The Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 is a terrible grief, the wounds from which are still bleeding. In those terrible years, the total human losses in our country are estimated at approximately 25 million people, 11 million of which were soldiers. Of these, approximately six million are considered "officially" dead.
In this case, it is believed that relatives somehow know where their loved one died and is buried. All the rest are missing/captured and never returned from it. The statistics are terrible. Not only have we lost so many soldiers, we have no idea where half of them are! Be that as it may, the relatives of the dead and missing do not despair and continue to search. For which they praise.
But how to find a dead soldier in the Second World War, especially if you have no decent experience in this? In this article, we have collected the most general recommendations, which, nevertheless, can help you in this difficult matter. By the way, the found remains of German soldiersare recognized in Germany according to approximately the same algorithm. Of course, adjusted for more accurate and complete information from the archives.
Things to remember
Firstly, immediately tune in to hard and painstaking work. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, at least 40 thousand people went missing in Russia in 2004 alone! Just think about these numbers: in the age of digital technology, total tracking of credit cards, train and plane tickets, people "manage" to disappear on a truly industrial scale. Many of them are never found.
Now think about how difficult it is to find a person who disappeared in the midst of hostilities (especially in the initial period of the war). So don't be discouraged when you experience the first difficulties.
Getting Started
You must clearly know the name, surname and patronymic. Since it can be very difficult to find a dead soldier in the Second World War, you must remember these data especially clearly. Try to remember: didn’t the person have a habit of somehow changing his name or surname? It happens that because of this soldier they could not be found for several decades, until quite by chance they remembered that Elisha called himself Alexei, Prokofy in the hands of a clerk turned into Peter …
If a person's surname could be perceived incorrectly by ear, look for among all more or less suitable options. So, Carriers may well be Perevoshchikov. In a word, finding a WWII soldier can be very difficult.
Other initial information
In addition, you needknow where and when the person was called. As a rule, this data is relatively easy to find. If there are at least some letters, postcards, official documents of those years in which the unit in which the soldier fought was mentioned, collect them all. Put it on the map, trace the route of the military unit, check with official sources. So you can find a WWII soldier, having only the most general information.
Of course, it is difficult to say when the person from whom the letters stopped coming died: it is quite possible that the postal service simply failed, and the soldier was alive for several more months, during which the unit managed to walk many hundreds of kilometers. But in some cases, such a search yields results.
Pay special attention to the fact of severe injuries. It is known that a lot of people died from wounds. As a rule, they were buried in sanitary burials in the immediate vicinity of the hospital. Sometimes documents about the fact of burial were preserved, and sometimes not. To put it simply, if the last letter from a soldier came from the hospital, when the man was writing about his injury, it is quite possible that he died there.
Alas, but in this case you will have to upset: it is very difficult to look for such burial places. We'll have to rummage through the archives and track the route of a particular military field hospital. First, it is very long and difficult. Secondly, there are few guarantees of success. And further. Most often, soldiers were buried en masse in sanitary burials, and often in one underwear. No medallions, no marks onmap… So often you can only rely on a more or less exact burial place.
Type of troops
Oddly enough, this information is often given the latest meaning. Attention! Before you find a dead soldier in the Second World War, find out as accurately as possible in which troops he served: information about the dead is stored in different archives. Let's summarize. At first, you need to find out the most basic information: full name, date and place of conscription, the number of the unit in which the soldier served, and at least the approximate date of his death.
Searching on the Internet
Recently, this direction has become very popular, but you should not rely on it too much: there is no common database, various sources draw information from the archives of military units, etc. However, it is still worth a try. If you did not find any data, do not rush to despair: contact the owners of the resource, describe your problem. In the case when they work directly with documents, specialists may well know some nuances, or give useful advice, up to help in your search.
So (theoretically) you can find a WWII soldier by last name. Of course, there is more likelihood of success if this surname was quite original. Otherwise, you will have to go through hundreds of options.
Also, don't forget to visit genealogy sites, archive resources. Send inquiries to the Ministry of Defense: it is quite possible that there is at least some information about where and when the soldier served before his death or disappearance. Andmore. No one is responsible for the accuracy of information on such sites. There is no guarantee that the information will be valid.
By the way. Before you find a dead soldier in the Second World War, try to find out at least something about his colleagues. It often happens that people who died on the same day are buried in the same place. Moreover, information about some of them reached relatives, while other relatives remained completely unaware of the fate of their relative.
Try to reach out to your like-minded people who are also looking for their loved ones who fought in those places or the same unit. Together, it will be more convenient for you to coordinate efforts: someone can search the Internet, while the rest will take care of the archives.
Books of memory
Almost every local museum of local lore has information about the soldiers who were called up and died. In the places along which the front line passed, in these documents one can often find a list of names of soldiers who died and were buried here. Also pay attention to the monuments: they also have granite stelae, on which the names and surnames of those soldiers who died during the liberation of a particular settlement are carved.
