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NAZI war diggers on National Geographic


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National Geographic is about to release a new show called NAZI war diggers.... from what has been previewed it has legitimate archaeologist, historians and collectors up in arms. Tony Pollard at Glasgow University Centre of Battlefield Archaeology is leading a very public campaign against this Hollywood approach to "protecting" history which disregards all respect for history and the dead.

 

http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/outrage-national-geographic-channel-historians-digging-second-world-war-graves.html

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2591894/Fury-National-Geographic-channel-historians-digging-Second-World-War-graves.html

 

considering this is National Geographic who have been for decades a trusted source to understand the world, I would expect far better from them.

 

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This is pretty disgusting ,I have no problem with these sort of digs when done by bona fide archaeologists and the remains properly repatriated to families or their native countries.

 

Not seen the show, if it is done properly that would not be so bad but to me it looks like it is taking TV entertainment a bit too far .Not surprised to see Craig Gottlieb is involved ,would probably have been his idea , my respect for this man vanished a long time ago.

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agreed Kenny, Craig rather annoys me, any true collector would not be running about the way he is - he cares more for the item (or rather the value of the item) than the actual history and correct preservation. Further when you see the long list of 'amazing' items he was uncovered - there are professional historians who in 70 years have not unearthed the number of items he has... so he is either incredibly lucky with a large purse, or something is very very fishy about his operation.

 

Sad thing is, shows like this will both boost interest in collecting and business for you Kenny, but also can give you a bad reputation by fools associating all sellers as the same for 'profit care nothing about history' when the show is taken out and beaten by legit collectors.

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A license should be needed to go dig things up the way Mr. Gottleib is doing... most countries have very strict rules about this but several don't and it either need to be sorted by them or possibly the EU - the EU has license on who can produce and sell everything from fish to sausage yet nothing to protect from idiots digging stuff up. I think he was digging in Latvia which clearly doesn't care much.

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I agree Greg :thumbsup: there is also a big market for people who dig up graves and sell the items as collectors items , ebay is filled with these items ,totally disgusting , we get offered them all the time described as relics, who would want something in their collection which has come out a grave ? This TV show will probably encourage other people to do this too.

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National Geographic have pulled the trailer for the show but it can still be seen here at the end of this clip.

 

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would have been great to see them dig up a tank or something but graves are a bit much and in very poor taste.

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three idiots with a shovel have no chance of digging up a tank.... besides they'd get it wrong and be calling it a Japanese Chi-Ha on lend lease from Japan

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The moment I saw the soldiers remains just being tossed around like an old gun or medal I just felt sick. Disgusting TV show, I still cannot believe Nat Geo would fund such a thing! I never had them down as the bad guys of TV.

It makes the real archaeologists who give these soldiers real burials after finding them, look bad.

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Never watched the channel, but as an avid fan of time team who always seem to turn up plenty of skeletons, the dig stops

and the expert bone archaeologists are brought in to remove them properly. Sounds a disgusting disrespectful show.

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Here's a follow up video made just before the cancellation was anounced

 

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Never watched the channel, but as an avid fan of time team who always seem to turn up plenty of skeletons, the dig stops

and the expert bone archaeologists are brought in to remove them properly. Sounds a disgusting disrespectful show.

Yeah Time Team actually do things correct, but they also have professional archeologists which is something this team NEVER had. Even if they had one as a consultant, but not showing them in the shoot it disregards professional opinion and requirement and instead says it is fine for anyone to dig up bodies.

 

Time Team did an excellent special on WWI Trenches not long ago - highly recommended to see how to correctly dig a battlefield!

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The Time Team WW1 special was absolutely brilliant. I am not so much into the pre-WW1 shows, simply as that era doesn't interest me as much but I have great respect for the show. They also did one on the Channel Islands in WW2, that also was a great bit of TV. Hope they do some more on WW1/WW2 soon.

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The man is a twat full of his own self importance with a sprinkling of wee man syndrom. His last outing turned up the mengele passport what next eva braun panties.

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You know he would wear those and not sell them!

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  • 1 year later...

Very sad. The German Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge or War Graves Commission, has been searching the former battlefields of Russia and Eastern Europe since the fall of the Iron Curtain, with volunteers and some local help. The assocaiton is funded by public spending only and the German Government does only contribute very little, and probably less in the last few years. It has been appalling to see what has happened on the battlefields. Graves have been opened, plundered, and the remains scattered. People in Eastern Europe have been trading in dogtags !Erkennungsmarken, which are vital for identification of remains. Many remains have therefore been reburied in since establisehd War Cemeteries as unidentified. There have been warnings not to buy soldiers dogtags from doubtfull sources, especially when these are escavated items often on offer in e-bay from dubious sources. Unfortunately there is no legal enforcement in this case. There have been horrifying reports as to how remains of fallen soldiers have been treated in the past years. There were also recent reports in the press about how in Eastern Europe, especially Königsberg, old German gravestones before 1939 have been removed and abused as stones for building garden walls by the present day Russian piopulation, who were settled in these regions after the Germans were expelled by force at the end of the war.

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The series actually showed on channel 5 last week but now renamed "Battlefield recovery" I watched it and found it quite interesting however the sceptic in me wondered if some of the items they found such as the mint k98 bayonet actually came from the dig and not their car boot <_<

 

Also was uncanny that the black car in the distance watching them was supposedly black diggers waiting to rob the trench once they had left <_<

 

The archeologists are still not happy about it either complaining about the way live amunition was handled and the safety aspects in general.

 

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  • 1 month later...

Hyped up for TV, just like pawn stars etc. Grave robbers as said before unless the remains are removed for a proper burial and not for profiteering.

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