M-Aktion

The M-Aktion ("Furniture Action" or also "M-Action", abbreviation for "Möbel-Aktion") was a Nazi looting organisation. Attached to the "Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg", starting in early 1942 the M-Aktion looted approximately 70,000 homes of French, Belgian, and Dutch Jews who had either fled or had been deported. Artworks were inventoried separately, photographed, and transported to Germany. The M-Aktion art loot was separated into a number of special type-specific "M-A" collections: paintings and Oriental objets-d'art to weapons and rare books. Most of the Jeu de Paume "M-A" collections were first shipped to Kogl and Sessenberg, in Austria. Belgian collections went mostly to Nikolsburg, a special ERR art repository in Southern Moravia, then part of Austria. A final shipment of 1 August 1944, predominantly of modern art destined for Nikolsburg was stopped by French resistance and never left France. In Paris alone, the "Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg" combed through 38,000 Jewish homes. The Levitan Parisian department store served as an interim storage space before the looted furniture was transported to Germany.