crimes committed by totalitarian regimes - Ministrstvo za pravosodje

Crimes committed by totalitarian regimes
In March 1923, the first Prefect of Venezia Giulia notified all mayors and civil servants that a
ministerial decree prohibited the use of local languages, with Italian being the only official language. 3435
The Royal Decree No. 800 35 36
of 29 March 1923 then replaced several-century-old Slovene and Croatian
toponyms with mostly newly-coined Italian names. Eventually, Italianized names of Slovene places,
rivers, mounts, etc. gained ground, and Italian was determined the only official language to be used in
all public and private matters, on public signs and memorials.
The Act No. 17 of 10 January 1926 stipulated that the change of surnames also applied to company
names. The Royal Decree No. 494 of 7 April 1927 (according to which the Royal Decree No. 17 and the Act
No. 898 of 24 May 1926 valid for South Tyrol also applied to Venezia Giulia) called for the Italianization of
family names. According to certain data, 36 37
as many as 115,000 Slovene family names were Italianized.
In accordance with the Act No. 383 of 8 March 1928 (incorporated into the Royal Decree No.
1238 on 9 July 1939), it was prohibited to give newborn babies funny or immoral names or names that
would offend the public opinion. In other words, it was prohibited to give one’s children Slovene names.
Moreover, Article 3 of the said Act provided for the Italianization of Slovene baptismal names used by
grown-ups, 37 38
authorizing local population register offices to autonomously translate Slovene and other
names into Italian. As estimated, 3839 in Trieste and Gorizia there were as many as 75 % of Slovene names
Italianized. The Fascist regime also introduced special registers of Italianized surnames. According to
Laod Čermelj who based his estimation on such registers, 39 40
there were at least half a million persons
whose surnames were Italianized.
2.7. Economy
The Fascist ascent to power increased the pressure on Slovene economy. Until the formal imposition
of dictatorship, the most serious threat was posed to the ownership rights of Slovene municipalities in
Venezia Giulia since the Royal Decree No. 1122 of 23 May 1924 had severely limited their operation.
They had to obtain approval for any type of construction or excavation and for cutting woods, while
the military authorities had the right to expropriate private property or to demolish a certain building
at any time. In addition, the Royal Decree No. 751 of 22 May 1925 and other Fascist measures gave a
severe blow to Slovene peasants who had made a living from the common village property (owned by
the village or agrarian community) for ages (while granting a number of benefits to Italian tenants). 4041
As for labour rights, the Act No. 563 of 3 April 1926 assigned the exclusive responsibility to
select workers to Fascist trade unions, which meant that employers could hire only workers proposed
by Fascist trade unions. That same year saw the adoption of the Act No. 747 of 6 May stipulating that
members of the Italian Bar Association were allowed to appoint only one half of the members of the
board, while the other half had to be nominated by the Fascist barristers’ union. Furthermore, the Act
No. 2268 of 23 December 1926 decreed the dismissal of all sailors of Slovene and Croatian nationalities
working on Italian vessels. In accordance with a decree adopted in next January, the dismissal also
applied to port workers, miners from the Idrija mercury mine, etc. 4142
In the field of economy, denaturalization reached its peak in the 1920s. In 1921, the Institute for
Agrarian Revival (Ente per la rinascita Agraria delle Tre Venezie) launched an expropriation campaign
and organized auction sales that sold numerous land estates and populated them with Italian tenants as
part of the so called “ethnic amelioration” programme. 42 43
The plan also envisaged the resettlement of
certain population categories to inland Italy or African colonies, which was thwarted by the war. The
Act No. 1770 of 1927 and several other measures caused additional damage to the aforementioned
common village property.
34
NŠK OZE, HI/Z, Seznam/3 and Področja/7.
35
NŠK OZE, HI/Z, Seznam/2 and Področja/15; Čermelj, Slovenci, op. cit., pp. 148–150 (According to Čermelj, this was Royal Decree No.
900).
36
NŠK OZE, HI/Z, Seznam/7, 8 and Področja/8, 15, 16.
37
NŠK OZE, HI/Z, Seznam/13; Področja/17; Čermelj, Slovenci, op. cit., pp. 161–162.
38
Enciklopedija Slovenije, op. cit., no. 4, p. 187.
39
Čermelj, Slovenci, op. cit., p. 154.
40
NŠK OZE, HI/Z, Seznam/4, 14 and Področja/17, 19; Čermelj, Slovenci, op. cit., pp. 167, 168, 174–187.
41
Čermelj, Slovenci, op. cit., pp. 96–99; NŠK OZE, HI/Z, Seznam/8, 9 and Področja/10, 11.
42
NŠK OZE, HI/Z, Področja/18.
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