Sorry Marcus for the previous tone, maybe I did take your quotes the wrong way. It was late at night and right before Monday, my deep apologies. Firstly, I noticed today that you were giving examples of war crimes committed in Slovenia. But, if you notice I was making a comment on Michael Miller’s comment that Slovenes committed “
heartless brutality” during ww2. Firstly, the brutality that Slovenian partisans inflicted upon the Germans shouldn’t be considered a warcrime. After all, it was a defense, liberating the people by a foreign occupier. Actually, I’ll just make a few comments on your previous quotes from that book:
German police officers walking around the remains of eight Slovenian civlians (some of them women), who were shot near Krajinskaya on August 5th, 1941. They had been accused of being members of the Partisan Kranj Battalion (or of supporting the guerillas)
Exactly, Germans shot anyone at their free will by concocting bogus stories that innocent Slovenes collaborated with the enemy. What was the purpose of this quote, Germans officers shoot Slovenian civilians.
Twenty-seven Germans were killed by Slovenian guerillas of the 1st Detachment/2nd Battalion. No prisoners were taken by either side. If captured , both sides would eventually shoot the prisoner(s). This guerilla war was a cruel one, with no quarter asked nor given
Yep, that’s what happens to the occupier. Maybe if the Germans would have respected the innocent women and children in Slovenia, then maybe the guerilla’s would have had the heart to not shoot German prisoners.
July 1st, 1942. The partisans had just blown up a bridge vital to the Germans in the Oberkrain region. In reprisal, thrity local inhabitants were rounded up and shot. One managed to crawl away and report the incident
Yes, the Germans. Most Slovenian axis forces, about 80,000 strong, served all over Europe and parts of Africa, and very rarely if at all at home. In fact, I’ve read articles claiming that Slovenian soldiers were unloyal even though they served for the axis – so I doubt anyone could accuse them of killing children or families abroad. After all, the main reason they joined was so their families at home weren’t shot by the Germans.
The first instance of a massacre of the Home Guard occured in the Slovenian province of Dolenjsko (Unterkrain) when in early May, 1945 the Partisans caugth a column of retreating Domobranci and fleeing civilians from Primoska ... They then grabbed 300 wounded Home Guardsmen from the destroyed column and eventually massacred them in Lesce, by Veldes (Bled).
Ok, indeed. The postwar period is different and the communists in the socialist Yugoslavia did deal with the “enemy” in a brutal way – but Michael Miller was referring to the heartless brutality that Slovenes committed during the war, and I just made a comment on it.
On May 28th, 1945 the 4th regiment, together with a Home Guard replacement company, were forcibly sent to Rosenbach, where a contingent of Slovenian partisans assumed control of them. They were to be marched through the Slovenian countryside, many being killed along the war. A day later, on May 29th, it was the 3rd Regiment's turn to head out for Rosenbach and a drak end. On May 30th, it was the turn of the 2nd Regiment, and on May 31st, 500 men from the 1st Regiment were also sent to meet their fate. In Novo Mesto (Rudolfswerth), 1.000 of there returning Home Guard were killed but the majority of the Slovenian Domobranci met their end in a death march begun at Teharje (Tuechern) by Celje (east-northeast of Ljubljana), and which ended in Trbovlje (southwest of Celje).
Yep, after the war. And a quick comment on the Domobranci. This was nothing like the Ustase in Croatia, and was a much smaller militia. It was mostly made up of young boys that were brainwashed and often did not know the cause they were fighting for. The Slovenian government does not acknowledge their fighting as war crimes today. Most were shot after the war (thanks to the British) – I won’t continue and just let the rest in peace.
Miller’s comment just annoyed me, putting Slovenes together with the likes of Ustase. I don’t acknowledge the brutality of the partisans as war crimes, after all they were the liberators. I guess I would have preferred it that Slovenia could have stayed neutral during world war 2 like Sweden, but that’s a tad difficult if you get annexed by Italy, Germany and to a lesser extent Hungary. and when Hitler comes to Slovenia and says “make this country German again”.
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You mention Jews, but Jews haven’t lived in Slovenia since they were expelled in 1496 by Emperor Maximilian I of Austria. (they did have communities in Ljubljana, Maribor - and other major towns). The number of Jews in Slovenia by a recent survey suggest there are 11 members – this is however not the cause of WW2. And concerning Tezno and the “concentration camp”, yes of course I’ve heard of it. Recent findings a couple of years ago found a number of graves, I won’t blame you on the important fact that you missed that these graves are actually after world war 2 (and the communists are to blame of all nationalities in Yugoslavia).