The Macelj massacre occurred in May and June 1945, at the

end of World War II in Europe The end of World War II in Europe occurred in May 1945. Following the Death of Adolf Hitler, suicide of Adolf Hitler on 30 April, leadership of Nazi Germany passed to Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz and the Flensburg Government. Soviet Union, Soviet t ...

, in the forests near

Macelj Macelj () is a location in northern Croatia bordering on Slovenia, encompassing a hilly forest and several villages. There is an official border crossing in Macelj, and the end of the A2 highway. The villages are administratively divided into G ...

, a village in northern

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

. At the site, a large number of soldiers, women, and children were shot during the

Bleiburg repatriations The Bleiburg repatriations ( see terminology) were a series of forced repatriations from Allied-occupied Austria of Axis-affiliated individuals to Yugoslavia in May 1945 after the end of World War II in Europe. During World War II, Yugoslav terr ...

Events

In 1992, after Croatia became independent, 1,163 bodies were excavated from 23 mass graves in the region, leaving around 130 possible mass grave locations unexplored. Among those executed in Macelj were 25 Catholic priests from the Franciscan monastery of Široki Brijeg, who were temporarily hiding in nearby

Krapina Krapina (; ) is a town in northern Croatia and the administrative centre of Krapina-Zagorje County with a population of 4,482 (2011) and a total municipality population of 12,480 (2011). Krapina is located in the hilly Zagorje region of Croatia ...

. In 2008, the Croatian Ministry of the Interior launched an investigation into Stjepan Hršak's possible involvement in that event. Some of the executions have been investigated, but no one has ever been prosecuted. Reburial of the exhumed bodies in 2005 was followed by a public mass led by Cardinal Josip Bozanić, at the time

Archbishop of Zagreb The Metropolitan Archdiocese of Zagreb (; ) is the central Latin Church archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Croatia, centered in the capital city Zagreb. It is the metropolitan see of Croatia, and the present archbishop is Dražen Kutleša. It ...

References

{{coord missing, Croatia 1945 in Croatia Massacres in 1945 Independent State of Croatia World War II massacres Aftermath of World War II in Yugoslavia Massacres in Croatia Massacres in Yugoslavia Political and cultural purges Political repression in Communist Yugoslavia May 1945 in Europe June 1945 in Europe Mass murder in 1945 Massacres of Croats

Events

See also

References