'Nazi War Diggers' television show scrapped by National Geographic after furious viewers complain about insensitive historians excavating Second World War graves

Nazi War Diggers was due to air on National Geographic on May 13

Archaeologists complained about its methods after seeing a preview

One eminent expert described the way the show was made as 'a disgrace'

National Geographic defended the show at first, but has now scrapped it



A TV show about the excavation of Second World War graves has been cancelled after a barrage of criticism about its approach from archaeologists, one of whom labelled it a ‘disgrace’.



Nazi War Diggers was due to air on May 13, but National Geographic Channel said it has removed it from its schedules ‘indefinitely’ while it reviews how the programme was made.



Episodes of programme would have seen two metal-detecting specialists, a Polish relic hunter and an American military antiquities dealer 'hunt down stories of war and uncover relics' from 'remote forests and fields of Eastern Europe'.

Controversial: The show features four war diggers excavating Second World War relics in East Europe

But archaeologists were inflamed after a gruesome preview video appeared on the channel’s website, which showed the presenters extracting various body parts from a muddy grave in Latvia. At one point, the men mistake a leg bone for an arm bone after wrenching it from the ground.

Dr Tony Pollard, the Director of the Centre for Battlefield Archaeology at Glasgow University, labelled the show a ‘disgrace’.

He said: ‘I’m appalled that a major broadcaster has sunk to the levels of exploitation television. I’ve been at the forefront of battlefield archaeology for fifteen years, and I have spent much time getting the subject taken seriously.



Anger: Archaeologists were inflamed after a gruesome preview video appeared on the channel¿s website, which showed the presenters extracting various body parts from a muddy grave in Latvia

'This just looks like they’ve gone around digging up bodies, because TV likes a dead body.’



Dr Pollard regarded the way in which the programme’s presenters handled human remains as being particularly insensitive.



He added: ‘This shows no evidence of even the most basic archaeological principles - this is treasure hunting not archaeology.



'I have seen human remains brandished like trophies before but in dodgy youtube videos. The fact that this comes from a commissioned TV series is quite beyond belief.



‘The trailer on the internet was absolutely shocking, and very damaging for National Geographic.’



Dozens of archaeologists have left comments on the National Geographic website, lambasting the channel for what they see as a grotesquely insensitive intrusion into a gravesite.



Barrage: Dozens of archaeologists left comments on the National Geographic website criticising the show

‘You are sensationalizing and promoting the looting of archaeological sites and the disrespect of human remains,’ wrote Shannon Boomgarden of the Natural History Museum of Utah. ‘You should be ashamed to profit off these destructive activities disguised as “science”.’



Dr Sam Hardy of University College, London, who specialises in research into the illegal antiquities trade, is incensed at what he has seen.



‘Based on the preview video, the Nazi War Diggers didn’t record their finds properly,’ he said. ‘They didn’t take out the material carefully. To me, it looks untrained and unsupervised. If I tried to excavate a skeleton like that on a dig I would have been stopped and thrown off the site. It’s slapdash and it destroys evidence.’



Scrapped: National Geographic Channel said it will pull Nazi War Diggers from its schedule indefinitely

At first National Geographic tried to defend the programme saying ‘the series operates in direct conjunction with organizations officially licensed to excavate battlefields’.



But now it’s pulled the plug, saying in a statement: ‘National Geographic Channels International, in consultation with colleagues at the National Geographic Society, announced today that it will pull the series Nazi War Diggers from its schedule indefinitely while questions raised in recent days regarding allegations about the program can be properly reviewed.



‘While we support the goal of the series, which is to tell the stories of long lost and forgotten soldiers, those left behind and still unaccounted for, and illuminate history working in concert with local governments and authorities, we also take seriously the questions that have been asked.’

