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The past century was not only the age of totalitarianisms and genocide, whose victims were whole nations or their overwhelmingly great proportions, but also the time of mass displacements, deportations, escape or relocations of populations, which especially affected Europe. World War II and the time of new, post-war geopolitical reality abounded in enormous human tragedies. The consequence of these unfortunate events is also the issue of compensations for the property lost by the people who were forcibly resettled from the areas where they lived. The documents confirming the ownership of a particular property lost as a result of relocation are the most important evidence constituting the basis for claiming compensation paid from the State Treasury in Poland. Unfortunately, there are cases when the documents in question are forged with the aim of obtaining excessive monetary benefits under false pretences. During a hearing of evidence concerning the payment of compensation the body conducting the proceedings concluded that there were striking discrepancies between the documents describing the property left behind. The documents deposited with the Polish Central Archives of Modern Records differed from the document presented as genuine by the party in the proceedings claiming compensation. Forensic examination proved that the examined document was not genuine and had been counterfeited. The case study of document forgery discussed in this article proves that the use of non-invasive forensic examination methods is an important element in establishing historical truth indispensable in making a correct legal decision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review paper covers the forensic-relevant literature in questioned documents from 2016 to 2019 as a part of the 19th Interpol International Forensic Science Managers Symposium. The review papers are also available at the Interpol website at: https://www.interpol.int/content/download/14458/file/Interpol Review Papers 2019.pdf.

This paper describes the development and validation of a method for the analysis of office papers by measuring carbon isotopes using isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS). The method development phase included testing protocols for storage, sample materials, set-up of the analytical run; and examining the effects of other paper examination procedures on IRMS results. A method validation was performed so that the Deltaplus XP IRMS instrument (Thermo Finnigan, Bremen, Germany) with Flash EA™ 1112 could be used to measure document paper samples for forensic casework. A validation protocol that would meet international standards for laboratory accreditation (international standard ISO 17025) was structured so that the instruments performance characteristics could be observed. All performance characteristics measured were found to be within an acceptable range and an expanded measurement uncertainty for the measurement of carbon isotopes in paper was calculated at 0.26‰, with a coverage factor of 2. This method was utilized in a large-scale study, published as part one of this series, that showed that IRMS of document papers is useful as a chemical comparison technique for 80 gsm white office papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]