2 ss Jager Regt dug grave dog tag?

[odessa1]

ok, but anyway these tags have the soldiers name on them? sorry they were upside down. Ill have to show you some ones that my friend just recovered from german bodies in Russia. She is on a expidtiion now

[Wagriff]

You Do know, that grave dug relics are not actually permitted on the forum here? Battlefield dug relics are fine for those who collect them, but pieces taken from Corpses and Graves are generally not allowed...

[another ant]

or is that just we are not talking about grave dug relics.

need best pictures but ,not is the some type ?

[Matt L]

No, I don't think so. Indeed the picture is not ideal, but it doesn't look the same to me. None of the other characters are suspicious and it's VERY degraded- not fake-looking age at all. In that condition it's worth next to nothing since IEB discs are cheap in excellent condition.

[Wagriff]

Just to clarify, Surrendering soldiers in the Eastern Fronts would, quite often, remove their dog tags and awards first, rather than allow them to fall into enemy hands and knowledge of such things such as which formations they were facing etc could be gathered from the tags and other items. Not to mention, decorations tended to attract unwanted animosity from the captors. Quite often they even exhibit signs of being tossed into campfires en masse. Dug items like these are fine. Battlefield abandoned material is also no problem. But when it is openly spoken of as having come from Graves and corpses, This is not something we generally allow on the forum here-aside from legitimate and authorized battlefield diggers recovering remains of the fallen.

[odessa1]

I don't think these items are grave dug. The last items were not from graves. Actually Ill be posting some helmets with pictures Of helmets and dog tags which were with bodies from a year to year digging group. We normally keep the items we find. We have a way to track the familys in Germany but sometimes they don't want the bodies. So I usually keep the items when not claimed or discarded by the familys Kinda sad actually...But anyhow THESE items are not grave dug.

[Matt L]

ok, but anyway these tags have the soldiers name on them?

Nope, during early WWI and all of WWII, the Germans marked only a soldier's unit on the disc- the unit would keep the roll with all his personal information on it. Only during much of WWI did they mark all that information on the disc.

[Eike41]

I should also clarify, I have been digging in Russia off and on since 2006 and I work with the "official" diggers for the most part and I have seen literally hundred of bones and pieces come from the ground (in one place 188 full skeletons of Germans Russians and civilians). I have only seen a tiny fraction of soldiers with erkennungsmarken. All that I have gotten from the ground were either with awards in trash piles or where Germans were captured or in some quantity in Russian positions. The Russians routinely removed them from the dead Germans and even exhumed German graves to take them. They felt it gave good intelligence and later in the war they wanted to be sure the Germans would not be identified and returned home.

[Paul D]

. We have a way to track the familys in Germany but sometimes they don't want the bodies. So I usually keep the items when not claimed or discarded by the familys Kinda sad actually...But anyhow THESE items are not grave dug.

A very interesting statement , I have been involved in numerous Conflict Archaeology excavations in Estonia with a group working for the German Volksbund and Russian war Graves and know very well how the procedure works with the Volksbund once the remains of the fallen are discovered so i have a couple of questions !

1) How exactly do you get in touch with the families in Germany ?

2) The Families do not make decisions about the recovery of remains that is the responsibilty of the Volksbund so if as you say Families who you get in touch with tell you they don't want the remains of their relatives what are you doing with the remains ?

cheers

Paul

[Eike41]

All of the remains I ever saw in Russia that were handled in the official way were reburied. Russian soldiers in individual graves, German soldiers in mass grave (even when identified) and Civilians in individual graves. In each case the family was notified when it was possible. ID tags were returned to the families, or were collected by the graves commission for attempted return. I only saw that a couple of times. The Russian officials buried the Germans in mass graves without individual headstones. I don't know for sure why this was done (I was told several different stories) German soldiers families were only informed about the cemetery that their relative was buried in.