FOLD3: Red Flag Name Fritz Nathan entered as Fritz Najean

Digital Humanities can help find information if the information is correctly digitized. But if names are misspelled, they will be invisible to a digital search function.

FOLD3, the excellent digital archive associated with NARA, the National Archives, has a problem with the transcriptions of the Art Looting Investigation Unit Red Flag List of Names. And the problem seems to be getting worse, not better.
If one searches the ALIU Final Report for "Nathan" one will find Nathan Katz. The entry for Fritz Nathan will not appear in the search.

If one knows that there is an entry for Fritz Nathan in the Switzerland section of the Art Looting Investigation Unit Red Flag List and goes to the page where it appears, one can see on the image the entry for (*) Nathan, Dr. Fritz. However the list of searchable names on the left side of the screen shows, not Fritz Nathan, but a "Fritz Najean".

There is no such person as Fritz Najean in the actual ALIU Reports. However, if one searches on "Najean" the record will appear.

If, however, one searches on "Nathan", one will only find Nathan, Katz. Not Fritz Nathan.

This kind of data error should be of concern to digital humanities scholars, art historians, provenance researchers, and archivists.

see FOLD3 https://www.fold3.com/image/232006332 for Fritz Nathan aka Najean entry

For other ALIU Reports on Fold3 see:

CIRs: https://www.fold3.com/browse/114/hvMxROzkdWx-J5nVj

DIRs https://www.fold3.com/browse/114/hvMxROzkdSyceieW2

Final (including Red Flag List) https://www.fold3.com/browse/114/hvMxROzkd1ZVdGNv9C7Gz495S


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For more digital transcription errors concerning Fritz Nathan see also:

- National Archives: Holocaust era assets, where Nathan is digitized as "Mathan".

https://www.archives.gov/research/holocaust/finding-aid/military/part-2-notes.html

- Buehrle, Emil entry in the digitized publication of the ALIU Red Flag List, where Nathan is transcribed as "Natman".

https://www.lootedart.com/MVI3RM469661

The Ultimate Art Looting Network: AGENTS OF HIGH PLACED NAZIS

Declassified in 2001, the "Agents of High Placed Nazis for Looting Works of Art " Source: NARA 1518815  

AGENTS OF HIGH PLACED NAZIS FOR LOOTING WORKS OF ART

Herr Adolf WÜSTER
Herr Gustav ROCHLITZ
Dr. VOSS
Dr. Kurt MARTIN
Andreas HOFER
Dr. HABERSTOCK
Dr. LOHSE
Dr. BUCHNER
Dr. Otto FÖRSTER
Herr BAHMANN
Dr. GURLITT
Dr. MÜHLMANN
Dr. GOEPEL
Prof. HERBST
Dr. R SCHOLZ
Herr APFELSTAEDT
Emil ZAUNKELMER

From Paris
Martin FABIANI
Roger DEQUOY
Alfred DABER
César de HAUCKE
? PETRIDES
Count Avogli TROTTI



Most of these names are familiar from the Art Looting Investigation Unit Final Report and Red Flag List.  Several of these names also appear in provenances of artworks that are currently in public museums.

The ALIU singled out this "cluster" of individuals for particular attention. What was their position within the overall ALIU Red Flag Network? And how did it evolve in the aftermath of the war?

The ALIU Red Flag list presents a snapshot of the network (as they understood it) shortly before the OSS unit was dissolved. When happened next? And, in particular, after both the Munich and Wiesbaden Central Collecting Points were closed in August 1951?

Can we track the evolution of this cluster over time?

Paul Pétridès in 1946 ALIU Red Flag list

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Dequoy and Fabiani: 1946 Art Looting Investigation Unit Final Report (Red Flag List of Names)

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Dr Hans Herbst : 1946 ALIU report
(note: as for the other networks above, the relations are taken from the mentions of Herbst in the bios of other Red Flag names.) 

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Nazi art looter Karl Haberstock had many, many contacts among art dealers and galleries

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This chart shows the links between several of the names on the "Agents of High Placed Nazis for Looting of Works of Art.
When there are so many names the graph becomes harder to read.  The table has 473 rows taken from the  1946 ALIU Report/

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In future posts, we will describe how we are formatting the ALIU Red Flag list for import into Fusion Tables so that anyone can replicate (and maybe improve) the graphs. 
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transcription of names from FOLD3 document https://www.fold3.com/image/270079420

about this document:

Roberts Commission - Protection of Historical Monuments

National Archives Catalog ID: 1518815
National Archives Catalog Title: London Files, compiled 1943 - 1945
Series:London Files
Category: London File- British Element CC (Bunjes Papers, Ect.)
Date Range:1943 - 1945
Publication Title:
Records of the American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historical Monuments in War Areas (The Roberts Commission), 1943-1946
Content Source:
 The National Archives
Publication Number:
M1944
Content Source:
NARA
Source Publication Year:
2007
Language:
English, French, German
Country:
n/a
Footnote Job:
11-004
Footnote Publication Year:
2011
Record Group:
239
Short Description:
NARA M1944. Records of the American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas, 1943-1946.
Roll:
0032

Declassified: April 23, 2001, Published 2007