The paintings were among more than 300 works seized during World War II from Adolphe Schloss, a German Jew who lived in France and amassed a collection of old master paintings.

The comments at a Duke University event this week have rankled student activists, who said they fostered a hostile environment on campus.

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He and his Jewish family lived across the street from the German leader in the 1930s. He became a professor and historian in Britain.

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President Emmanuel Macron of France also pushed back against accusations by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he had not done enough to protect French Jews from antisemitic attacks.

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