crimes committed by totalitarian regimes - Ministrstvo za pravosodje

Crimes committed by totalitarian regimes
Army, and a new organisation of military tribunals was established. 3 In a report on the work of the
military tribunals in July 1945, the Office of the Military Prosecutor reported that the tribunals had
been established in order to complete “mass trials” as quickly as possible and thus satisfy the political
directive. 4 The military tribunals had begun to work intensively in June and pursuant to the Decree on
Military Tribunals of 1944 5 tried those who had been accused of having cooperated with the enemy
during the war, those who had committed war crimes or treason, those who had been members of
the enemy’s political organisations and military formations, and owners of industrial firms and other
commercial institutions. 6 The course of the proceedings was influenced by political instructions, which
had been handed down by the Central Committee of the Slovenian Communist Party. The proceedings
were prepared extremely quickly, as the courts completed their investigations within a few days of
receiving the prosecution materials from the OZNA. The investigations, which were short and conducted
quickly, were led by special investigators who also held the position of public prosecutor. This means
that they both filed the indictment and prosecuted the case before the court. The collected evidentiary
materials in the investigative procedures were for the most part incriminating and extremely deficient.
Therefore the defenders, who were included in the proceedings only during the hearing and usually
ex officio, had very limited opportunities to do any sort of work. We cannot speak of any meaningful
preparation of a defence for the accused parties, and such proceedings constituted a violation of the
defendants’ right to a defence. The hearings were usually short, and the verdicts were issued in as little
as ten minutes. 7 The military tribunals issued sentences of death, forced labour, eviction from residence
and seizure of property. Many death sentences were issued, the majority of which were carried out, but
their number is unknown, as the judicial authorities did not have any data on proceedings held before
the military tribunals. The sentence of seizure of property was imposed on the owners of industrial and
other companies, often in absentia. In the summer of 1945 the military tribunals ordered at least 685
property seizures, but this figure is not definitive. Members of German nationality were also put on
trial. The consequence of these trials was the nationalisation of German property in Slovenia, and by
the end of 1946 the Seizures Commission had ordered around 20,000 seizures of German property. 8 In
March 1945, the Central Committee of the CPS issued guidelines for the establishment of the Court of
Slovenian National Honour, for proceedings, which the military tribunals did not hear. Similar courts
were established in various other European countries, primarily in order to avoid vengeance by nationals
against members of the occupying forces and their sympathisers. 9
The Court of Slovenian National Honour was established by the Prosecution of Crimes and Offences
Against the Slovenian National Honour Act at the beginning of June 1945, and individual five-member
senates were formed in several Slovenian towns. 10 At the end of June 1945, the President of the Court
of Slovenian National Honour issued various instructions on the work methods and organisation of the
Court. In them he stated that the work of the court should have the “character of a strike force” and that
proceedings before the courts should be completed in the “shortest possible time”. Therefore he called on
the judges to call as many cases as possible every day and to make them short and the proceedings fast. As
a result, the senate of the Court of National Honour in Maribor heard around 30 to 40 cases per day. 11
3
Official Journal of the Democratic Federation of Yugoslavia (OJ DFY), 65/45; Damjan Guštin, “Military Administration of Slovenian
Territory”, in: Recent Slovenian History 2, pp. 839–840; Milko Mikola, Confiscation of Property in Slovenia 1943–1952, Celje 1999, pp.
93–94 (hereinafter Mikola, Confiscation of Property).
4
AS 353, Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Slovenia (AS 353), file 9, Report of the Public Prosecutor of the IV th Army, 26 July
1945; Vodušek Starič, The Seizing of Power, pp. 261–262.
5
Josip Broz Tito, Selected Work. Book 20, pp. 125–134.
6
Cf. Maribor Regional Archive (MRA), Military Tribunal, box 3, Sod 796/45, Sod 871/45, Sod 923/45, box 4, Sod 930/45, Sod 987/45.
7
Cf. MRA, Military Tribunal, box 2, Sod 331/45, box 3, Sod 796/45 and Sod 789/45, box 3, Sod 789/45.
8
Aleš Gabrič, “Liberation and the Establishment of the New Authorities”, in: Recent Slovenian History 2, p. 835; Vodušek Starič, The
Seizing of Power, pp. 263–270; Milko Mikola, Judicial Proceedings in the Celje Region 1944–1951, pp. 92–94; Mikola, Confiscation of
Property, pp. 13–162; Jože Prinčič, “Nationalising the Economy”, in: Recent Slovenian History, pp. 873–875.
9
Vodušek Starič, The Seizing of Power, pp. 187–188.
10
Official Journal of the Slovenian National Liberation Council and National Government of Slovenia (OJ SNLC and NGS), 7/45. MRA,
Court of National Honour, Maribor 1945 (CNH), box 18.
11
MRA, CNH, box 18, To the Comrade Judges of the Court of National Honour and Report, 19 July 1945.
62