I, for one, am glad to hear that these soldaten will finally get a proper resting place. I actually had a chance to visit a German war cemetary while I was visiting Germany back in '06. I was quite surprised how many graves simply read "Ein Deutsche Soldat". I suspect that many of these graves near Eger will read the same.

"Ich hatt einen Kameraden...."

German War Dead to Be Reburied in Czech Graves | Europe | Deutsche Welle | 27.05.2008

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Success is measured in blood; yours or your enemy's.

Not for nothing, but why aren't these remains being buried in Germany?
I just read about US efforts to relocate the remains of Marines buried on Tarawa back to the US, and we've all heard of the efforts to locate remains of Americans in Vietnam, but the goal always seems to be to return them to their families.
Is there a reason that these unburied remains aren't being returned to Germany for interment?

__________________
“The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine.”

Senator Thad Cochran, Mississippi (R)
on McCain

“I decided I didn’t want this guy anywhere near a trigger.”
Senator Pete Domenici, New Mexico (R)
on McCain

“My anger did not help my campaign ... People don’t like angry candidates very much.”

McCain on McCain

Well, the area of the Czech Republic they are going to be buried in used to be almost entirely German.

Still, you raise a good point.

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Success is measured in blood; yours or your enemy's.

tell me about it.....

from a shot I took at the german cemetary at Monte Cassino.

Attached Images

 

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Obama-e fungis nati homines....

Interesting question and I think the reason for those soldiers being buried in the Czech Republic is that probably many/most of them are "unkown" soldiers.

Where in Germany should we bury them, when we don't know their names?

Apart from that, many families only know the vague area of last engagement of their KIA and so German graves in the Czech republic, help those who want to be close to the place their family member probably has died.

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"bellum omnium contra omnes; atque in eo bello jus esse omnibus in omnia."
Thomas Hobbes

"Homo Homini Lupus"
Thomas Hobbes

Even if they are all unknown, what is known is that they are German, and it would seem appropriate to bring them to Germany and bury them in a German cemetery. It seems to me that burial near the battlefield where a soldier fell is a wartime thing, forced by transportation issues.

It's all symbolic, and maybe the burial in the Czech Republic symbolizes the end of hostile feelings and a kind of European harmony, that these soldiers are home anywhere in Europe.

__________________
“The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine.”

Senator Thad Cochran, Mississippi (R)
on McCain

“I decided I didn’t want this guy anywhere near a trigger.”
Senator Pete Domenici, New Mexico (R)
on McCain

“My anger did not help my campaign ... People don’t like angry candidates very much.”

McCain on McCain

I'm only putting out an educated guess here, but tradition might have something to do with it.

Many services--then or now--have had the tradition to bury servicemen where they made their supreme sacrifice. Today's increased travel has made repatriation of remains an easier task plus accomodating such requests of any family wishes, but it's a pretty prevalent tradition.

For example, to cite a bit of trivia, if one goes to the North Carolina Outer Banks for a holiday, that area was known as 'Torpedo Junction' during WWII given very heavy U-boat action, especially in 1942 during the height of the Battle of the Atlantic.

On Ocracoke Island there are two gavesites called 'The British Cemetery' where the remains of British naval and merchant marine sailors lie in rest. The gravesites are controlled by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission by permanent lease so long as it remains a British cemetery, making it the only land apart from British Embassy land that is technically under British jurisdiction in the US. Off the coast lie all sorts of Allied ships and German U-boats. The remains of any servicemen on these vessels are technically considered war graves. Even the German government plays a role in assuring that divers do not disturb any remains that may be found.

This situation above has been true all over the US. Recovered remains were buried and cared for on shore and have respectfully remained so. Offshore remains are likewise treated as war graves and due respect given to any entombed there.

Going back further, there are plenty of Revolutionary War graves in my area (the Philadelphia area) and today the British ones are cared for just like the American ones (fenced, Union Jacks, mowed and minded, etc).

That may have been why the traditions started--in past years bodies rarely could be sent home. However, even today when they can be reinterred and their identities are known and marked on gravestones, they are left where they fell. For example, many of the British seamen who fell in WWII are known and marked, but yet here they remain.

Around the world, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission cares for cemeteries of British Commonwealth casualties of British Commonwealth nations from numerous conflicts.

The US has gravesites in many nations too from past conflicts. The Normandy graveyard is but one example. The Germans have them too as do the Japanese, etc.

So, it seems a very common practice to leave remains where the servicemen fell and that the hosts care for them in conjuction with the nation that lost their servicemen. Lying with their fallen mates at the spot where they made their supreme sacrifice certainly has powerful resonance to recommend it even with today's technologies making repatriation of remains an easy task.

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Around 200,000 Irish immigrants served in the Union and Confederate armies in the American Civil War, often forming their own regiments and, at times, fought each other. At Fredericksburg, the Union’s Irish Brigade faced the Irish McMillan's Guards of Cobb's 24th Georgia entrenched in a sunken road behind a stone wall. Ordered to make a suicidal charge, it became one of the most famous events of the Civil War. The re-enactment portrayed in the movie Gods and Generals:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qVCxEupPag

That is a very informative post. The honoring of war dead is a very emotional issue, even many years after the fact. There is a great dissatisfaction among some sectors that fallen Confederate soldiers are honored at all. I understand that some are even wanting them removed from national cemeteries.

