Responding to crimes against humanity committed in Slovenia after the Second World War
Responding to crimes against humanity committed in Slovenia after the Second World War

Author(s): Jernej Letnar Černič
Subject(s): Law, Constitution, Jurisprudence, Criminal Law, Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Criminology, Post-War period (1950 - 1989), History of Communism
Published by: Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů
Keywords: facing communist past in Slovenia; tranistional justice in Slovenia;
Summary/Abstract: As many as 130,000 people are estimated to have been summarily executed in Slovenia in the months following the end of the Second World War on 8 May 1945.1 It is further estimated that around 15,000 of those executed were of Slovenian nationality, whereas others included Croats, Serbs, and Germans. They were mostly civilians but also included members of the Slovenian Home Guard and other political opponents of the resistance movement led by the Slovenian Communist Party. These crimes – carried out by members of the Slovenian section of the Yugoslav Secret Police – were committed mostly in the form of systematic summary executions at hidden locations across Slovenia, predominantly in unpopulated rural areas and in forests. They were part of a systematic plan of the Slovenian Communist Party to eliminate their political opponents and their families, civilian or otherwise. It is still unclear whether the order for the liquidation of alleged political opponents and civilian population originated from the head of the former Yugoslav Security Police in Belgrade or the Slovenian branch in Ljubljana.

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