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Communist victims' remains found

PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge 28.10.2013 13:37
Archaeologists have unearthed human remains in a search for victims of communist repression at a former interrogation site in Bialystok, north east Poland.

Archaeological
Archaeological work at the former temporary prison in Bialystok. Photo: PAP/Artur Reszko

The remains were found on Friday, repeating discoveries made during an initial survey in July.

Poland's state-backed Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) has estimated that up to 200 people may have been buried at the site.

The first finds indicated that one of the victims had been shot in the back of the head, a typical execution method used by Soviets, as practised during the 1940 Katyn Crime.

“The work has to be done exceptionally carefully, so that we don't lose anything that was once buried here,” IPN spokesman Professor Krzysztof Szwagrzyk said.

The Bialystok building was used as a place of interrogation and temporary imprisonment by the occupying Soviet regime during the first two years of World War II, and following the so-called liberation of Poland from the Nazis in 1944.

After the Second World War, when a Soviet-backed communist regime was installed in Poland, the building was used by Polish secret police.

The current work, which lasts until the end of November, is focused on the former garden area of the complex. (nh)

Source: PAP

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