Russians plunder German war dead

Berlin

Treasure-hunters in southern Russia are stealing medals, insignia, and other artifacts off the corpses of Nazi soldiers, German authorities announced. Such booty fetches a tempting price on the black market. A single Iron Cross can sell for $50, nearly half the average monthly wage in the impoverished Caucasus region. Most of the German cemeteries in Russia—where some 150,000 Wehrmacht soldiers lie buried—have already been looted, and unmarked mass graves are now being targeted. The German Commission for the Care of War Graves said Russians scour the countryside with metal detectors, searching for soldiers’ remains. “It’s become something of a weekend sport to desecrate the graves in the hunt for souvenirs,” a commission official told Der Spiegel.

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