Spuren = Traces

Millions killed

During the Second World War, millions of German soldiers were deployed to the Eastern Front to combat the Soviet threat. The war had its its horrifying, canonised episodes like ‘Stalingrad’ and ‘Leningrad’ and, in addition, thousands of battlefields and conflicts, that are less well known in which a great many soldiers lost their lives. In the Soviet Union alone, there are an estimated 2.2 million German war casualties with death and grave notification is known for only 1.8 million. The Wehrmacht (German armed forces) was able to maintain a high degree of organisation despite the extremely difficult conditions they faced. Amidst the chaos of the battlefields the wounded were cared for and the dead were buried. The Wehrmacht took precise notes of the lay-out of each war cemetery. The name, id number, cause of death and grave number of each soldier buried was documented. However, if they were still in active combat zone they were sometimes forced to abandon the soldiers who had been killed. These soldiers were either buried without being registered or were left to be buried in a mass grave by others. A large number of these soldiers are still, even now, considered to be missing in action.