8 that were overrun

[Jerry B]

In the UK all archaeological excavations have to be done inline with professional standards, to do otherwise is just not acceptable here because excavation is destructive, and you only get one chance to get it right.

Why are these excavations being undertaken? If the remains are not at threat from development they should be left where they lay. If it is thought necessary to move the remains from the many smaller burial sites (as HPL's quote suggests) then it should only be done with the respect that surely these people deserve and that means they should be done in a professional manner.

Obviously my views are those from the perspective of a professional archaeologist working in the UK and I understand that our standards are not applied across the world, but that does not mitigate the fact that digging up these remains in a less than ideal manner ultimately lessens the archaeological record and should not be done unless in dire need.

[BlackCat1982]

The purpose of this particular exhumation and re-burial was for exactly the reasons quoted above. As there were several remains involved it would be deemed correct and appropriate to remove the remains and hopefully during the process to identify the bodies through recovery of physical evidence, such as personal identification tags, personal effects etc. For the VDK this is the PRIME reason and not to pick up a few rotten helmets or smashed equipment. There might be a small value to such things but this is NOT what this recovery is about.

Individual soldiers remains discovered by accident or during random searches with detectors do not always afford such attention by those woh find them, and even when reported to the VDK they have only noted the location and filed it because they cannot finance a recovery team (whereas the USA, has been able to recover individual lost servicemen having had a larger budget in the past).

[TWS]

I think this inscription in a book on a War Cemetery in Latvia is a reason many of us involved in soldier recovery spend our own time and money doing this work

That is touching. Thanks for sharing.

[AZPhil]

I think this inscription in a book on a War Cemetery in Latvia is a reason many of us involved in soldier recovery spend our own time and money doing this work

Attachment 1287189

Could someone be so kind as to translate what was written?

Semper Fi
Phil

[inka]

Here Phil :
"Beloved father, I have found you after 70 years. We were and still are full of sorrow, because You had to give your young years to the nazis. You and Georg Elser have always been my heroes for being resistance fighters. Goodbye, Helga
P.S. You gave two great grandsons. At least we have freedom for 70 years now."

[HPL2008]

Allow me a little correction: It's "peace", not "freedom".

[AZPhil]

Thank you Gentlemen!
That does tug on the heart..
It does show that the work recovering these fallen is bringing a close to some.

Keep up the great work!

Semper Fi
Phil

[Anderson]

That's all very interesting, I would think the work of the Volksbund and this mass repatriation of remains is probably fairly unknown outside Europe and certainly differs from the philosophy of the Allied nations, which is to leave the remains in the country where they fell, though in tendered graveyards. I recall reading that even during the Libyan chaos after Gidaffi fell from power, the Commonwealth War graves were still being tendered by locally employed gardeners (despite one ugly incident). The remains of Imperial British soldiers are scattered over half the world and I don't think there has been any suggestion to bring them home. Near where I live in New Zealand there is a small graveyard for about 20 British soldiers killed in a battle in the 1860's. But I guess unmarked or newly discovered graves are a different situation.

[HPL2008]

That's all very interesting, I would think the work of the Volksbund and this mass repatriation of remains is probably fairly unknown outside Europe and certainly differs from the philosophy of the Allied nations, which is to leave the remains in the country where they fell, though in tendered graveyards.

It's the same here. The remains are not taken back to Germany; the 833 war cemeteries under the Volksbund's responsibility are in 46 countries (including Australia, Canada and the UK).

On a personal note, my grand uncle - a Luftwaffe airgunner who died at 23 years of age when his plane was shot down during an air raid on Malta - is buried at the war cemetery at Gagliari, Italy.

[HPL2008]

Also, not all the buried are disinterred.

A random example: The central German war cemetery for the UK is at Cannock Chase, England and was inaugurated in 1959. 2,143 casualties of WW1 and 2,797 of WW2 that had been previously buried in cemeteries around Great Britain and Northern Ireland were reburied there. (Most died in POW camps and in internment, others were KIA aircrew - both WW1 Zeppelin crews and WW2 aviators - or seamen washed ashore.)

Another 263 casualties of WW1 and 1,044 of WW2 are buried in war graves on British military cemeteries under the care of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and will remain there.

Furthermore, the cemeteries at Fort George in St. Peter Port on Guernsey with 111 fallen of WW2 and Brookwood with 8 of WW1 and 46 of WW2 will continue to be maintained.

(All data is according to the Volksbund's website, which has information on all of its cemeteries.)