Record low water levels in the Danube River, following a severe drought, have brought to light the bodies of two German World War II soldiers in Budapest.
Soldier identification tags, a German Wehrmacht motorcycle, a wedding ring and a Kuban shield were found near the remains. The discovery has raised hopes that, more than 80 years after the end of the war, the identities of the victims may be revealed and their families will finally learn what happened to them.
"Now a puzzle begins, in which we will try to determine the identity of the two dead," Arne Schrader, a representative of the German War Graves Commission, told the Bild newspaper.
The discovery was made on August 2, after a passerby noticed a part of a motorcycle sticking out of the rocks on the banks of the Danube in central Budapest. During the search, teams also found anti-tank mines, which led to the temporary closure of the area and the intervention of explosive ordnance disposal specialists.
The engine is believed to be a DKW NZ 350-1 model, produced specifically for military use starting in 1944.
According to the Commission, one of the identification tags belonged to a Wehrmacht soldier, while the other belonged to a member of the Waffen-SS. The latter was declared a criminal organization at the Nuremberg Trials for its role in crimes committed during World War II.
Now German authorities and experts will try to reconstruct the story of the two soldiers and determine their identities, solving a mystery that the Danube has kept hidden for more than eight decades.
