Download a short text on World War Two

SLOVENIA
During World War II, Slovenian territory was divided between three occupiers: Germans, Hungarians,
and Italians. All three condemned Slovenians to ethnocide, using some elements of genocide. The
Slovenians had already been divided between four countries after World War I. At the time of the
occupation in April 1941, 1.200,000 Slovenians lived in Yugoslavia on what is now Slovenian territory,
while as many as 340,000 or one fourth of the Slovenian population lived in Italy. During the
occupation, the Germans attempted to displace around 260,000 Slovenians and replace them with
Germans. They managed to expel around 80,000 Slovenians to Croatia, Serbia and Germany. Others
were forcefully Germanised by means of the Nazi race laws. The Italians and Hungarians also wanted
Slovenians to adopt Italian and Hungarian traditions. The war was very cruel for the Slovenian nation;
80,000 people ended up in prisons, another 80,000 were exiled, and 58,522 were taken to
concentration camps (21,234 to German camps, 36,200 to Italian ones, 688 to Hungarian ones and
around 400 to Croatian camps). Nearly 1,000 Slovenian children were also taken to concentration
camps, while around 100 were taken from their families and sent to reeducation camps or to
German families. 12,360 Slovenians died in concentration camps; 19,824 were held in detention, in
forced labour camps or in custody as prisoners of war. Around 40,000 Slovenians were pressed into
service with the German army, and several thousands into the Hungarian army, while Slovenians in
Italy were obliged to serve in the Italian armed forces as Italian citizens. Altogether, the Italian and
German occupying forces killed 3,958 hostages. In total, the number of victims rose above 98,000 or
6.6% of the population.
The resistance was organised by the Liberation Front coalition between Communists, Christian
Socialists, Left Liberals and several cultural players, with the Communists in the leading role. The
Front was established on 27 April 1941, and armed resistance started in the summer of 1941. Beside
this massive and widespread organisation, a partisan army was created in the cities, together with
armed guerillas, which in the end had as many as 36,000 members. The Slovenian Partisan Army
operated under the Yugoslav Partisan Army led by Josip Broz-Tito and joined the anti-fascist coalition
that from 1943 onwards also included the Allied missions coordinating military operations. During
the war, the Army saved many Allied pilots and prisoners of war.
Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, was surrounded by a barbed wire fence for more than three years
(23 February 1942 to 9 May 1945), both under Italian Fascist rule, and under the Third Reich after the
Italian capitulation (1943). The city was liberated on 9 May 1945, a date which Slovenians celebrate
to this day with marches known as "Around the barbed wire of occupied Ljubljana", a path extending
over 38 km arranged for recreation purposes as the Path of Remembrance and Comradeship. In fact,
Ljubljana is the only capital that was fully surrounded in this way during World War II. The city was
the first in the former SFRY to be proclaimed a Hero City and awarded the the Order of the National
Hero.
The fighting in Europe ended on Slovenian soil with the arrival of German and other quisling armies
from the Balkans in May 1945. Engagements with the Yugoslav Army and internal fighting between
and within individual nations lasted for another week after the German capitulation, until 15 May
1945, with the surrender of the last German units. For this reason, there are still many mass graves in
Slovenia to this day.
For historical reasons (banishments in the Middle Ages and the modern era) only a handful of Jews
lived on Slovenian territory and were dispersed throughout the country. It is estimated that only
around 200 Slovenian Jews survived the war. Both, the Italian and German authorities deported
them to concentration camps. After the Italian capitulation, the Germans occupied central Slovenia
(the region around Ljubljana) aided by the extremely anti-Semitic collaborationist authorities (the
Slovenian Home Guard). In the Prekmurje region, in Eastern Slovenia, which was under Hungarian
occupation, the Jewish community survived until 1944. This was the only Jewish community in
Slovenia that lived close together. After the German occupation, the Hungarian and German
occupation authorities deported them to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Of the 571
Jews from Prekmurje, 387 died, while the survivors moved to Israel after their release; only a few
returned to Slovenia. A small, but deeply symbolic sculpture in the form of a suitcase, was erected in
their memory.
Traditionally, when addressing Slovenian citizens, the President of the Republic of Slovenia
emphasises the need for unity, freedom and solidarity. Since 2009, International Holocaust
Remembrance Day has also been commemorated in Slovenia on 27 January each year with a number
of events throughout the country under the project 'Shoah-Let Us Remember', coordinated by the
Centre of Jewish Cultural Heritage Synagogue Maribor.