Given the late date in the war and the relative disintegration of the German military at the time, my concern is that elements of several German units were in Plzen at this time. The dead at Plzen may not have been from LGG's unit. If so, this makes search activities more complicated.FF7_12 wrote:Your point on burials in an earlier post was interesting; I thought it would be worth a go at finding who is in the German cemetery in Pilsen, died 8 May 45. Probably no choice than to make the trip; there is an online database from the German wargraves people, but only searchable with a name you have already. If we could only get one name, anybody, it would help.
Some local Plzen historian and perhaps 90th Division (US) records may be able to tell you what German units were in Plzen at Stunde Null.
To keep you from driving so much, we need to find someone who can write in Czech.
Getting back to deaths: In some past research that I did on a German construction site in which US POWs were employed and an evacuation march across parts of Germany in which they were on, I found that local German town offices did record the burial of the US POWs by name in their Sterbebücher or local churches did in their own burial registries. In most cases, no one was buried without some local official recording who was buried and where. Despite Czech anger at Germans for the occupation, the Czechs may have recorded German military deaths and burials within their local communities. If yes, consult the local Czech city government offices and churches.
Years ago, I researched an alleged war crime in Merzig, Germany in 1944. I was informed that the local German church cemetery was used as a temporary burial site for German war dead before they were exhumed and reburied in German war cemetery a few years after the war. The church cemetery keeper had the names of the dead who were removed and where they were removed. More than likely, before the German war dead ended up in the German war cemetery at Plzen, they were temporarily buried in some local Czech civilian cemetery. Again, hopefully the Czech cemetery keepers or churches recorded German war dead and their removal.
Again, also check with local Plzen historians. There is almost always someone in every local community who has an interest in the history of his locale. I have also found useful some work done by local high school students on their local history.
Penn44
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