovered art and hope that more people are able to make connections with treasures their ancestors were forced to part with. ( )

"I know, rationally, that even under the Nazis there surely were sunny days; I just can't see it. Whenever I think of my grandparents during the Nazi nightmare, I envision them only in the monochromatic shades of World War II newsreels, under clouds of SS black and skies of Wehrmacht gray."

The systematic looting and destruction of Jewish art during WWII has long enthralled me in both fascination and horror. While I've read a variety of literature on this particularly ugly period of world history, this is my first experience with a personalized account. The Orpheus Clock is something of a fifty year long detective story, begun widely in secret by Goodman's father, and which spans generations and continents. I enjoyed a rather scathing inside look at the art markets of 20th century Europe and now, cameos by the indomitable Rose Valland, and an enlightening (not in a good way) exposé on the rather dastardly actions of the Dutch government following WWII.

"That a sturdy bronze, fifteenth-century mortar and pestle, with German coat of arms, had survived was not so surprising, but close by were two ancient cushions still in remarkable condition. Embroidered on both was their year of creation--1689. They seemed to epitomize to what lengths the Nazis had gone to preserve everything of value--except human life."

The Orpheus Clock is a story, ultimately, of restitution. While Goodman is not a natural writer, emphasized by periodic awkward phrasing and repetitive word choice, his family's story is haunting and resounding. An unfortunately all too common example of entire families who not only lost their lives but were stripped of their legacies and cultural heritage as well. Goodman's research is impeccable as he outlines the Gutmann banking dynasty rise to social and political prominence and their subsequent evisceration by the Nazis.

The bulk of The Orpheus Clock, and the most compelling aspect, is detailing of the intensive and far-reaching investigation Goodman and his brother launched in order to reclaim their family legacy. They tirelessly track many of the thousands of missing pieces from the Gutmann collection through history in order to fight for their return. This account does not mince words as the Goodman family files lawsuits, struggles through endless bureaucratic red tape, conducts investigations, and fights resistant collectors and museums for their rightful inheritance. The actions of the Goodman family paved the way for auction house reform and the development of Holocaust-era restitution policies, while encouraging countless other families to pursue their own sense of justice. A passionate, monumentally important text. ( )

Each time I learn a different component of World War II, a little bit of my heart is chipped away. I’m always horrified at what the Nazis did to the Jewish community. My brain just can’t comprehend the decimation of 90% of European Jews. I just don’t understand how people can have so much hate to do the things they did to neighbors and friends. With the current election happening and the hate spewing from he who shall not be named, it makes me think of all the lives that were lost during World War II.

This time in The Orpheus Clock: The Search for My Family’s Art Treasures Stolen by the Nazis, Simon Goodman and his brother Nick take up the search to find their family heritage that their father Bernard spent many, many years searching for until his sudden death while swimming.

I watched the movie Monuments Men and was shocked at the way the Nazis just went in and took what they wanted from private collections, museums and churches. They were literally breaking off mantels from fireplaces then throwing the items on trains or hiding them in caves dripping of water.

In The Orpheus Clock, Simon receives several boxes after his father dies, which holds many detailed documents about all the artwork, silver and other valuable that were in his family’s collection and have been missing for years. His father immediately started looking for the artwork right after the war ended.

Simon does a great job telling his grandparent’s story. How they established the bank, built their immense wealth and how they died in a work camp. He also did a great job of detailing what transpired as the Nazis started to gain strength and continuously took from the Jews. It’s so appalling how the Nazis just kept pecking and pecking, slowing stripping the Jews of their livelihood and their humanity.

There is still so much artwork that has not been claimed. I wonder if it’s because the families are no longer around, whether they don’t have the documentation to get their belongings back, don’t have the resources to fight or they have given up because too many people fight them along the way. It’s appalling the people who don’t want to give items back like Daniel Searle even though Simon and Nick had solid proof they were the owners of a painting he had in his possession.

Sometimes it takes years to get items back. When Simon finds the Orpheus Clock, which is at the Landesmuseum Wurttemberg in Stuttgart, I thought the museum workers were very kind. Several of the items Simon recovered are still being displayed in museums. Some the family sold to help with the search and some are still lost. While reading what Simon and Nick went through to prove an item was part of the Gutmann collection, I wanted to yell “just give them the item!”

This is a fascinating book about a part of World War II most people don’t know about. It makes me wonder while I was walking through the Berlin museums in 2012, were any of the artwork I was admiring stolen by the Nazis and still not claimed by the correct owners? ( )