Sonderstab Musik was a command force of
Alfred Rosenberg's Einsatzstab (
Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg)and was responsible for
the systematic confiscation of music from
Jewish musicians and
composers.
The branch was headed by Dr.
Herbert Gerigk, a
musicologist known for his monthly periodicals "
Die Musik", "Musik im Kriege" (Music In War) and as the publisher of the notorious "
Lexikon der Juden in der Musik"
(encyclopedia of jews in music). When in 1940, Gerigk opened an office in Paris he had direct
orders to confiscate 'music instruments,
literature,
partitions and
sheet music,
grammophone records and players'. Between 1942 and
1944 all the 'found items' were transported to Germany, for 'study' at the 'Hohe Schule' ('study centers' in all fields of culture
and science to be established after the war), the German troops (trophees) or for sale on the music market.
During this period, probably over 68,000 complete Jewish households (including the ones of
Darius Milhaud and
Arthur Rubinstein)
from
France and
Belgium were brought over to
Germany.