CAPTURED SOLDIERS AND CIVILIANS SHOT IN GORNJA DUBRAVA IN ZAGREB (pits were filled to the brim with corpses, body parts were sticking out of the ground)

Gornja Dubrava, procession in 2012

Gornja Dubrava

The parish of St. Leopold Bogdan Mandić in the Zagreb district of Gornja Dubrava, every year on All Souls’ Day, November 2, organizes a procession and prayer next to the unmarked mass grave from 1945, where Croatian and German soldiers and civilians were buried, killed after the Partisans arrived in Zagreb. These are the victims of the Yugoslav Communist regime who were not properly buried, although the place of their execution is known.

The victims were killed and thrown into an as yet unmarked mass grave at Ljubijska Street 58, which is in the immediate vicinity of the Church of St. Leopold in Gornja Dubrava in Zagreb.

Father Vrbić stated that a witness to these events from 1945 testified that reprisals took place in the immediate vicinity of his house, during which Croatian soldiers, Germans and civilians were shot at and thrown into trenches, i.e. shooting pits, located where an abandoned store is today (Ljubijska 58).

It was pointed out that the shooting pits were filled to the brim with corpses and were not sufficiently covered with earth, so that some parts of the corpses stuck out of the ground, which caused the corpses to swiftly decompose. According to eyewitnesses, in order to hide this from the public, an operation was organized in which lime was scattered and mounds of earth were piled up.

Every year in Dubrava a mass is celebrated for all the deceased parishioners, as well as for the Croatian and German soldiers and civilians who were killed in 1945 and thrown into the still unmarked mass grave at Ljubijska Street 58, not far from the parish church. The celebration of the Mass is led by several priests. After the mass, a procession with lamps leaves the church, with a common prayer for the deceased, towards the mass grave.

At the site of the unmarked grave, where a store was located for years, the testimonies of eyewitnesses to the crimes committed are read and prayers are offered for the victims and perpetrators, as well as a prayer of absolution for the deceased. A cross made of lanterns is formed in memory of the unknown victims of the Communist atrocities committed after World War II and as an incentive to mark the grave with dignity.

Sources:

HRsvijet.net from November 3, 2012

IKA from November 3, 2013

Glas Koncila from March 3, 2012

Editorial/crimesofcommunism.net