Gunshot wounds (resulting from execution) of exhumed victims of the communist regime in Poland

• We exhumed victims of the communist regime from 1948 to 1949.
• We examined cases of executions by shooting.
• Various methods of execution were used.
• Some of the executions were carried out against the rules, by gunshots to the head.
• Machine guns were probably used in some of the executions.

This study presents the results of the analysis of the remains of 23 executed male individuals aged between 21 and 63 years, recovered from Osobowicki Cemetery in Wroclaw (Poland), field 83B, in 2012. In 1948 and 1949, prisoners sentenced to death by firing squad – most of them associated with the post-war anti-communist underground independence movement in Poland – were buried there. The aim of the study was to analyse fatal wounds and the method of execution, and to compare the results to data from archival documents. The results were also compared with studies concerning executions during a later period, i.e. 1949–1954. The research on the method of execution during this period of history carried out during the exhumations in Osobowicki Cemetery was the first conducted on such a scale in Poland. Forensic analysis revealed a wide variety of gunshot wounds inflicted during executions, revealing both gunshots to the head, especially single shots to the back of the head, and cases corresponding to the use of a firing squad, probably equipped with machine guns. The results of the research indicate that capital punishment by shooting was carried out in ways both similar to those the specified in the regulations and completely different.