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Ljudevit Jurak (1881-1952) and Eduard Miloslavić (1884-1952) Founders of Croatian pathological and forensic medicine and experts at the invetigations of mass graves at Katyn and Vinnitsa During World War II

The chapter concentrates on biography of two eminent Croatian physicians, Ljudevit Jurak (1881-1945) and Eduard Miloslavić (1884-1952), their role in the process of professionalization of pathological and forensic medicine in Croatia and their involvement in the investigation of communist war crimes in Katyn and Vinnitsa during the World War II. The field of pathologic anatomy in Croatia actually opened with Ljudevit Jurak’ s appointment as a prosector in Public Health Institutions of the city of Zagreb in 1913. Twenty-two years later, in 1935, Eduard Miloslavić founded the Department of Forensic Medicine of the Zagreb University. In 1943, Miloslavić was invited as a medicolegal expert in an International Committee to investigate the massacre in the Katyn forest near Smolensk, and Jurak to investigate the mass grave in Vinnitsa near the Ukrainian river Bug. Both medicolegal investigations proved that crimes were committed by Soviets. However, Jurak and Miloslavić’ s part in those investigations had a dramatic impact on their future. Jurak was arrested by the Yugoslav political police in 1945, deprived of human rights, and condemned to death. To this date, his burial place is unknown and until 1990, his name had rarely been mentioned. Miloslavić managed to escape from Yugoslavia and never came back.

communism; coroners and medical examiners; Croatia; expert testimony; forensic medicine; history of medicine, 20th century; pathology; Poland; Ukrania; war crimes

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