The Hell where Youth and Laughter go - WWII German cemetery exhumation

A hundred and fifty two German soldiers killed on the Eastern Front are exhumed from a village cemetery where they had been lying in unmarked and forgotten graves since 1945. Of note were two bodies with amputations, some bodies with splints and tourniquets, bodies with severe war wounds, numerous ID tags as well as a few wedding or military rings. The bodies were exhumed in order to be reburied in a large centralised German military cemetery under the care of the Volksbund.

Exhumation de soldats allemands tués en 1945 sur le front de l'est afin de transférer leur corps dans un cimetière militaire.

Ausbettung von Deutsche Soldaten die in 1945 an der Ostfront gefallen sind.

A Crocodile Tears production documentary

Some of the more thoughtfull comments:

"Somebody loved each of these skeletons and cried when they didn’t come home. Very sad."

"mangled bones, horrific fractures, holes, splintered sculls and permanent grimaces of pain...this is what wars are all about..."

"War, you start out young and strong off to serve your country and end up seventy five years later as a collection of dirty shattered bones in a garbage bag. What's left of you was dug out of some obscure foreign graveyard to be taken to a clean military cemetery with flags flying and patriotic words on marble signs. All of it to deflect from the senseless waste and suffering of war . and try to make right the life that was taken from you."

"We all learn about war, especially ww2 in school. We all have specific picture in our head of how it must have looked like. But seeing theese pictures right here, dead soldierd just lying there and looking up to the sky. This picture alone tears apart my whole point of view. All these wounds, the pain and horror is unfiltered visably and shows you how grose all this is. People dying in the most brutal ways just for politics… i just cant get this in my head…"

"When I was in school, we had always thought of the German WW2 soldiers as evil and sub human... this is an excellent video showing that they were men, the same as everyone else. The one that had been married just prior to the war tugged at my heart."

battlefield archaeology - identification tag - dog tag - mass grave - metal detecting - plaque d'identité - erkennungsmarke - 1944 - wehrmacht - red army - nazi - hitler - partisans - gunshot wound - shrapnel wound - fragmentation - blast - war surgery - forensic medicine - 1939-45 -détection - prospection - Dulce et decorum est, pro patria mori - meatgrinder - cannon fodder

[MGood-ijhi]

War, you start out young and strong off to serve your country and end up seventy five years later as a collection of dirty shattered bones in a garbage bag. What's left of you was dug out of some obscure foreign graveyard to be taken to a clean military cemetery with flags flying and patriotic words on marble signs. All of it to deflect from the senseless waste and suffering of war . and try to make right the life that was taken from you.

[zombiemom]

Somebody loved each of these skeletons and cried when they didn’t come home. Very sad.

[barngirlhannahhannahstewar]

It’s so crazy to think about how all these skeletons were once living and breathing. They all have unique stories to tell. They all have family’s. They have all seen and experienced so much. All the information and knowledge that we will never be able to get from them.

[occidolumen]

In a village in Romania there is a 98 years old woman who still waits her husband to return from the second world war. She just refuses to believe he is dead cause she didn't see his body.

[stratvm]

imagine the hell of war. untold number of soldiers tossed in unmarked graves like faceless biomass.

[zzzleepyhead]

Just came in for a quick peek and stayed for the whole thing. The amount of respect and professionalism you all have during digs like this is amazing. That comment at the end of the woman’s grave really struck me…Can’t wait to watch more.

[davef]

My Grandfather was a young doctor at the eastern front, he said he amputated arms and legs all day long. After he gets a shot at the helmet at the front Lines he was injured badly and gets home. Till the end of his life you could feel shrapnels under his head skin. He dies in 2011 with 94years. At his funeral they came hundreds of people for saying goodbye. He gets a brillant Surgeon after the War and saved many lives.

[JStryker]

The sad part about seeing the splints/tourniquets is that it shows the person initially survived and doctors/medics tried to save them but ultimately failed

[HRHooChicken]

I can't describe why but it really hits deep seeing skeletons with evidence of emergency first aid. Like you're in a small way transported back to their final minutes with their comrades trying to save them.

[margaretWestminster]

The pain these young men went through is heartbreaking.all wars are dreadful. You made a wonderful record for these former soldiers. I hope the wedding ring was able to go back to his bride. Thank you so much

[alq]

I feel so bad for these soldiers, and for all soldiers no matter where they're from, fighting a war they didn't cause, and dying for other men's greed.

[iWaterBuffalo]

I loved when you spoke to the older gentleman who witnessed what happened. And the fact that the evidence you found (tourniquets, splints, amputation) absolutely backs up his first-hand account.

[RepublicD]

It's good that you guys are being respectful, and that these fallen soldiers will get a more dignified final resting place.

[fdlman]

When he pulled out the ring with a finger still in it at 28:24 my heart broke. I saw myself, and thousands of other young men, who left wives, children, and homeland, never to return.

[philharmonicwittgenstein]

I served for 20 years full time service in the Australian Army. I joke that I joined in the greatest outbreak of peace in our history.. I didn't deploy to Afghanistan with my friends because I was discharged by then. They didn't face anything like the horror of the Eastern Front in WWII but they still came back very changed men. When I look at your videos and run that with the history I have read about the warfare in that region, your videos detail so much more for those who are unable to comprehend what actually happens when men fight each other with terrible weapons.
Your work is so valuable and it also is hard for people to understand. God bless you all for the things you do. I will sit with wet eyes and a heavy heart.

[billybop]

My uncle is buried in a war grave in Eritrea, in a way he was lucky as his remains were exhumed near the battle site after the war and reburied in a commonwealth war cemetery with a gravestone to mark his resting place.
All these boys deserve the same respect.

[cookingstarlady]

I appreciate your candid, factual explanations because it’s important to hear and see the horror of war in this way. But I also appreciate the empathy and respect threaded in because you dignify and humanize this process. Thank you for doing this over and over and not losing that compassion. It’s heartbreaking to see this and imagine the pain that was suffered but I think we need to remember this. Thank you for your channel.

[andreaohne]

I am from Germany and both my granddads were in WWII. My Dad's Dad was wounded earlier on in Russia (Wjasma/Brjansk) by a shrapnell at his right hand, which left him disabled but he was "okay" with it. The last years of his life he would tell us some things of the war and sometimes cry. This was heartbreaking. My Mom's Dad was responsible for the horses that carried heavy...things. He loved these animals dearly (I inherited his love for animals and passed it to my son). Some of these poor creatures blew up in front of him to bits and pieces. He was in russian captivity (is this the right Word?) for some years. When he would hear marching music at any place he would salute, with his right hand to his temple (not the nazi salute, thank god). He was far away then...
And history repeats and repeats itself.
Thank you and the people working to recover these pour souls and bring them to a proper burial place! They were sons, brothers, dads and husbands after all.
I hope this does not sound all to stupid or anything.

[gerlagerweij]

If anyone's wondering where the title's from:

"I knew a simple soldier boy
Who grinned at life in empty joy,
Slept soundly through the lonesome dark,
And whistled early with the lark.

In winter trenches, cowed and glum
With crumps and lice and lack of rum,
He put a bullet through his brain.
No one spoke of him again.

You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you’ll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go."

-Siegfried Sassoon-

[rickwheeler]

I’m an American Vet who served in Hanau, Germany in 1986-1988.
I made many German friends and respect all people in the utmost love.
Thank you for your hard work giving these soldiers marked graves and respect while exhuming their remains.
❤