crimes committed by totalitarian regimes - Ministrstvo za pravosodje

Crimes committed by totalitarian regimes
Lower clergy was constantly a target of police measures and attacks; higher clergy was under
constant pressure because of its favourable attitude towards the Slavic population. Finally the Archbishop
of Gorizia Diocese, Frančišek Borgia Sedej (1931) and the Bishop of Trieste-Capodistria Diocese,
Luigi Fugar (1936), were removed. Their successors carried through Vatican Romanization measures
with bans on Slovene in religious ceremonies and in religious instructions. 2 But mainly because of the
Catholic clergy, the Slovene identity in the Julian region was not lost. The relationship between the
faithful and clergy on the one hand, and the Archbishops on the other, was rather strained. Although use
of the Slovene language was illegal, Slovene priests secretly took care that Slovene books, newspapers,
and songs were spread, and that children not only got lessons in religion, but also in their mother
tongue. Religious lessons were transferred from schools to churches. 3
1.2. National socialism in Austria
The situation of Carinthian Slovenes was difficult from the very beginning. Although the cultural
life of the Slovenes could develop well at first, Catholic Austria under Kurt von Schuschnigg already let
the German national circles, who were organised especially in “Kärntner Heimatdienst” and whose goal
was to germanise Southern Carinthia, do as they wished. In 1938 after the “Anschluss” (annexation) of
Austria to Nazi Germany, the germanization tendencies became considerably stronger. Directly after
the “Anschluss”, the pursuit of Slovene priests began. In Austria, as in the Slovene Littoral, priests
were considered proponents of Slovene national identity and guardians of Slovene language and culture
– and therefore an obstacle to national socialist ideas. In 1939 Bishop Andreas Rohracher took over
the diocese. He did not have sympathy for Nazism, and Slovene priests trusted him more than his
predecessor. Rohracher sent quite a few situation reports to the Vatican. To keep Slovene priests in
their home-parishes and to protect them, Rohracher issued a very problematic decree, valid also in
Upper Carniola after the invasion. He prohibited the Slovene language in church services. Immediately
after the invasion of Yugoslavia, when the last scruples toward Slovenes were abandoned, the Gestapo
arrested most of the Slovene priests in Carinthia, not only those who were working in the bilingual
territory. As a result of negotiations between the Bishop’s office and the Gestapo, most of the priests
were released by 28 April 1941. Those who had not been arrested were even allowed to stay in their
home-parishes. The Nazi period in Carinthia was marked by the deportation of 60 Slovene priests,
who were arrested and transported to concentration camps (Dachau, Mauthausen, Sachsenhausen/
Oranienburg). Seven of them died in concentration camps or afterwards, due to mistreatment in German
prisons or concentration camps. 4
2. The war years: national socialism, fascism and communism
The Slovene territory – from 1929 Drava Banovina (Dravska banovina) – in the Yugoslav kingdom
covered 15,036 km 2 and had, according to a census in 1921, 1,054,919 inhabitants. After the German
invasion on 6 April 1941, the Axis powers occupied this territory and divided it, according to directives
given by Hitler (on 3 and 12 April 1941) and an agreement between German foreign minister Joachim
v. Ribbentrop and Italian foreign minister Conte Galeazzo Ciano, that specified those directives in
Vienna (21–22 April 1941). The greatest part of Drava Banovina was occupied by the Germans – Lower
Styria, the Meža Valley (Mießtal), Upper Carniola (Gorenjska) and a strip of land along the Sava River
(Zasavje). Italians occupied Ljubljana, Inner Carniola (Notranjska), Lower Carniola (Dolenjska), White
2
With these measures, interference of the totalitarian government in church matters should be prevented and the faithful should be united
around Rome to protect Catholic principles. Milica Kacin Wohinz (ed.), Slovensko-italijanski odnosi. Rapporti Italo-Sloveni. Slovenian-
Italian Relations 1880–1956. Report of the Slovene-Italian Historical and Cultural Commission. Koper-Capodistria 25. julij- luglio-July
2000, Nova revija, Ljubljana 2001, p. 132.
3
Slovenian-Italian Relations 1880–1956; Milica Kacin Wohinz, “Slovenci v Italiji”, in: Jasna Fischer et al (ed.), Slovenska novejša
zgodovina 1848–1990, vol. 1, Mladinska knjiga, Ljubljana 2005, pp. 510–551.
4
Auguštin Malle, “Koroški Slovenci in katoliška cerkev v času nacizma”, in: Volks- und staatsfeindlich: Die Vertreibung der Kärntner
Slowenen 1942, Drava–Hermagoras, Klagenfurt 1992, pp. 85–130; Tamara Griesser Pečar, “Staat und Kirche in Slowenien”, in: Lieve
Gevers, Jan Bank (eds.), Religion under Siege, vol.1, The Roman Catholic Church in Occupied Europe (1939–1945), Peeters, Leuven-
Paris 2007, pp. 205–242; Tamara Griesser Pečar, Cerkev na zatožni klopi. Sodni procesi, administrativne kazni, posegi “ljudske oblasti”v
Sloveniji od 1943 do 1960, Družina, Ljubljana 2005, pp. 25–26.
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