Paradoxical as it may seem, but this information often turns out to be much more detailed than information from quite official sources. Remember that almost every more or less large city has a Book of Memory. Reach out to people in citywide forums: if any of them have access tothis document, he may well check whether it contains information about your desired relative. This is how you can find a WWII soldier by last name.
Requests to archives
For some reason, it is believed that all information about the dead is stored only in the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense, but this is not so. If your relative served in the navy, naval aviation or some coastal services, then information about him should be sought in the archive of the Navy, located in the city of Gatchina.
The most difficult thing happens in cases where a person belonged to the military personnel of various parts of the NKVD. Their archive is located in Moscow, in the State Military Archive. But some of the information on the employees of the NKVD and SMERSH is still classified, so the probability of issuing such data is very low. In any case, it is simply impossible to find the grave of a WWII soldier from special units.
The fact that relatives did not always know about the real specifics of service in such units makes it extremely difficult to search. Often, according to the documents, they served in ordinary infantry units, but they themselves fought in a completely different area.
To get information about a soldier from these archives, you need to write (it is highly desirable to print) a letter that contains brief information about the soldier, his name, patronymic, rank … In a word, all the basic information. Be sure to attach a clean envelope and stamps to the letter, as this will greatly speed up the receipt of a response message.
If you do not know the military rank of the missing person at all, or if youthere is reason to believe that he could have been awarded the rank of officer, write as follows6 "Please also check the information on the 6th, 9th and 11th departments." The fact is that these sections of the archive store information on all military ranks and ranks. We immediately warn you that the financing of this institution is very stunted, and therefore it is quite possible to wait up to six months or longer for a response from it.
To put it simply, if possible, it is best to personally visit the archive and ask all your questions there. Of course, finding a soldier by last name (if you have no other data) is unlikely to succeed, but if you have more information, the chance of success is quite high.
Analysis of query results to the archive
It should be understood that even in conditions of war, losses were indeed recorded in sufficient detail and this information was sent for storage. Each unit regularly reported to the Central Headquarters on irretrievable losses, and the reports indicated the list of names, rank, date and place of death, information about relatives and the place of burial.
If a soldier is classified as missing, this means that he was absent from the unit for some time, and his search, which (theoretically) should have taken 15 days, did not yield any results. A lot of missing people in the initial period of the war. This is due to the fact that at that time many units were completely destroyed, all their documents were lost or deliberately destroyed by the command during the retreat.
Note that it is almost impossible to find a missing soldier in this case. All that remains is a search in regional and local books of memory.
Important! It often happened that a person, wounded and lagging behind his unit, after lying in the hospital, fought in another unit. At this time, a funeral came from the first. So it often happened that there were no living close relatives, the person actually “disappeared”. Try again to search among the veteran organizations of the entire CIS. It is not uncommon for a relative to find soldiers "dead" a long time ago.
The man was demobilized, he realized that he had nowhere to go, and therefore stayed in the place that he liked. Relatively recently, one family found their grandfather, who was considered dead a long time ago (two funerals), but since 1946 he lived quietly in Estonia. So it does not hurt to contact the local governments of Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, the Czech Republic, etc. In general, finding a Soviet soldier who died on the territory of these countries can be very difficult.
Archived answers
Thus, four possible answers can come from the archive in response to your request:
- The most desirable option when information comes about the full name of a soldier, his rank, unit, date and place of death, and the place of burial.
- A message indicating the military unit, as well as the date and place of the missing person.
- An answer may be received, which indicates the alleged place of loss (the first months of the war) and the alleged number of the military unit, which is oftenwas obtained from close relatives as a result of their survey (the part number was on the postmarks from the last letter, if any).
- Message about the complete absence of data on a serviceman in the card file of irretrievable losses. As we have already said, this is due to the death of a soldier in the first months of the war, when reports from the unit were simply not sent due to its complete death.
If you received the first two answers, then consider yourself lucky: from now on, you can arm yourself with cards and look for the resting place of your ancestor (at least a tentative one). This is how you can find the burial place of a WWII soldier.
Other occasions
These include death in the hospital (which we have already mentioned), death in German captivity, or the probable release of a soldier from it, followed by a check by the NKVD.
If you have an assumption that a soldier died of wounds in the hospital, you must send a request to the Military Medical Museum (more precisely, its archive). If the last letter contains information about the injury (written by a friend from the words, for example), but there is no information about the treatment, you will have to arm yourself with reference books and maps and find out which specific military field hospitals operated in those places.
In the event that you assume the capture of a serviceman, you should also send a request to the central archive of the Ministry of Defense: at the moment, a little more than 300 thousand cards of soldiers who died in German captivity are stored there. You might be lucky.
Many are wondering where to find the missing soldier's PDA? PDA in this case is a personal matter of an amnestied, or rather, “filtered” fighter. The fact is that the soldiers released from captivity were checked by the NKVD. If there were no reasons to find fault with him, then often individual documents were not drawn up at all. In all other cases, duplicate cards must be kept in the archives of the FSB.
Here's how to find a soldier who died in WWII. We really hope that our advice has helped you in some way.
