Son of Nazis to return artworks to Poland

The son of a former Nazi governor is set to return three paintings stolen by his mother from Krakow’s national museum in 1939, ending a years-long quest to repatriate the art works, the Guardian reports.

Horst Waechter, 78, the son of SS general Otto Waechter, will return to the Polish government a painting of a palace, a map of 18th-century Poland, and an engraving of Krakow, just some of the hundreds of items stolen by his mother, who was charged with decorating her husband’s office, and other Nazi officials.

Waechter, who lives in a castle in Austria, says he has tried for years to return the works, but was thwarted by the fact that nobody wanted to deal with the son of a Nazi because of his tainted legacy. He says he is returning the works in memory of his mother, though he admitted that she was a proud Nazi who never renounced her views.

He also says his father, who died while trying to escape to Argentina after the war, was just a part of the Nazi machine and was killed for something he did not do.

“This is probably the first time that the member of a family of one of the most important Nazi occupiers is giving back art that was stolen from Poland during the war,” Polish politician Ryszard Czarnecki says.