The sto­ries of the Nazis’ lust for fine art dur­ing …

The sto­ries of the Nazis’ lust for fine art dur­ing World War II most often revolves around the pil­lag­ing of per­son­al and pri­vate col­lec­tions and sub­se­quent efforts at resti­tu­tion…Yet, there is anoth­er sto­ry to tell among this intrigu­ing but oft-rehearsed nar­ra­tive, a pro­logue of sorts, and Charles Dellheim’s book Belong­ing and Betray­al deft­ly does just that…In addi­tion to nar­rat­ing the vast con­tri­bu­tion of Jews to the ear­ly twen­ti­eth-cen­tu­ry art world, Dell­heim explores the Jew­ish assim­i­la­tion experience… Dellheim’s book tran­scends typ­i­cal uni­ver­si­ty press pub­li­ca­tions. The vol­ume is an enjoy­able, breezy read that inter­twines the for­tunes and fate of a host of col­or­ful fig­ures who changed the art world, as well as the dev­as­tat­ing betray­al of some of its very best.