engleski

Revealing mass graves from world war ii: rational activity or simply l’art pour l'art?

Introduction: Process of identification of exhumed human remains includes different aspects – among others, criminal, humanitarian, legal and administrative. The importance of this aspects changes substantially in time. The recent find will require activities of different bodies: police, juridical system, forensic and anthropological identification teams, Red Cross, non-governmental and monitoring organizations. On the contrary, discovery of older remains implies different priorities and opens different questions. Herein we present the case of mass grave allegedly dating from World War II or immediate post-war period. Case: Wider area in Karlovac County, Croatia, suspected for being hiding human remains from WWII has been investigated since 2003. The exact site was discovered in 2011 and exhumation started subsequently. The exhumed material consisted of partly fragmented and commingled skeletal human remains. Forensic and anthropological analysis established the presence of at least 21 persons. Out of them at least four were females, remaing being males. Age range was between 20 and 50 years. Special attention was given to recognizing the perimortal trauma. In five cases, gunshot wounds to the head were identified as the cause of death. Some of the remaining bones showed nonspecific blunt trauma of antemortal origin. Identity was established in 7 cases so far, on the basis of DNA analysis and matching with putative offspring. Non-biological markers of identity were of minimal help – only the remainings of the footwear and leather items as belts were preserved, appearance of which suggested civilian origin. Discussion and conclusion: Investigation revealed that persons from this mass grave were civilians executed at the end of WWII. This finding initiated investigation and subsequent criminal prosecution against the person suspected for being involved in their execution. The process and additional investigation is still ongoing. Besides raising the public attention and opening of the wide political and historical debate, recovery of the grave had undisputable benefits, reflecting in closing of files for the seven missing persons after more than 65 years of searching.

mass grave ; identification ; World War II

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