Macelj massacre

In May and June 1945, at the end of World War II in Europe, the forests near Macelj, a village in northern Croatia, were the location where a large number of soldiers, women and children, were shot by soldiers of the Yugoslav army (the Partisans). This was part of the events referred to as the Bleiburg repatriations.

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A cross in Macelj

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In 1992, after Croatia became independent, 1163 bodies were excavated from 23 mass graves in the region, leaving around 130 possible mass grave locations unexplored.[1] DNA analysis was conducted on a few hundred of them. The names of identified persons were not officially published, but it is clear that they were victims of a mass execution. A large number of the bodies were dropped into the area's many pits, making it difficult to locate all casualties. Further investigation on this issue was not conducted, and final conclusions about the excavations cannot be drawn yet. Some of those executions have been investigated, but no one has ever been prosecuted.

Among those executed in Macelj were 25 Catholic priests from the Franciscan monastery of Široki Brijeg which were temporarily hidden in nearby Krapina.[2] In 2008, the Croatian Ministry of the Interior launched an investigation into Stjepan Hršak's possible involvement in that event.[2]

Reburial of excavated bodies in 2005 was followed by public mass led by Cardinal Josip Bozanić, at the time Archbishop of Zagreb.

See also

References
  1. "Macelj - gora zločina!". Večernji list (in Croatian). 2012-05-16. Retrieved 2012-06-01.
  2. "Stjepan Hršak: Nisam sudjelovao u likvidaciji 25 svećenika u Macelju" [Stjepan Hršak: I did not take part in liquidation of 25 priests at Macelj]. Jutarnji list (in Croatian). 2008-02-09. Retrieved 2012-06-01.

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