By: Anamarija Novak
A memorial ceremony for the victims of the communist revolution killings after the end of World War II was recently held in front of the Cave beneath Macesnova Gorica, organised for the 35th time by the New Slovenian Covenant.
The mass was led by Andrej Saje, President of the Slovenian Bishops’ Conference and Bishop of Novo mesto. In his sermon, he reminded the audience that “this land is soaked with the blood of the innocent.” In past years, the New Slovenian Covenant traditionally held the commemorative ceremony at the chasm beneath Kren, also in the Kočevski Rog area, but this year, for the second time since 2020, it was held at the Cave beneath Macesnova Gorica. According to historians, the cave contained primarily Slovenian victims, mostly Home Guard members, who were executed without trial by Partisan forces at the end of World War II.
Truth – the foundation of freedom and reconciliation
“Eighty years have passed since the end of the Second World War, yet the wounds it inflicted upon our nation remain unhealed. The reason is not a deliberate reopening of old scars, but rather the fact that these wounds, due to historical circumstances, a lack of genuine will, and the absence of necessary action, have never truly been tended to. The crimes of revolutionary violence were never condemned, the innocent victims never cleared of guilt, and their remains have, unreasonably, still not been properly buried. The dead and their families are waiting for acknowledgment and remorse for the evil deeds,” said Bishop Andrej Saje in his sermon, emphasising the necessity of a proper burial for those killed after the war. “Every burial and grave is a form of recognition and an expression of human dignity – regardless of the person’s religion, nationality, past, or historical role,” he stressed, while also highlighting the urgent need for a process of reconciliation. Yet, as he noted, there can be no reconciliation without truth, and no forgiveness without an admission of guilt. He invoked the words of Jesus: “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” This truth, he added, does not stem from political interests, but from God’s love. The freedom offered by Jesus frees us from the chains of hatred and revenge.
Bishop Saje: “The dead and their families are waiting for acknowledgment and remorse for the evil deeds.”
A renewed call for a dignified burial
“Today, we once again call on those in power to do what is right. That means to clearly and publicly condemn the crimes that took place here, to cleanse the memory of the innocently slain, and to ensure a dignified burial for these victims. We see the Ljubljana cemetery Žale as the most appropriate place for this,” he stated. At the same time, he called for forgiveness and the overcoming of divisions, tensions, and rifts that still burden the nation today. “May the pain of the dead become the foundation for building reconciliation that transcends resentment and ideological trenches. Let the memory of suffering and loss guide us with courage toward peace, mutual respect, and the rebuilding of trust in a shared future. Only in this way can we walk the path of true reconciliation – a path paved with truth, but also with love, patience, and hope,” he concluded. He further emphasised that reconciliation is not forgetfulness, but rather the “courageous recognition of truth, and that the power of forgiveness is greater than that of revenge.”
The dead entrust them with a noble mission
The memorial continued with a cultural programme, in which the choir of Slovenian descendants, who had also participated in the Mass, performed under the direction of Marjanka Grohar. Their ancestors had been forced to leave their homeland in 1945, emigrating to Argentina. Dr Matija Ogrin, president of the New Slovenian Covenant, based his address on the song “Slovenia in the World”, which had just been sung. “Here, at this place of great sorrow and death, the choir sang Slovenia in the World, one of the most cheerful and optimistic patriotic songs. Why did we ask the descendants of our political exiles to sing it here, at the edge of this chasm? Not just to remember their forebears, who 80 years ago were forced to leave their homes and everything they owned to save their lives by fleeing abroad. As they left, their loved ones were, almost literally behind their backs, falling into the pits. And when they later had to measure the vast distances of the world with their modest lives, they were able to do so because they remembered, vividly and powerfully, their betrayed, tortured, murdered kin. They remembered them so strongly that they lived with them: they spoke and bore witness on behalf of the dead. Thinking of those who were denied every chance at life by being cast into pits, they tried to live their own lives all the more fully. Memory was a source of sorrow and pain. But they felt that the dead entrusted them with a noble mission: to live, to grow, to bear witness, and to build. And that kind of spiritual inspiration is meaningful for all of us,” said Dr. Ogrin.
Dr. Ogrin: “The independent Republic of Slovenia is a quiet triumph of the murdered.”
