The Barbara Pit massacre (Slovene: Pokol v Barbara rovu, Croatian: Pokolj u Barbarinom rovu), also known as the Huda Jama massacre, was the mass killing of prisoners of war of Ante Pavelić's NDH Armed Forces and the Slovene Home Guard, as well as civilians,[3][4][5][6][7] after the end of World War II in Yugoslavia in an abandoned coal mine near Huda Jama, Slovenia.

More than a thousand prisoners of war and some civilians were executed by the Yugoslav Partisans during May and June 1945, following the Bleiburg repatriations by the British.

The Barbara Pit mine was subsequently visited by the Croatian and Slovenian political leadership to pay tribute to the victims.

On 25 October 2017, the Slovenian government announced that the remains of 1,416 victims were exhumed from the site and reburied at the Dobrava memorial park in Maribor.

On 3 May 1945, the NDH leadership abolished racial laws[10][11] and intended to seek Western support in fighting Communism.

In general, no mercy is to be shown in purges and liquidation.Several thousand Slovene Home Guard POWs were taken by trains from the Austrian border at Dravograd to Maribor and from there to the town of Celje.

[22] Slovene Home Guard POWs that were singled out in Slovenj Gradec, Velenje, Kranj and Celje were the first ones to arrive on the last week of May.

[26] Once the shafts were filled with corpses, the remaining prisoners were sent in the direction of Zagorje in northwest Croatia where they were killed,[27] while the bodies were covered with lime to speed up decomposition.

[28] Most of the victims were prisoners of war, members of the NDH Armed Forces and Slovene Home Guard, and civilians.

[31] More than 600 mass grave sites are located in Slovenia,[30] which the Yugoslav authorities concealed and prohibited discussion about the massacres.

[9] One of the earliest mentions of the event is connected to a judicial proceeding from May 1947, when five people were sentenced to death on spying charges, including a 32-year-old pregnant woman who claimed that Yugoslav authorities were beating and killing POWs at Brežice, Košnica pri Celju, and Huda Jama.

[24] The first official studies of the site began in November 1989 when a criminal report was filed against unknown perpetrators for the killing of an undetermined number of prisoners at Huda Jama.

The victim appeared to have survived the slaughter and managed to dig through 7–8 meters of soil until he reached an impassable concrete door and ran out of oxygen.

"[42] Pavel Jamnik from the Slovenian Criminal Police Directorate noted that "some victims were probably still conscious when their executioners scattered lime, which is cracked, which means that they moved.

[26] Croatian medical doctors offered their assistance in DNA analysis of the remains, which could potentially be used to identify Croat victims.

[43] On 25 October 2017, more than eight years since the discovery of the massacre, the Slovenian Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities announced that, based on preliminary data of anthropological and archaeological analysis, a total of 1,416 victims were found in the coal mine.

[7] On 6 March 2017, Slovenian anthropologist Petra Leben Seljak said that among the second group, exhumed in 2016, almost all were men older than 20 and younger than 40, while 8 percent were aged between 18 and 20.

[44] The first high-ranking official to visit the mass grave after the uncovering on 3 March 2009 was the Slovenian General Prosecutor Barbara Brezigar, who described the scene as "horrific".

[50] Together with the Prime Minister and Speaker of the National Assembly, President Türk laid wreaths at the entrance to the mine on 1 November 2009.

[52] On 10 March, the Croatian government called for a joint Croatian–Slovenian investigation into the grave and the implementation of the 2008 agreement on the marking of military cemeteries.

[53] By 2013, the Slovenian government helped finance the arrangement of the site and the setup of walking paths, drainage, air ventilation and electrification.