crimes committed by totalitarian regimes - Ministrstvo za pravosodje

Crimes committed by totalitarian regimes
the Yugoslav nations, the leadership of the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia adopted a political decision
on the expulsion of all members of that minority from Yugoslavia, and on the confiscation of their
property, already in the autumn of 1944. Based on that political decision, a special decree was adopted
on 21 November 1944 by the Presidency of the Anti-fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia
(AVNOJ), by which all property of persons of German nationality in the territory of Yugoslavia was
confiscated and passed into state ownership. That decree was also published on 6 January 1945 in the
Official Gazette. 6 However, a decree on deprivation of citizenship to persons of German nationality in
Yugoslavia was never published – although according to the opinion of some historians, the AVNOJ
Presidency also supposedly adopted it on 21 November 1944, but there is no proof of it.
In order to implement the decision on the expulsion of members of the German national minority
from Yugoslavia, 70 concentration camps 7 were established in the territory of Yugoslavia in the period
from 1944 to 1948. In Slovenia, such concentration camps were established only in Strnišče near Ptuj,
in Hrastovec, near Sv. Lenart in Slovenske gorice, in Brestrnica near Maribor, in Studenci near Maribor
and in Teharje near Celje. In addition to these concentration camps, there were a few more so-called
gathering bases”, from where the internees were led to the concentration camp Strnišče near Ptuj and
in other concentration camps (described above). Such gathering camps were, for example, in Kamnica
near Maribor and in Tezno near Maribor.
The central concentration camp for members of the German national minority was established
in Strnišče near Ptuj. In addition to members of the German national minority, it was also filled with
members of the Hungarian national minority from Prekmurje and those Slovenians who were suspected
of collaboration with occupation forces. Precise data on the number of internees in the concentration
camp Strnišče near Ptuj is not available, but it is estimated from 10,000 to 12,000 people. In that camp,
prisoners were subject to different forms of the worst physical and psychological torture, starvation and
contagious diseases, so that many died as a consequence. Most fatalities were among the young children
and the elderly. Some historians estimate, in that concentration camp, from 800 to 1,000 internees
died, or were shot, or killed in some other manner. 8 The only written source testifying to the deaths of
internees in the camp are preserved letters that the management of the concentration camp Strnišče near
Ptuj had been sending to the Parish Rectory Sv. Lovrenc na Dravskem polju. 9 They contain surnames
and names of dead internees who were deported from the camp to be buried. Among them were children
only a few months old, and men and women over eighty years old. In addition to their names and
surnames, the letters provide their birth data and the cause of their death. The most frequent causes of
death were dysentery, diarrhoea and old age infirmity.
Many internees were killed already upon their arrival at the concentration camp in Strnišče near
Ptuj, with no trial. The latest discoveries of posthumous remains of internees who were killed show that
most of them were killed in the woods opposite the entrance to the camp. 10 One former OZNA officer,
Zdenko Zavadlav, says that a larger number of prisoners from that camp were taken to Pohorje, where
they were shot and buried in already dug graves. Nor did they spare the sick (such as those suffering
from typhus). 11 Prisoners in other concentration camps were treated in the same manner as members of
the German national minority in the concentration camp Strnišče near Ptuj.
2.2. Concentration camps for members of the Hungarian national minority
The first measures by the Slovenian Communist authorities against the members of the Hungarian
national minority in Slovenia were taken immediately after the liberation of Prekmurje at the beginning
of April 1945. At that time, OZNA, with the cooperation of KNOJ units, arrested those Hungarians
who, during the occupation, became members of the Hungarian nationalist party, called the Party of
Arrow-like Crosses (Nyilaskeresztes Párt). These “nyilaši” were interned in the concentration camp
Filovci, which was the first post-war concentration camp in the territory of Slovenia, because it was
established already at the beginning of April 1945. The interning of “nyilaši” was followed in 1945
6
Official Gazette of Democratic Federative Yugoslavia, No. 2/1945.
7
Labour Camp Valpovo 1945–1946, Documents, Adapted by Vladimir Geiger, Osijek–Essegg 1999, p. 8.
8
Darja Lukman Žunec, “Post-war camp Strnišče”, Večer, 6 May 1996.
9
They are kept by the Parish Rectory Sv. Lovrenc na Dravskem polju.
10
“New graves discovered in Kidričevo”, Delo, 25 September 2007.
11
Zdenko Zavadlav, From the Diary of an OZNA Member from Maribor, Založba za alternativno teorijo, Maribor 1990, pp. 91–93.
147