| Macelj massacre | |
| Partof: | the Bleiburg repatriations |
| Location: | Macelj, SR Croatia, Yugoslavia |
| Target: | NDH prisoners of war and civilians |
| Date: | May and June 1945 |
| Type: | Mass executions |
| Fatalities: | 12,000 (estimated) |
| Perps: | Yugoslav Partisans |
The Macelj massacre occurred in May and June 1945, at the end of World War II in Europe, in the forests near Macelj, a village in northern Croatia. At the site, a large number of soldiers, women, and children were shot during the Bleiburg repatriations.[1]
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, 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 the exhumed bodies in 2005 was followed by a public mass led by Cardinal Josip Bozanić, at the time Archbishop of Zagreb.[3]