crimes committed by totalitarian regimes - Ministrstvo za pravosodje

Crimes committed by totalitarian regimes
How severe the criminal justice in Slovenia was during that period is indicated by the fact that in
1984 only 51 convicted persons were “justified”. 21
Mass implementation of political and show trials ceased in Slovenia after 1951, because they were
no longer needed, since the Communist authorities had for the most part already gotten rid of the “class
enemies” by then. The only exception was trials against Catholic priests, which continued until the
mid-‘50s. The reasons for this are to be found in the fact that the Communist rule did not succeed in subjugating
the Catholic clergy and still considered them the most dangerous representatives of the “reactionary forces”.
7. Deportations of inhabitants from the state and place of residence
In Slovenia and certain other Yugoslav republics (Croatia and Serbia), the Communist regime
immediately after the war ended in 1945 started with mass deportation of members of the German
national minority from the state. 22 Yugoslavia took this road although the allied forces at the Potsdam
Conference had not given explicit permission to do that as they had done in the case of Poland and
Czechoslovakia. It is estimated that around 9,000 members of the German national minority were
deported from Slovenia after the war and approximately 16,000 retreated to Austria even before the
end of the war. Their deportation was carried out in several stages that followed one another from May
1945 until March 1946. First they were expelled directly to Austria, but when the British occupying
forces in Austrian Carinthia and Styria refused to accept them, they were expelled to Hungary and
from there the Soviets transferred them to their occupied zone in Austria. The majority of members of
the German national minority were gathered in special camps before they were deported. The central
gathering camp for members of the German national minority from all over Slovenia was in Strnišče
(now Kidričevo). Because of the suffering to which the internees in this camp were subjected - and the
same applied also to all other “gathering” camps in Slovenia – this camp was in fact a concentration
camp. 23 The camp in Strnišče was also officially called “Concentration Camp Strnišče”.
Post-war criminal legislation also allowed the expulsion of inhabitants from their places of
residence, which was foreseen as “a security measure” against those persons who were “obviously
a threat to the public peace and order”. They were issued by both the courts and the administrative
authorities for internal affairs. The victims of this measure were not only individuals but also whole
families and in particular cases even all inhabitants of a village. Most people were expelled from the
areas bordering on Austria and Italy. The authorities expelled the population from these areas because
they wanted to close down these two borders hermetically and in this manner prevent illegal crossings.
In order to at least formally justify this repressive measure, which is strongly reminiscent of the
expulsions of Slovenians carried out by the occupying forces during the war, the usual practice of
the authorities was to accuse such persons of having contacts with emigrants or even acting for the
benefit of the intelligence services of Western countries. The reasons for the expulsion of families in
some cases could be quite banal. For example, in 1949 a family from Bled was expelled to Kočevsko
only in order to enable the authorities to seize their house because it was located too close to Tito’s
Vila Bled. 24 The majority of expelled families were deported to Kočevsko, where after the deportation
of Germans in winter 1941–42, vast areas remained totally deserted. In September 1947, several
families from Zgornjesavinska Dolina (Rateče, Podkoren, Srednji Vrh, Mojstrana) 25 were expelled
there. In July 1949, several families from Kranjska Gora were also moved to Kočevsko. Deported
21
Archives of the Republic of Slovenia, AS 1267, sign. of the archive unit 13/619, Annual Report of the Department for Implementation of
Sentences for 1948.
22
The issue of deportation of members of the German national minority from Slovenia is dealt with by the papers of the Slovenian historians
published in the Collection: Dušan Nećak (ed.), “Germans” in Slovenia 1941–1955, Scientific Institute of the Faculty of Arts, Ljubljana
1998.
23
The living conditions and treatment of internees in Strnišče and other similar camps in Slovenia is described by some former internees
in their accounts published in Milko Mikola (ed.), Documents and testimonies on post-war concentration camps in Slovenia, Ministry of
Justice of the Republic of Slovenia, Ljubljana 2007.
24
Archives of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Slovenia, Commission for Implementation of the Redressing of Injustices Act, file
no. 714-01-2932/98.
25
Fric Razinger, “Deported to Kočevje”, Borec, Magazine for History, Literature and Anthropology (Revija za zgodovino, literaturo in
antropologijo), 47 (1995).
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