crimes committed by totalitarian regimes - Ministrstvo za pravosodje

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Crimes committed by totalitarian regimes Germans and their drastic repressive methods, and methodically introduced cruel measures, which however only gave new momentum to the Slovene resistance. The Fascist repression affected not only supporters of the national liberation movement, but also the entire population. In 1942, almost all municipalities within the Ljubljana Province imposed a curfew, which was not lifted until the very end of the Italian occupation. Later on, they prohibited bicycle riding, hunting, and use of weapons (even to game wardens), kept the inhabitants under strict surveillance by using special lists, and kept a close watch on them when they used public transport, etc. 4950 In September 1941, the Ljubljana Province High Commissioner Emilio Grazioli issued an order regarding confinement and the establishment of an extraordinary court. 5051 As a result, around 600 people were confined during 1941 and 1942. With the entire occupied territory witnessing strained relations, on 19 January 1942 Mussolini authorized the army to maintain law and order and to be in charge of armed departments of the civil authorities. 5152 The notorious Circular 3 C (Circolare 3 C) issued by the High Command of the 2 nd Army Group on March 1, 1942 introduced new strict measures against members of the resistance and their supporters: shooting of hostages, internment, arson and demolition of buildings and entire settlements. 52 53 In the Ljubljana Province, the first two villages were burned down on 19 March 1942, and were followed by so many others that, according to the most distinguished expert in this topic Tone Ferenc, 53 54 it was impossible to count them all. At the end of April 1942, the civil and military authorities of the Ljubljana Province had the first hostages shot, and had altogether 146 people killed until January 1943. In comparison with the number of people sentenced to death and killed as hostages, the number of people shot without trial (“passati per le armi”) was incomparably higher. The majority of them were not prisoners of war who were usually shot after being captured, but civilians. The Italian army shot large groups of innocent people during its operations, e.g. during the large offensive lasting from July till November 1942. According to the recently gathered data, the number of such victims in the Ljubljana Province exceeded 1,500.54 55 With the situation getting worse and worse, on 24 August 1942 Emilio Grazioli proposed the Ministry of the Interior the following potential measures, which were so cruel as those carried out by the German occupier in northern Slovenia: “The problem posed by the Slovene population can be solved in the following manners: 1) by annihilation, 2) by resettlement, 3) by elimination of hostile elements through a harsh righteous policy of rapprochement that would first lay foundations for useful and fair cooperation and then provide a platform for assimilation, which however can be achieved only in the course of time.” He continued by suggesting that if Rome opted for mass internment of Slovenes, the area should be repopulated with Italians, with the resettlement of the Slovene population starting “in the Slovene zone extending across the border”. 5556 Fortunately, the state of war thwarted Grazioli’s proposals. Nevertheless, more than 7 % of the Ljubljana Province population was subject to internment. From February 1942 until September 1943, the Italian police, carabinieri and the army captured and deported to Italian concentration camps several groups of people, starting with individuals captured during police raids carried out in February and March 1942 in Ljubljana, and continuing with former Yugoslav officers and non-commissioned officers, immigrants from Venezia Giulia, relatives of Partisans, unemployed people, university and secondary school students, Jews, etc. The Italian occupational authorities designate certain areas from which the Slovene population should have been wiped out. Thus more than 20,000 male and female Slovenes from the Ljubljana Province were interned in concentration camps in Gonars near Palmanova, Monigo and Visco near Treviso, Chiesanuova near Padua, Renicci along the Tiber and in other places. Among the most notorious camps was that of the Rab (Arbe) island featuring the highest 49 E.g. Tone Ferenc, “Slovenci pod Italijo 1941–1945”, in: Na oni strani meje, Založba Annales, Koper, pp. 93–110. Cfr. Ferenc, La provincia, op. cit., doc. no. 53, 61, 62. 50 Tone Ferenc, Rab-Arbe-Arbissima, INZ–Društvo piscev zgodovine NOB, Ljubljana 2000, doc. no. 11, 13, 15; Tone Ferenc, “Ubija se premalo”, INZ–Društvo piscev zgodovine NOB, Ljubljana 1999, doc. no. I/3. 51 Ferenc, Slovenci pod Italijo, op. cit., p. 100. 52 Ferenc, »Ubija se premalo«, op. cit., doc. no. II/3. 53 Ferenc, Slovenci pod Italijo, op. cit., p. 100. 54 Ferenc, »Ubija se premalo«, op. cit. 55 Ferenc, La provincia, op. cit., doc. no. 97. 132
Crimes committed by totalitarian regimes mortality rate owing to inhuman living conditions. 56 57The precise number of all Slovene victims of the Italian occupation will never be known. 5758 Unfortunately, the fall of Fascism in Italy (25 July 1943) brought almost no relief to Slovenes. With the exception of the Fascist administration of the Ljubljana Province, all other structures were preserved. There was no major release of internees from the concentration camps or political prisoners from prisons in the Ljubljana Province or Italy. On the contrary, they still served as places of internment of anti-Fascist and rebellious persons. The capitulation of Italy on 8 September 1943, however, did turn the power relations upside down. While Italy reached the peak of its territorial conquest at the onset of war, 8 September 1943 marked the beginning of the reverse period. With war achievements being largely annulled, even the preservation of the pre-war borders became questionable. On 10 September 1943 the territory encompassing the Provinces of Udine, Trieste, Gorizia, Pula, Rijeka and Ljubljana saw the establishment of the Operation Zone of the Adriatic Littoral (Operationszone Adriatisches Küstenland). Owing to his friendly and opportunistic relation with Mussolini, Hitler did not want to annex it to Germany during the war as he most probably expected that the annexation would be met by a fierce Italian response. Even if the Germans left the fate of the region open waiting for more favourable conditions, they nevertheless wanted to preserve part of it for themselves. Officially, Italy was pushed aside in the Adriatic Littoral, while in reality it could send its troops to the area and mobilize them under German surveillance. Helped by the armed Italian quisling formations, the German occupier committed numberless acts of severe violence (wholesale slaughter of hostages, arsons of settlements, slaughter of civilians, deportation to labour and concentration camps located in the Third Reich, forced mobilization of the workforce in order to carry out construction works, etc.). 5859 56 More on camps: Ferenc, Rab, op. cit.; Božidar Jezernik, “Italijanska koncentracijska taborišča za Slovence med 2. svetovno vojno”, Borec, 557–558 (1997), Ljubljana; Carlo Spartaco Capogreco, I campi del duce, Einaudi, Torino 2004; Alessandra Kersevan, Un campo di concentramento fascista, Gonars 1942–1943, Comune di Gonars/Kappa Vu, Udine 2003; Alessandra Kersevan, Lager italiani, Pulizia etnica e campi di concentramento fascisti per civili jugoslavi 1941–1943, Nutrimenti, Roma 2008. 57 According to some authors, their total number exceeded 13,000 (Alberto Buvoli, “Il fascismo nella Venezia Giulia e la persecuzione antislava”, in: Venezia Giulia 1943/1945, Foibe e deportazioni, Quaderni della Resistenza, 10 (1998), pp. 26–27) excluding people who died because of the consequences of the occupation. 58 Gorazd Bajc, Operacija Julijska krajina, Založba Annales, Koper 2006, pp. 35–40, 307–320. 133
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CRIMES COMMITTED BY TOTALITARIAN RE
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IV. REMEMBRANCE, RECOGNITION AND PU
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crimes committed by totalitarian regimes - Ministrstvo za pravosodje

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