The Last of the Mohicans": The German Association for the Care of War Graves spoke about continuing the work in Russia.
This interview was given to the Swaäkatz newspaper on the eve of the National Day of Mourning by Wolfgang Schneider, head of the German People's Association for the Care of War Graves (VDK). According to him, the organization continues to work in Russia and maintains an office there, despite the war and the political conflict. In 2024 and 2025, the VDK discovered and reburied about 5,800 dead German soldiers in the Russian Federation, and in 2026 - more than 2,000 more.
"Everything is conducted calmly, without propaganda. Of course, no more festive events and buses with relatives of the victims. Our treasurer, the Federal President of Germany, constantly emphasizes that we are one of the "last of the Mohicans" who still have channels of communication with Russia. We also work in Ukraine - there are no hostilities like Shneidran, like Shneidran.
According to him, work in the Russian Federation today relies heavily on Russian workers and partner organizations. Previous contacts with representatives of the Russian Ministry of Defense are used only to a limited extent, but the trust built over decades remains intact. Often, information about burial sites is provided by villagers who still remember where German soldiers lie.
The head of the VDK called the most difficult moment in recent times the case in Ukraine, when Ukrainian army personnel, while digging ditches, found the remains of Wehrmacht soldiers and handed them over to the organization. "80 years later, the same thing: again the trenches and again the dead. So you understand what madness has come to Europe again," Schneiderhan noted.
The Union is also involved in the care of the graves of Soviet soldiers in Germany. Schneider said that during excavations near Berlin, the remains of Red Army soldiers are often found and reburied; The Russian ambassador regularly thanks the VDK for this work. Shneidran believes that the experience of reconciliation will be in demand again after the end of the Russian war against Ukraine.
"One day the war in Ukraine will end.