Paul Graupe's activities during the Nazi era have been described as "between and gray areas, to the genesis and networks of the Nazi art trade". When the Nazis (National Socialists) came to power in 1933, many Jewish art dealers like
Alfred Flechtheim had to flee after their galleries were Aryanized, that is transferred to non-Jews. However, Graupe received special permission from the Nazi
Reich Chamber of Culture to continue art dealing and auctions until 1937. Since he had an international clientele, Joseph Goebbels considered him a foreign exchange earner. Graupe was involved in the liquidation of numerous art collections, such as that of
Max Alsberg, who committed suicide in 1933. Nazi persecution of Jews included the seizure of assets and the imposition of special taxes like the Reich Flight Tax. In January 1934 Max Alsberg's art collection was auctioned off by Graupe. In 1935,
Max Silberberg's extensive picture collection and library were sold off at Graupe.
Rosa Oppenheimer's collection was sold in a forced auction in 1935. Other Jewish collections which passed through Graupe in the Nazi era include
Oscar Wassermann, van Dieman,
Emma Budge and
Leo Lewin. By 1937 Graupe had organized about 160 auctions with works by Rubens, Rembrandt or Tiepolo, Corot, Menzel and Liebermann, when he himself had to flee to Switzerland, the business in Berlin was
aryanized, that is, transferred to a non-Jewish owner, Hans Wolfgang Lange (1904–1945) and continued until 1944. Graupe founded the company "Paul Graupe & Cie" in Paris, but had no permission to work as an auctioneer in France. From 1936 he ran his Paris business in partnership with Arthur Goldschmidt. At the beginning of the war in 1939, he escaped internment in France because he was in Switzerland. The company's warehouse in Paris was looted by
Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg after the German invasion of France in 1940. Graupe managed to escape with his wife to the US in 1941, where he had great difficulty in doing business. Only the painting "The Man is at Sea" by Vincent van Gogh could be smuggled out of occupied France, and Graupe sold it to Errol Flynn. His activities were investigated by the Art Looting Intelligence Unit in 1945 and 1946, and Graupe was put on the Red Flag List. After the end of the war, he returned to Paris in 1945 and resumed business there. He endeavored to restitute the looted stocks, although it was later impossible to reconstruct which paintings Graupe owned and which his firm had taken on commission. Graupe fell seriously ill in 1950 and died in 1953. His son Tommy Grange was also an art dealer and continued to conduct research, restitution and compensation negotiations for the family until the 1960s. == Controversial artworks and transactions ==