The Dread of Something after Death: Ownership, Excavation and Identification of World War II Axis Combatants in Europe

Summary

Human remains possess an indexical quality that references once-living people. Human bone may also serve as a symbolic representation of larger ideas such as honor, vengeance or injustice. As such, human remains, as evidence of past criminal actions, have the ability to bring communities together, but also to tear them apart. In regard to the remains of soldiers who perished in the European theater during World War II (WWII), the presence of remains may serve to reinforce the perceived moral failings and criminality of other communities. However, they may also underscore the idea of victimization, even among people who might also have been considered the perpetrators of atrocities. Among the German dead from WWII, the remains themselves have highlighted the mythologized suffering of the German soldiers―particularly in the East―at the close of WWII, while also serving as a terrible reminder of the pain caused to the myriad communities victimized by the Reich. Meanwhile, the excavation of potentially Italian or Austrian Axis combatants has proved more complicated because the discovery of these soldiers disrupts long established narratives of Italian and Austrian victimhood.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21170