Mobilisation of moveable assets: Objects designated for the art trade from the National Socialist plundering of the “M-Aktion”

Abstract

Under the code name "M-Aktion" (M as an abbreviation of the German word for furniture: Möbel), the German occupiers in World War II plundered the households of Jewish citizens who had fled, been interned or deported in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. In France alone, tens of thousands of apartments and houses were emptied out in the course of the M-Aktion between 1942 and 1944. Furniture and furnishings were taken to Germany where they were used, for example, as a supply for homes which had been damaged in the war. This article focuses on the art works seized as part of the looted mass of objects. Part of them, including mainly paintings and drawings, were listed separately by the Germans. While there was a plan to sell this contingent on the art market at some point, this concrete form of utilisation probably never happened. If the sale had taken place, it would certainly have been much more extensive than what might have been expected at first glance.