Germany is still diligently looking for its fallen soldiers 80 years after World War II.

In a forest near Berlin, 107 wreckages were buried in Solle last week. Students placed white gerbera flowers on small black fins, and leaned them concerning the largely dug tombs of German soldiers. position. The gesture of memory was part of a long, complicated, and sometimes controversial effort 80 years after the war, and Nazi Germany began to record German deaths. That's not over yet - there is still a lot of work to identify the deaths and notify surviving families.

All over Europe, under forests, fields, and old arable land, ruins of German soldiers are still discovered, excavated, inventoried, and inventoried by a nonprofit organization called the Volksbund Deutsche Warbräberfürsorge or the German War Graves Committee. As the world begins this week on the 80th anniversary of the War, the ongoing search is a reminder that the legacy of the conflict is not only historical or political, but also physical and unfinished, and still unfolding in the soils on the surface of Europe.

"It's very important that this is still happening," said Martina Sager, 57, whose grandfather was found and buried several years ago. Seiger and his family make sense to take part in the burial of other soldiers who died in the Battle of Halbe in 1945. It is as close as possible to reach the funeral of my grandfather, Werna Novak.

Novak was 21 years old when he was killed. He was already injured and sent back to Berlin. He intended to marry his pregnant fiancée and wanted a more peaceful future, Sager said. Instead, he was back in battle.

The process of finding and identifying the lost ruins in the War Disturbance is slow; many of the missing people were rushed to be buried during retreats or battles. Some websites are vaguely reminded and carried over by local knowledge. Others are out of range under modern infrastructure or frontlines in eastern Ukraine.

Nonetheless, Volksbund worked, searching for hints on old battlefields in Europe, and checking for missing lists of old military cards and soldiers. This work continues in western Ukraine, apart from the fierce battles in the east of the country.

If possible, this organization will bring bodies to cemeteries held, especially for German soldiers who have died overseas. It says his goal is humanism. All those who died in the war will receive a valuable funeral, regardless of the role they played.

This includes soldiers who served in the army who were responsible for some of the worst atrocities of the 20th century. Volksbund Framework is not to honor those who fell, but to identify them and not disappear to the ground without a name.

Missing father

Wolfgang Bartsch, 83, stood on a small hill near the tomb that had opened when the soldier's bones rested. Badsch never died in Russia, where he died in January 1942. He was only three weeks away. A few days ago, his mother was killed in an Allied bomb attack on Berlin. He was raised by his grandmother, but he was constantly in pain without his parents growing up.

"My father is buried somewhere in the unknown tomb of Oryor, Russia," he said. "The Volksbund knows that many settlements were built on these graves, so they will never be able to regain their bones."

Volksbund estimates that more than two million German soldiers are not considered. Over the past 30 years, Volksband has recovered and recovered 1 million bodies since its previous access to the regional Eastern Bloc.

Controversial work in parts of Europe. However, many people accept that efforts to find the dead could help close this chapter of history. "We don't want to rule out the possibility that there may be many war criminals in the tomb of war, and we know that some of them have proven that they have committed the most difficult war crimes."

"There is a human fate behind all the dead, and that is our main focus," he said. "If you stand in front of the grave of a young Wehrmacht soldier, age 18, of course, ask yourself if he may have other life plans and have different dreams than giving his life to be a criminal at the age of 18."

weeks before the funeral in Halbe, a Polish city employee and local Polish archaeologists excavated in a Polish cemetery for the remains of German soldiers. The skeleton was documented on this day, March 19th, with all the bones sealed in black bags. The dog tags were preserved in the hopes that one day the remains could be identified. The group is expected to resume them later this year at military ceremonies in Poland.

You deserve to be buried.

However, he stated that the work was morally important and discovered important scientific information. "These are people too, and they earn funerals," Karol said.

In contrast to the post-war period, only a few families are actively searching for lost relatives. In many cases, emotional and generational distances are too large. No one remembers missing, and the need to close has faded over time.