crimes committed by totalitarian regimes - Ministrstvo za pravosodje

Crimes committed by totalitarian regimes
Mitja Ferenc *1
Secret World War Two mass graves in Slovenia
In 2008, we are commemorating the 63 rd anniversary of the victory over fascism and the end of
World War Two. In Slovenia, having cooperated in the victorious coalition of the allied forces, we are
still facing the heritage of the past – the consequences of actions which, during and after that War, left
our soil full of secret mass graves. These graves are a consequence of post-war mass and individual
killings, without trials; in the years 1945–46, as well as wartime graves that harbour the remains of
members of the armed formations of anti-Partisan forces and civilians. In a broader sense, secret graves
also encompass all those from 1945–46 in which soldiers and civilians are buried who could not, or
were not allowed to, have their own graves. 1 2
According to official data, there are 3,986 wartime graves and mass graves in Slovenia from World
War Two 2 3; that data did not, and still does not, include the secret mass graves. Only in the past few years
have active search and investigation been initiated. The numbers known up to now are shocking: 571
other graves have already been recorded by the year 2008.
As in many other warring countries, post-war events in Slovenia included vengeance by the
victors over the defeated. On Slovene soil, that vengeance was especially bloody, for Slovenia, lying in
the north-western corner of Yugoslavia, was home ground for various groups of military formations. 34
The Second World War in Europe ended on the night of 9 May 1945, when the German army, in its
steady retreat from Yugoslavia, left western Croatian towns and started its retreat through Slovenia. To
avoid Yugoslav capture, the German army and especially a multitude of anti-Partisan units of different
nationalities moved through Slovenian territory towards Austria. They were also joined by many
civilians. Their leaders used propaganda to inflame fear and cause people to flee from the Partisans.
Out of fear of the Yugoslav army and the new regime, they intended to surrender to the English and
Americans, whom the huge multitude of refugees, leaving their homes, expected would implement the
international Conventions on Prisoners of War.
Until 14 May 1945, British troops accepted into captivity thousands of Ustashe, Croatian Home
guards, (and Serbian, Slovene, and other) soldiers and civilians. At this time they were issued with an
order by the Allies’ Headquarters for the Mediterranean, located in Caserta, to hand over all Yugoslavs,
who had cooperated with the armed forces of Germany, to Tito’s authorities, as well as not to receive
any more units from Yugoslav territories. The main body of retreating soldiers of the Independent
State of Croatia, as well as of retreating Croatian civilians, were affected by the decision while still on
Slovene territory. Due to British pressure, a throng of people numbering into the thousands, surrendered
to the Yugoslav army on 15 May 1945 near Pliberk (Bleiburg) in Austria. The return of those refugees
captured at Pliberk, via the Drava Valley towards Croatia, was accompanied by mass executions,
primarily of the Ustashes and Home-guard officers – it is still known in Croatia’s collective memory as
“The Bleiburg Tragedy” and “Križni put” or “Marševi smrti”. Most of those people, who had already
* Dr Mitja Ferenc, Associate professor, University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts.
1
The problem of secret mass graves was presented in more detail by the author at the exhibition Hidden and Concealed. Hidden graves 60
years after the end of World War II in Celje in May 2005 and later in larger Slovene cities as well as in the homonymous monograph.
2
Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs (hereinafter ML), Information on the state of affairs in the area of wartime mass graves for
the Session of Government of the RS, 07/29/1999. In official data, higher numbers appear as well.
3
Slovenia witnessed an appearance of various armed military forces fighting alongside German forces in the last period of the war. The
low number of Slovene Chetniks was therefore strengthened by Chetnik formations (around 5,200) coming to Slovenia’s Primorje
and Istra at the end of 1944 and beginning of 1945. Furthermore, approximately 6,000 members of the Serbian Volunteers Corps
(“Ljotičevci”) and around 1,500 members of the former Serbian State Guard (“Nedičevci”) arrived. Many civilians and family members
also arrived with them. These troops intended to defend themselves from Tito’s army in Slovenia in order to later conquer occupied
Yugoslav territories from “free” Yugoslav soil. If they were not to succeed, they planned to surrender to the Anglo-Americans, whom they
expected to disembark on Istra. Because this did not happen, the forces that were caught by the last days of war in Primorje and Istra fled
from the encroaching Yugoslav armada across the Soča into Italy and surrendered to the British army on 5 May. They were disarmed and
interned in camps but not handed over to Tito’s army; Hrvoje Magazinović, Kroz jedno mučno stolječe, Split 2002, pp. 186–187; Branko
Latas: The Defeat and Destruction of the Chetnik Counter-revolution in the Concluding Period of the War, in: Dušan Biber (ed.), The End
of World War II in Yugoslavia, in: Borec, 38, (1986), pp. 748–758; Jozo Tomasevich: Četnici u drugom svjetskom ratu 1941–1945, Zagreb
1979, p. 385.
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