Monuments Men Recognition Act of 2013

Floor Speech

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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Massachusetts for the time.

I rise in strong support of the Monuments Men Recognition Act. I want to thank the gentlewoman from Texas for her work on this bill, Ms. Granger, and for her kind thoughts and expressions of appreciation. It was a great honor to work with her and the gentleman from Massachusetts on this particular bill.

I also had the opportunity to have some interchange with Robert Edsel, and not a finer gentleman and American is there. He wrote the original book that kind of talked about the Monuments Men, and he also, I guess, had something to do with the movie with George Clooney. That helped to bring a measure of fame to these brave men and women, but the United States Congress should go further and bring this official honor to them for their work in preserving our cultural heritage.

Over the last few years since I have been in Congress, and my first term was 2007, the Monuments Men seemed to be a continual presence in my service. In 2007, my first year, I was proud to support a resolution honoring them. In a ceremony on the Senate side that I went to, I had the fortune to meet Mr. Edsel, who told their story, but also to meet a few of the surviving Monuments Men.

Then I saw the movie this past year and my admiration and interest in what they had done, their courage and their contribution to the world's culture was deepened. I went back and I looked at my book, and I saw Mr. Edsel's card and a letter he had sent me after we had spoken, and I called him and said I wanted to help. Then I contacted Ms. Granger and went to work to help line up sponsors for this particular bill.

The mass genocide carried out by Hitler and the Nazis is incomparable and their crimes unimaginable. We think of concentration camps and mass killings, but their efforts to destroy cultural artifacts was an extension of that tragedy and that horror.

It is important to remember that Hitler didn't want to just annihilate the Jews and other disfavored populations; he wanted to erase all traces of these people from the planet. That included their so-called ``degenerate'' art. Art which I saw in the book included some of the great artists of all time. I think it was Toulouse-Lautrec maybe had a coloring of how he did his colors. Hitler thought that it was degenerate because the grass was blue and the sky was green, and he thought for some reason that was degenerate. Well, it was art. Fortunately, the Monuments Men had the foresight and heroism to prevent them from being successful.

As we recognize the Monuments Men, it is a good time to reflect on what art means to us in our lives. Art shines a spotlight on who we are and who we wish to be and how we want to be remembered. When we destroy it, we destroy an essential part of ourselves, our culture, and our society, and we destroy that for future generations to learn of us.

The Monuments Men did more than just preserve these paintings that could hang in a museum; they preserved our heritage, and for that we are forever grateful. With only five members of the Monuments Men alive today, we should act quickly to give them the honor and recognition they richly deserve.

I urge my colleagues to support this legislation. Again, I thank Ms. Granger and Mr. Capuano for their leadership.

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