Skeletons found in hunt for two Stalinist terror victims

An unmarked grave beneath a paved pathway at the Garrison Cemetery, Gdansk. Photo: PAP/Adam Warzawa

Members of the state-backed team, which is being led by the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), have confirmed they have found both a male and a female skeleton, and DNA tests are now set to be carried out.

The dig at the Garrison Cemetery was launched last week, with historians hoping to find the remains of Danuta Siedzikowna (codename Inka) – who was just 17 when she was executed in Gdansk - and Feliks Selmanowicz.

Photo: PAP/Adam Warzawa

Both had served during the war in the Home Army (AK), the underground force loyal to the government-in-exile in the UK, and they then continued their conspiratorial work as Soviet-backed communists spread their grip over the country.

The unmarked graves were found beneath a paved path in the cemetery. The skeletons have bullet holes in the skulls, as is typical of victims of Stalinist repressions.

Several sources had indicated that the Garrison Cemetery was where the victims had been clandestinely buried, and the pair already have a symbolic grave at the site.

“Historians had not expected such swift results from the exhumations,” commented project leader Dr Krzysztof Szwagrzyk.

DNA samples were obtained from relatives of the victims prior to the dig, and further tests will now be carried out.

Danuta Siedzikowna and Feliks Selmanowicz were arrested in July 1946 in Gdansk. Following their trial, they were executed by firing squad on 28 August of that year. (nh)

Source: IAR