After fighting his way across Europe during World War II, John Pistone was among the U.S. soldiers who entered Hitler’s home in the Bavarian Alps as the war came to a close.
Making his way through the home, Pistone noticed a table with shelves underneath. Exhilarated by the certainty of victory over the Nazis, Pistone took an album filled with photographs of paintings as a souvenir.
Sixty-four years after Pistone brought the album home to Ohio, the 87-year-old has learned its full significance: It’s part of a series compiled for Hitler featuring art he wanted for his “Fuhrermuseum,” a planned museum in his hometown of Linz, Austria.
The album is to be returned to Germany in a ceremony at the U.S. State Department this month. Germany has 19 other albums discovered at the Berchtesgaden complex that are part of a 31-album collection of works either destined for or being considered for the Linz museum. — ap