Killing Them Twice: Ethical Challenges in the Analysis of Human Remains from the Two World Wars

Abstract

The scale of casualties inflicted on the military forces of the combatant nations during the two World Wars, in 1914–1918 and 1939–1945, surpassed all previous conflicts. Identification, burial, and memorialsation was a challenge and a strain on resources, and to personnel involved in the process. These issues have also raised ethical, moral, and religious challenges, which nations have had to deal with, though these differ between jurisdictions, and these approaches are dependent on existing conventions, the scale of casualties, geography, and the status of the nation as ‘victor’ or ‘vanquished’. Consequently, there is no accepted convention for the way in which military dead from the period before 1945 are recorded and memorialised. What is acceptable for one nation is not for another. Politics, religious views, the passage of time since the end of conflicts, and advances in science means that the accepted standards and conventions have also changed over time. The challenges created by the aftermath of two world conflicts continue to concern families, society, and political bodies, as further sets of human remains are recovered from former battlefields. There is no evidence that these issues, raised by the recovery, burial, and memorialisation of the war dead, will be resolved and the echoes of the World Wars will continue to resonate throughout the twenty-first century.