Nordwind - Illegal excavation and ransacking of WWII shrines

There are more and more relic hunters in the northern Vosges (Eastern France) who are looking for treasures from the Second World War, which do not exist (apart from a few rusty relics or dangerous ammunition).

These people will stop at nothing. They follow the Facebook groups of American associations or forums by becoming members in an attempt to find information that could be useful to them in their nauseating research.
The excavations in the northern Vosges take on a catastrophic scale. Those people are called "scavengers". Lot of them are re-enactors who wear the uniforms of those who fought here, supposedly to honor them, but don't hesitate to search and destroy the foxholes where American soldiers had fought, where some died or disappeared. No respect for history, nor for those who wrote it (the Americans or the Germans).

A German soldier from the 6th SS mountain division was found by detectorists last July. They did not hesitate to strip him of all his personal belongings. These scavengers went so far as to break bones to remove his shoes. After their misdeeds, they covered the bones without telling anyone. However one of them felt remorse and went to report the soldier to a German military cemetery. But personal effects are still missing today.

This type of excavation also removes all historical and archaeological traces which could help to find positions, places of fighting, identify the troops who were on the ground etc ... In the area there are near 18 MIA (US soldiers from the 45th ID)

The police has started an investigation. Relics hunters have been summoned to undergo a judicial hearing. The case is being processed. In any case the law is strict and if the court is severe, they risk up to several years jail and several thousand Euros in fines (for having stripped a grave and stolen a dead).

 

That's absolutely disgusting.

 

Some examples. They film and post photos on social media.

 

Sign of the Times...As retail prices for WW2 memorabilia has greatly increased over the last 3 decades. The fines are less than the payoff for a good haul. Further, the collectors want their trinkets, so they are unlikely to turn the diggers in. Not to mention that it is very hard to police all of the battle sites - the manpower just is not there.

Business is business, and morality gets left by the wayside.

 

It's odd isn't it? If someone has a slouch hat, a whip and is named after a state etc provided that the dead are sufficiently long gone they can rob tombs without censure!

 

I do not understand. We cleaned the bombs etc 1945 so it is rare to find anything here.

 

So, be aware that the scavenger in question has just joined this forum. Just to say.

 

Tell it to the buyers. If they stop, the search for ww2 items ceases.

Anyway, it has been so log since ww2 that in Finland the medal etc prices have gone down to 33%of the prices ten years ago. Not worth the dime to find items in the ground and the prices keep collapsing, which I think is just good.

 

Certainly, but the buyers, as you know, will always be there and some will buy anything and everything, at any price.

But the root of the problem does not concern the resale of artefacts. The problem is that when these scavengers find the bones of MIA soldiers, they won't report them: because the use of a detector is forbidden in France. If they report the recovery of bones, they will have problems and therefore they will not say anything. But they'll steal anything of value to them and close the hole. These soldiers will have disappeared forever without any chance of identifying them one day.

I cannot imagine a single American citizen not attaching importance to this risk of definitive disappearance of one of the heroes of a war, because of a scavenger only interested in a collection sometimes acquired in a nauseating way.

 

The same governments that blundered and blustered their way into war now claim some phony reverance for the inevitable results. Maybe no hole in the ground should ever be dug again anywhere - just to make sure nothing is disturbed. No buildings, no water lines, no roads, no wind turbines.

The self-righteousness in preferring that artifacts rot away to nothing in the ground is nothing more than providing a protection racket for the academic class. And painting all with the same broad brush is a cheap trick. Morale outrage is another form of busybody-ism.

Amateurs do much more to discover and preserve history than the so-called professionals, even considering the bad apples.

 

I was hugely surprised hearing that in the US if you make a ww2 "original" item if you make it a bit different than the real thing, you are not forced to return the fake even if it cost a fortune. Is this true?? The buyer should know the details before buying something that is being sold as the real thing.