UKRAINE: AUTHORITIES PREPARE TO REBURY REMAINS OF GERMAN SOLDIERS KILLED DURING WORLD WAR TWO.

Record ID: 639937

  • Title: UKRAINE: AUTHORITIES PREPARE TO REBURY REMAINS OF GERMAN SOLDIERS KILLED DURING WORLD WAR TWO.
  • Date: 4th July 1998
  • Summary: POTELICH, UKRAINE (JULY 2, 1998) (RTV-ACCESS ALL) 1. GV: ENTRANCE TO CEMETERY 0.05 2. GV: HEADSTONES AND CROSS COMMEMORATING GERMAN WAR DEAD (2 SHOTS) 0.17 3. MV/CU: MEMORIAL PLAQUE TO GERMAN WAR DEAD/ CHILDREN PLACING FLOWERS ON PLAQUE (2 SHOTS) 0.32 4. GV: WIDE OF CEMETERY 0.38 5. GV/CU: NATALYA KOSMOLINSKAYA OF 'POSHUK' (SEARCH) REASSEMBLING THE BONES OF A GERMAN SOLDIER/ SHOWING HIS DOG TAG (3 SHOTS) 1.02 6. MV: KOSMOLINSKAYA SAYING USUALLY DURING THE FUNERAL THE COMMANDER WOULD SPLIT THE DOG TAG IN TWO -- ONE PART TO BE BURIED WITH THE BODY, ONE PART TO BE ARCHIVED. HERE YOU CAN SEE THAT THIS DOG TAG IS WHOLE. THAT MEANS THAT THIS SOLDIER WAS LISTED AS MISSING (UKRAINIAN) 1.12 7. GV: SHED CONTAINING THE REMAINS OF 137 GERMAN SOLDIERS/ REMAINS STORED IN PLASTIC BAGS (2 SHOTS) 1.22 8. GV/MV: WORKER MOVING BAGS OF REMAINS (4 SHOTS) 1.50 LVIV, UKRAINE (JULY 2)(RTV-ACCESS ALL) 9. SV/CU: 'POSHUK' (SEARCH) DIRECTOR INNA FEDUSHCHAK IN HER OFFICE/ LOOKING AT ARCHIVAL PHOTOGRAPHS AND DOCUMENTS (2 SHOTS) 2.03 10. CU: FEDUSHCHAK SAYING: IF IT HAD BEEN A FEW WEEKS OR MONTHS EARLIER WE COULD HAVE FOUND THE GRAVE. SO REALLY, WE CAN'T POSTPONE THIS, OR WE MAY LOSE MANY OTHERS FOREVER (UKRAINIAN) 2.15 11. GV/PAN/MV/CU: GRAVES OF GERMAN WAR DEAD IN LVIV CEMETERY (3 SHOTS) 2.39 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 19th July 1998 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: POTELICH AND LVIV, UKRAINE
  • City:
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Reuters ID: LVABG4XZOXK91O4K265LFWSJCBKJ
  • Story Text: Ukraine has begun preparations to rebury the remains of thousands of German soldiers killed on the eastern front during World War Two.

    Working together with and funded by Germany's Union for the Examination of War Graves, the Ukrainian organisation 'Poshuk', or 'Search', has spent the last four years tracking down the remains of thousands of German soldiers killed during World War Two.

    Around 50,000 German soldiers are buried across Ukraine, some in cemeteries but many in mass graves.Others have been traced to unmarked single graves located in isolated villages.

    Many of the remains will be reburied in August in a new cemetery for German war dead in the town of Potelich, some 75 kilometres west of the city of Lviv.

    Several hundred soldiers have already been buried here, and over one hundred more are already in storage at the cemetery awaiting interment.Authorities expect to eventually rebury 10,000 soldiers at Potelich.

    Potelich is the third memorial cemetary for German war dead established in Ukraine.Kiev and Kharkiv each have one, with two more planned for Sevastopol and Kirovohrad.The German government has provided all the funding for the cemeteries.

    Despite Poshuk's painstaking research, the cemeteries are not likely to account for all of the German soldiers who died in Ukraine during World War Two.In some cases whole German divisions were buried in mass graves by Soviet troops.


  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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