During today's commemoration, 1,163 victims, killed in the Macelj forests (some 50 kilometres south of Zagreb) in June 1945 by the then Yugoslav Communist authorities, were buried. The victims include remains of 21 friars from the Franciscan Monastery in the nearby town of Krapina.
The religious services and requiem mass were conducted by the primate in the Croatian Catholic Church, Zagreb Archbishop Cardinal Josip Bozanic.
"Here in Macelj forests, during the (Josip Broz) Tito regime, many Croatian soldiers and civilians including priests and students of seminaries were massacred, and so far nobody has been brought to justice to answer for those victims," the dignitary said.
All that was perpetrated in the name of an ideology which had planned the brutal showdown with those had different views and which made here a hell for them while trying to create its vision of heaven on the earth, the archbishop said.
He added that the times when those crimes were kept secret were over and that it was now the time to shed light on the truth about those events.
"We would like to believe that those who make decisions will muster enough courage and willingness to investigate the truth about the (WWII) war and postwar events and those involved in (those events). This is minimum satisfaction we owe to so many victims, including those victims whom we are today burying in the crypt, Bozanic said.
Remains of Macelj victims were exhumed from mass graves in 1991 and 1992 when the former Croatian parliamentary commission in charge of this matter was established.
After the exhumations, victims were transferred to the Pathology Department of the Zagreb Medical School for their identification. In 2002 they were buried at Mirogoj, the central cemetery in Zagreb.
Today they were transferred for their burial in the joint crypt which will be part of a future church in Fruke.
Today's commemoration was held under the auspices of the Croatian Government and Deputy Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor attended the rites on behalf of the Ivo Sanader cabinet.