There is an effort by one DAR to decorate the graves of two black soldiers who fought in the Revolution. There is resistance because they were directed by their master to do so. This particular logic would disqualify anyone who had ever been drafted from being honored, IMNSHO.

Thanks, and yours too. I did not know about the black Revolutionary War soldier issue you mentioned.

It is a sensitive issue, and for good reason. As for the Confederate veterans, I believe they should get their due honours. In the US, we tend the graves of German POWs who died in captivity, U-boat crew casualties whose bodies were recovered and buried, etc, so I see no legitimate reason not to tend to Confederate ones, especially given they are an integral part of the American history and their cause, whilst supportive of slavery and secession, was far less controversial than that of Nazi Germany. All these people died doing what they thought was their duty to their home. It shouldn't be politicised with political correctness.

Even the victors of those seen as the 'good guys' in wars, if PC is taken to its full measure, had things to apologise for in today's understandings. For example, the US during WWII had a segregated military service and Jim Crow at home, the British and French held an empire that held others forcefully ensnared and exploited in it, some people considered heroes fought very controversially by today's standards, etc.

The 'victor's arrogance' is certainly the least to excuse IMO. Here in PA, there are Revolutionary and Civil War battle sites with graves.

American grave sites are given all due honours. But, so are the British ones. Their graves are marked and tended. Many American loyalists are buried with them having served in the British Army. They too felt they were serving what they viewed as their country, i.e., the American colonies rightfully being under the British Crown. Even German flags are placed on it to recognise the Hessians buried with them who were hired out by King George III.

In and around the Battle of Gettysburg site and its related skirmish sites, the same thing happens with the losses incurred by both sides. The history and its dead is given its due respect.

This is really sad. I looked for a link on it but couldn't find one. If you can find one, I'd appreciate it because it is quite disgusting.

And your logic is dead on--a great number of people would get disqualified under that kind of logic. People long served due to things like a draft, being hired, etc. So what--they served and did their duty and died doing it.

Many American blacks in the American Revolution did serve because their masters ordered them to do so. It was so commonplace that even the Mel Gibson movie, The Patriot, featured such a 'signed over' slave character, Occam, as a subtheme in the characters at issue:



Signing over slaves for service happened on both sides, both for the rebels and loyalists who owned them. Many black freemen served voluntarily. Other fugitive or captured slaves served because they were told they could earn their freedom if they joined their service. This was particularly true in the British Army and it was the Revolutionary one that was reluctant to make such offers of freedom or even show any willingness to allow blacks to serve at all. The movie The Patriot also pointed that fact out through its British characters.

In the Battle of Monmouth, NJ, it is estimated that 8% of the American Army was black, some being slaves whose masters lent them to serve, others serving to obtain freedom, and others serving voluntarily.

Any particular DAR people advocating that any black soldiers who served because their masters signed them over for duty ought to be denied their due honours ought to be ashamed of themselves and do some serious self-reflection about how twisted, unjust and malignant their position is.

They should be forever grateful that these slaves who died in action served and helped obtain their very freedom that their own ancestors (being DAR members) were seeking only for themselves and wished to deny and/or enslave such people like those dead men. They have their whole compasss ass-backwards in a malignant manner that does not fit the very purpose of why the organisation was founded in the first place.

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Around 200,000 Irish immigrants served in the Union and Confederate armies in the American Civil War, often forming their own regiments and, at times, fought each other. At Fredericksburg, the Union’s Irish Brigade faced the Irish McMillan's Guards of Cobb's 24th Georgia entrenched in a sunken road behind a stone wall. Ordered to make a suicidal charge, it became one of the most famous events of the Civil War. The re-enactment portrayed in the movie Gods and Generals:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qVCxEupPag

Up until the US Civil war, it was the universal practice to bury the dead close to the battlefield.
With the invention of embalming, many of the civil war dead were shipped back to their homes for burial.
US war dead in the World Wars were buried near the battlefield, because transportation of the remains would have taken up valuable transport.
During Vietnam, transport was not an issue, and the dead were repatriated.
These remains are not interred, so shipping them back, and interring them in a German war cemetery would seem like the logical thing to do, the symbolism of the homecoming after so many years, even for the remains of the unknown, might be a comfort for those whose family members never returned.
I am certain that if unburied US remains were found, they would be returned to the US.
You might be right about burial near the field of battle as a cultural thing, where US culture is more attuned to homecoming.

__________________
“The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine.”

Senator Thad Cochran, Mississippi (R)
on McCain

“I decided I didn’t want this guy anywhere near a trigger.”
Senator Pete Domenici, New Mexico (R)
on McCain

“My anger did not help my campaign ... People don’t like angry candidates very much.”

McCain on McCain

It looks like these poor guys may have had a long trip; in fact, it may have taken them longer to be buried than they lasted in life.

Remains of 4,000 German war dead stored in crates in Usti factory - 21-03-2006 13:10 UTC - Radio Prague

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Election 2008 – Addicted to Placebos