Germany Still Locates 40,000 War Casualties a Year.

[Averageman]

Interesting Story;
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/germany-tracing-its-war-dead-from-world-war-ii-a-832063.html
The German War Graves Commission launched a campaign on Tuesday, the 67th anniversary of the end of World War II, to promote its online database as a way for relatives to trace missing soldiers. Some 40,000 are located and reburied each year across Eastern Europe and Russia -- where its teams still encounter hostility from locals who remember the murderous occupation.
Soldiers are identified by their dogtags or with the help of original army records showing the layout of burial sites.
"If we can identify one soldier, it makes it possible to identify neighboring graves where the remains may not have dogtags -- if we have records of who was buried where," said Kirchmeier.
The commission runs a total of 824 war cemeteries in 45 countries, containing a total 2.4 million dead. It employs some 9,000 voluntary workers and has a paid staff of 582.

I didn't know until a couple of years ago that my Grandfather had a brother that was lost on a bomber crew. It was one of those things they didn't talk about for a reason.
Although they were our enemy that has to be hard for the families.
What an anniversary.

[SteyrAUG]

I can understand finding missing remains and things like that. But if they were buried outside of Germany, probably best to just let them remain buried. You are just going to dig up old wounds otherwise.

I know of a small town in Japan where members of a US bomber crew are buried. They were buried respectfully so they were never sent home, at least as of 1974. Sadly that isn't typical of how the Japanese treated US war dead or POWs.

[soulezoo]

While that's a shocking number, it's totally believable. I would imagine that countries like Poland and even (or especially) Russia have a magnitude more like that.

[26 Inf]

My desire would be to remain buried with those who shared my last experiences.

As a result, I think that it would comfort me to know where, as an example, my grandfather was buried with his comrades in arms and visit him there if I felt the need.

JMO.

[soulezoo]

My desire would be to remain buried with those who shared my last experiences.

As a result, I think that it would comfort me to know where, as an example, my grandfather was buried with his comrades in arms and visit him there if I felt the need.

JMO.
I'm thinking that would depend greatly on that location. I've made a few trips to Hanoi on repatriation missions. I feel confident that those guys would be happy to know that they aren't in North Vietnam any longer and made it home to loved ones.

[SteyrAUG]

I'm thinking that would depend greatly on that location. I've made a few trips to Hanoi on repatriation missions. I feel confident that those guys would be happy to know that they aren't in North Vietnam any longer and made it home to loved ones.

I can understand both POV. I can even understand that Poland and Russia might not want those soldiers interred on their land. But generally, if there is no reason to do otherwise, best to let the dead remain where they are, especially if they were properly buried.

Now if you find the remains of a downed pilot in the jungle or guys found in a forest, by all means send them home for a proper burial. For Germany to do this almost glorifies their war dead who were invading other countries, it's kind of bad form.

Btw, thank you for bringing our guys back, in that example I'm confident they would feel as you do.

[Firefly]

I'm pretty sure that those POWs from Vietnam never got sent to Russia or China. I'm pretty sure they are all in a mass grave or ash.

All we got back were all we got and it is pretty sad.

[Averageman]

I've spoken to a couple of German WWII veterans. Both claimed to be conscripts one was German (Wehrmacht) the other was, I believe Czechoslovakian/German and SS, both had some pretty interesting tales to tell. In the end they were sad old men who had seen their lives pretty much ruined by the War.
I wouldn't have begrudged either of them a grave next to their kin, but my perspective was jaded by seeing these facts forty years after they happened.

[Dienekes]

“The past is never dead. It's not even past.”-- William Faulkner