Please read this

[mauser98k]

Hi
Found this interesting article. I think some of the few is going to blacken the name of the many.
Grave robbers targetting fallen of Second World War for memorabilia - Scotsman.com News

Martin

[Vegard T]

The bad thing is that this is quite common.

[ww2fotos]

Where do you think MOST of these so-called "dug" iterms came from? I am referring to nice belt buckles with body-acid corrosion on them. That sort of thing. I am not talking about munitions, or artillery, etc. etc.

[Matt L]

Not so- I happen to have friends in Europe who are hobby metal detectorists and find hundreds of such items every year and haven't once found human remains. There's no way to really distinguish one cause of corrosion from another- if there were it would be wonderful as then one could be sure of passing on robbed items. The fact is they're indistinguishable. MILLIONS AND MILLIONS of German soldiers survived the war and few kept their equipment- again finds of my friends show that a great percentage discarded identifying items such as insignia and belt buckles; and that's not even considering the huge numbers that were simply lost or removed at aid stations and forgotten, confiscated by caturing forces and discarded, etc. Sure there are people who sadly do take things from graves, but it's not a major source.

What is really shameful about this instance is it happened in Germany- and the disappointing, ignorant commentary of the article writer...

[HVK]

Where do you think MOST of these so-called "dug" iterms came from? I am referring to nice belt buckles with body-acid corrosion on them. That sort of thing. I am not talking about munitions, or artillery, etc. etc.

I see that you also in this thread is arguing that the dug items come from graves. This is simply not true for the 99,9% of the items ! Have you ever done any battlefield digging - or are you just assuming? I do battlefield digging several times a year in some of the fields that had some fierce figthing - and I have never found a corpse ? I have found a lots of items - but no dead soldiers.

I know a lot of diggers and every time they come across a body it is delivered to the nearest graveyard with the ID disc. I do not say that this does not happen - but it is not that common!

In Germany you can find belt buckles, medal, guns, ammo etc. just in the top soil. There is SO much of it. So I think you should do some battlefield digging in Europe - and you would see that your arguments are not right...

[operaman]

I would like to throw this piece of fat on the fire.I wonder how King Tut feels about grave robbing.I think his tomb was looted twice once by ancient grave robbers and once by the British Museum.I think we have to put all of this in perspective.I feel that we should leave graves alone there is enough stuff on the market that comes from families of the dead and can be collected, anything else most likely should be left alone .I don't think the museums of the world will agree.