official statements

[Elisa]

As the other thread got into a rather personal discussion, I will put my latest "finding" about the grave diggers into a new thread. Hope the administtrator will tolerate that.

Someone in Norway found this, no need to comment on it (from my side).

The link: http://www.sundayherald.com/36208


Russian gangs cash in on gruesome trade

As demand for Nazi war memorabilia soars, Russian grave-robbers are cashing in. Gabriel Ronay reports

Russian grave robbers have turned ?trawling? second world war cemeteries and battlefields into an organised and lucrative business.
As President Putin was putting St Petersburg in the world?s eye, entertaining 50 heads of state during the recent 300th anniversary celebrations of the founding of Peter the Great?s city, war trophy hunters were busy trawling the stinking Demyansky marshes near Novgorod for the personal possessions, now treasured as memorabilia, dumped there by the German army after the lifting of the siege of Leningrad in 1944.

With demand for Nazi army memorabilia rising, and millions of tonnes of the war?s detritus still rusting in the fields of Russia, the ancient industry of grave-robbing has given way to a highly organised trade.

Nazi insignia, rusting belt buckles displaying the SS motto ?Meine Ehre heisst treue? (My honour is loyalty), SS daggers and Wehrmacht decorations retrieved from mass graves will now fetch between £30 and £50 on the main war memorabilia circuits of Germany and the United States. This is big money in Russia where average monthly earnings do not exceed £75.

With collector interest high, old bunkers and filled-in trenches are scoured for soldiers? letters, identity papers, badges and most army issue items, even tins of anti-bedbug powder. But the thousands of mass graves of German, Italian, Hungarian and Romanian soldiers killed on the Russian steppes remain the main sources of the war memorabilia trade. The desecration of war graves has become a run-of-the-mill occurrence.

The ?black searchers?, as the grave robbers of north and central Russia style themselves, are a ruthless bunch. A forest cemetery of Italian soldiers killed in the battle of Voronezh in 1943 has been plundered. After the raid, the decapitated skeletons of some 200 Italian soldiers were found by the authorities near a mass grave. The black searchers had removed the skulls to extract the soldiers? gold teeth at leisure.

The art of grave robbing has a long tradition in Russia. What used to be small-scale local enterprise in the wake of battles, became something quite different following the carnage of the second world war. Wounded soldiers of both sides were often ?finished off? by destitute peasants for their boots, greatcoats or just bread rations.

Under Stalin?s corrupt heirs, the search for wartime relics gained a new lease of life and, after the collapse of communism, under President Yeltsin?s chaotic regime, organised gangs ?privatised? it. Soon grave plundering became a properly regulated enterprise, guided by accountants? criteria.

Black searcher gangs rely on computer-enhanced battle charts and databases and employ qualified surveyors to pinpoint promising war graves. With five million Germans and their allies killed on the eastern front, there appears to be a virtually unlimited supply of graves to rob.

According to Moscow sources, the organised Nazi memorabilia trade is divided among a number of specialised crime syndicates.

The collectors are the main grave robbers, and employ local scouts to dig for them. Middlemen take the salvaged war relics to the big cities of Russia, where the local markets are concentrated. Well-educated reps working in western Europe and the US can expect incentive bonuses for expanding the market.

The driving force behind the despoliation of historic battlefields are the ?trophymen?. Their main tool is the metal detector, but they suffer high casualty rates because of unstable ordnance on the field.

The ?omnivors? are the poor relations who ?hoover up? everything they can find in war graves, while the undisputed gentlemen of the trophy hunter fraternity are the ?underwater pirates?. As former Soviet navy divers, they refuse to plunder ships declared war graves.

Russia?s trophy hunters have turned grave robbing into a high-paying business. But because of the soaring demand, the mortal remains of millions of dead soldiers are at risk.

[Indrid]

amazing. people would do anythinng for money. and i believe that if caught they could claim that the german soldiers simply deserved this, because of what they have done....
damn