Soviet soldiers with unissued German medals...

[Dom]

Unfortunately, I would imagine that many of these pieces eventually got themselves swept up and tossed in the garbage bin...

You can say

B-034 1.jpg

[RKKAFan]

Years ago I had a small talk with a man, who was in the Hitlerjugend. He told me, that especially the American GIs searched for things after war with a swastika or SS skull or runes on it to take it as a souvenir with them. The man told me, that he traded his HJ Fahrtenmesser and buckle for choclate and cigarettes. Especially Americans cigarettes were favored articles of exchange and were better than Reichsmark.