Part of Yugoslavia it was triparted by the Axis Powers: the Germans, the Italians and
the Hungarians all took a piece of the Slovene lands.
In this video you're going to learn about Slovenia during the Second World War.
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What is now Slovenia was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
After World War One Italy got a piece, but the majority became part of the Kingdom of
Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia).
As a province it was known as Drava Banovina.
In 1941 the Axis Powers lead by Germany invaded Yugoslavia and took down the state within
12 days.
When that happened representatives of Slovene political parties set up a National Council
trying to negotitiate some special status (like to Croats) but this wasn't succesfull.
The Axis had other plans.
The former province of Yugoslavia was then partitioned.
I did read that some Slovene villages were now on the territory of the Independent State
of Croatia (NDH) so in that case it would technically be partitioned by 4 nations.
A small portion in the north-east was taken by Hungary.
Germany took the north.
Italy annexed the southern part.
The west was already part of Italy after 1920.
The Hungarian part, the Prekmurje, had around 100,000 people.
Although the Hungarians applied a systematic policy of magyarisation in their other annexed
part, in Prekmurje the Hungarian authorities were more permissive towards ethnic Slovenes.
Slovenes weren't deported and allowed their language in public.
The Germans took over the Hungarian territories in 1944 and Prekmurje remained occupied towards
the last weeks of WW2.
The German part of Slovenia was intended to be annexed in the German Reich.
This formally happened in November 1941.
The area was to be germanised, or as the Nazis put it: re-germanized again as it had allegedly
once been.
Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler was put in charge of a programme of ethnic relocation.
It had around 800,000 people had thereby the largest population.
The Germans claimed over 25,000 ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche) lived in the area.
In reality this was around 10,000.
Ethnic Germans from Italy and Romania had to be added to the German numbers.
From June to November large-scale deportations began.
There is confusing about the numbers but it is believed as many as 80,000 left the area;
deported or on their own.
Slovene schools and cultural intitutions were closed down and intelligentsia (such as Roman Catholic
clergymen) were targetted.
Reprisals followed for minor offences with 306 executions in 1941, such as the Maribor
Prison Massacres which happened all the way till 1945 in which hundreds of Slovenians
from the region were massacred.
The Italian southern part of Slovenia had around 350,000 people.
Both Italian and Slovenian were used as a public language.
Slovenian cultural institutions were kept and thus normal cultural life continued.
Yet, Italian rule had its contradictions since Emilio Grazioli (a leading fascist of the
border region) strived for italianising the Slovenes.
The Slovenian section of the Yugoslav communist party set up a Liberation Front (OF) which
consisted or Christian socialists and left-wing liberals.
Later it would be dominated by communists.
By November links were established with Mihailovic and the government in exile.
By that time armed bands of partisans made their way across the borders and started liquidating
people they believed to be traitors.
Italian-held Ljubljana was the centre of political activity and the area around the city was
swarmed with partisans wo committed acts of sabotage and attacks of isolated Italian outposts.
The area was declared an operational zone by the Italians and round-ups occured and
thousands of people (mostly men of fighting age) were sent to internment camps in Italy.
In the next year the Italians carried out actions against the armed resistance fighters
leaving hundreds enemies dead, obtaining over 100 cassualties.
Later the Italians acted more oppressive and many people were sent to Italian concentration
camps in Italy or Croatia.
The Italians set up the Anti-Communist Volunteer Militia (MVAC / White Guard) to combat the
partisans.
Slovenes were among these.
Supported by the Catholic Church who were anti-communist and wanted to stop partisan
terror.
Historian Pavlowitch wrote the following about the ensuing conflict:
Many expected and hoped the Allies to land.
Italy surrendered in 1943, however the Germans stepped in and took over the whole of the
territory by September.
They established the Slovene Home Guard (many former MVAC fighters joined this Guard) to
combat the partisans in the Ljubljana area.
By September 1944 it had around 13,000 men in its ranks.
They had to swear a solumn oath to fight with the SS and the German police against bandits
and the Allies.
Many did this acted under duress, because it would make them suspect in the eyes of
the Western Allies.
Then there was also the Black Hand (established in 1944 in several cities) who arrested, tortured,
and killed outright Liberation Front members.
In April 1945 the Germans withdrew from Slovenia.
Not the Western Allies, not the Soviets but the Yugoslav partisans came in their place.
Even after the German surrender fighting between pro-Axis units and collaborators took place,
such as the Battle of Poljana in mid-May 1945.
After the war many of the collaborators who fell in partisan hands were killed.
Ethnic Germans and Italians were forcefully expelled and sometimes massacred.
That is a story for another time.