The German Embassy in Paris

After German troops occupied Paris on 13 June 1940, Otto Abetz received a diplomatic posting in France in order to represent the interests of Joachim Ribbentrop, the acting Reich Foreign Minister. As of late June 1940, Abetz launched a series of raids against leading Jewish collections in France, using the embassy’s building and a next-door annex as a depot for the confiscated objects.   On 3 August 1940, Abetz was given an ambassadorial rank, “Authorized representative of the Foreign Office in the military commander in France” (Bevollmächtigter des Auswärtigen Amtes beim Militärbefehlshaber in Frankreich). On 29 August 1940, Abetz sent to Berlin extensive lists of art objects seized from state- and Jewish collections. However, in mid-September 1940, Hermann Göring and Alfred Rosenberg forced Abetz and the German Embassy to curb their looting activities.   German Embassy officials, including Otto Abetz, Carl Theodor (Carltheo) Zeitschel, who headed the embassy’s section on Jewish questions, and Rudolf Schleier, played a crucial role in the plunder and persecution of Jews living in France. Until spring 1942, the embassy cooperated with the Sipo/SD and the German military administration in implementing restrictive measures against France’s Jewish population, organizing the deportation of mostly foreign-born Jews and agreeing to measures forcing Jews to wear a yellow star.   Special envoy Rudolf Schleier and Consul Walter Gerlach worked out the details of the acquisition of the Schloss Collection for the Linz Museum project. On 6 May 1943, the German Foreign Office authorized the embassy to initiate the acquisition of the confiscated Schloss Collection. Spurred by Adolf Hitler and Reichsleiter Martin Bormann, Gerlach and Schleier negotiated with French officials, including Vichy President Pierre Laval and Abel Bonnard, his Minister of National Education, to allow Germany to acquire a significant part of the Schloss Collection for Hitler’s Linz Museum project.   Literature: Seibel, Wolfgang. Macht und Moral Die »Endlösung der Judenfrage« in Frankreich, 1940-1944. Konstanz University Press, 2010. [about:blank https://kops.uni-konstanz.de/bitstream/handle/123456789/2941/Seibel_opus-130623.pdf;sequence=1]. Lambauer, Barbara. “Opportunistischer Antisemitismus. Der deutsche Botschafter Otto Abetz und die Judenverfolgung in Frankreich (1940-1942)”. Vierteljahreshefte für Zeitgeschichte. Jahrgang 53 (2005), Heft 2, p. 241 ff.   Mayer, Michael. Diplomaten im Krieg: Die Deutsche Botschaft Paris und die NS-Unrechtspolitik im besetzten Frankreich, DeGruyter, 2014, p. 177ff. [about:blank https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110345438.177/html].