The popular closing-night film from last year’s Jewish Film Festival, The Rape Of Europa, returns to the St. Louis area at the Tivoli Theater starting March 7, for at least a one-week run.

In this feature length documentary, we follow the work of a group of American soldiers dubbed “monument men,” who after the end of World War II were assigned to recover and protect art stolen by the Nazis. Not only did they track down this hidden, stolen art, they returned it to its rightful owners. In many cases, those owners were Jewish, and for those who perished in the concentration camps, the Monument Men then tracked down surviving family members to return the art. The work of the remarkable ‘monument men’ has also been the subject of an article in the February 2008 issue of Smithsonian magazine and a book called Rescuing DaVinci.

Besides its successful screening at the Jewish Film Festival, The Rape of Europa was nominated for a Writer’s Guild of America award for its screenplay.

The documentary includes archival footage of the recovery efforts, interviews with surviving “monuments men” and family members who discuss their joy at the return of family treasures.