Independent Slovenia – “a quiet triumph of the murdered”
“The vast majority of the murdered Home Guard members and civilians were guided by the values of family, homeland, and faith – or in the words of Ivan Cankar: mother, homeland, God,” Dr. Matija Ogrin stated, adding that Christian faith shaped their ethical consciousness of the irreconcilable difference between good and evil. “Over the heavy decades that followed the war, it was precisely the memory of these many victims that helped families endure; despite the pain, many preserved an unbroken human core, an inner personality that did not surrender to external violence.” This, he said, is “the inner bond that is vital and life-giving for Slovenia and Slovenians: the connection between the birth of the Slovenian state and traditional Slovenian culture and values. Because of this, most Slovenians never accepted communism or its liberal derivatives. From this inner core, Slovenians rejected the communist system the moment a historical opportunity arose.” “It would be sad if we failed to see this inner connection: between the efforts of the Village Guards and the Home Guard to preserve the traditional Slovenian world, and the founding of the Slovenian state. This bond of values exists. It becomes visible and explicit when we read the writings of Lambert Ehrlich.” Therefore, as Dr Ogrin concluded, “the independent state of Slovenia is a quiet triumph of the murdered.”
A massive crime without convicted criminals
“The Commission of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia for Concealed Mass Graves, together with its collaborators and with commendable support from the Department for War Graves of the Ministry of Defence, has carried out extensive research work,” noted Dr Ogrin, referring to data from historian Dr Mitja Ferenc in a letter dated June 6th, 2025. Slovenia has more than 750 registered locations of concealed mass graves. To date, 224 sites have been investigated, and remains from 122 of them have been partially (31) or fully exhumed (91). The skeletal remains exhumed so far belong to more than 9,146 individuals. “Over 9,146 murdered victims were found at 122 killing sites. How many more unfortunate souls lie in the remaining 600 locations yet to be exhumed across Slovenia is almost unimaginable. All recognition is due to this extensive research – especially at the pit near Macesnova gorica – carried out by the Commission over the past decade, enabled by the Law on Concealed War Graves and the Burial of Victims, passed ten years ago,” said Dr Ogrin. However, he also criticised the shortcomings of this law, noting that it seriously weakened the criminal-legal aspects related to these killings. It did not provide appropriate or additional legal tools for identifying victims, systematically informing their families of their fate, or prosecuting the perpetrators. “This does not mean that no criminal investigators diligently collected incriminating evidence – it means that something was always missing in the system. And in the end, we have a monstrous crime without any convicted criminals,” Ogrin emphasised. “We now have detailed archaeological investigations of the killing grounds, which are scientifically valuable, but their legal relevance is virtually the same as that of ancient Roman or prehistoric graves.” “This course of action, he warned, has over time contributed to a waning public awareness of the fact that these massacres were horrific crimes against humanity, which do not expire – a terrifying wound in the Slovenian nation. The massacre of over 8,000 men and boys in Srebrenica was ruled genocide by two international courts. What then are we to say about the over 24,000 Slovenians killed during and after the war by the partisans? How can we Slovenians continue living under the burden of such evil without confronting and rejecting it?” he asked. Dr Ogrin noted with concern that some are increasingly unwilling to even acknowledge this reality. “In the National Assembly Commission for Petitions and Human Rights, MPs from left-wing parties recently rejected even a proposal to urge the Ministry of the Interior to issue death certificates for the murdered. They would not even support a resolution with such a universally human appeal.”
Representatives of the current government did not attend the ceremony – for the first time in 35 years.
They hijacked our country
“Given the current state of affairs, the thought that our country has been hijacked could rightfully be expressed by saying that in some respects, Slovenians live as if in exile. In our own land, and yet we often feel as if we are in a foreign country,” continued Dr Ogrin in his address. He firmly believes that “this contradictory state of affairs can only be changed by the parties of the Slovenian Spring, through a unified appearance in elections and a commitment to form a government that will make the condemnation of revolutionary crimes a new unifying foundation of democratic Slovenian politics.” “The parties of the Slovenian Spring must attain power with a shared programmatic goal: to legally condemn and reject the crimes of the revolution, to abolish its predatory gains, and to reset Slovenia to a new starting point,” he asserted. Dr Ogrin acknowledged that this is, of course, easier said than done, “but without this, we see no future for Slovenia.” Such a transformation, he stressed, cannot be accomplished without grounding in the millennia-old tradition that shaped Slovenians before the revolution. The awareness that an act is a crime and that it must be repented and condemned is a part of the spiritual life of an individual. “Here it becomes evident that political and legal acts have their ultimate source in the thoughts and emotions that govern human hearts and minds.” It is precisely for this reason that remembering the Slovenians murdered in pits and mines, in tank trenches and in lonely forests, is so essential. In conclusion, Dr Ogrin emphasised that the path of authentic remembrance is not easy, but: “It surely leads to a future where Slovenia will recognise and free itself from the evils that burden it and undergo an inner renewal.”