Terrorism in ZONE A Allied Military Government Venezia Giulia/Julijska krajina 1945-47

[SloveneLiberal]

After WW2 in Venezia Giulia or Julijska krajina allied military government was established. In fact it was established only in the so called zone A because zone B was under the military rule of Yugoslav army. The divison of the area should be only temporal until diplomacy would establish final borders between Italy and Yugoslavia. In 1947 zone A was divided between the two countries, but the problem was not solved yet, since the future of the town of Trieste/Trst was not yet decided. Free Territory of Trieste was established. Town of Trst was under western allied rule. Only in 1954 Free Territory of Trieste was divided between Italy and Yugoslavia with London memorandum.

In the disputed region between Italy and Yugoslavia there was also terrorist activity in the years 1945-47. It was done by both sides. Yugoslav side with its Italian communist allies was using also Yugoslav secret police for this purpose. Italian nationalists had the secret support of Italian army. Many of them were former fascists. Generally speaking allied military government was more lenient toward Italian side and more strict with Yugoslavs. They were afraid that Yugoslav army will exploit the riots and intervene with its forces. The area was an early hotbed of cold war.

During the riots Italian nationalists were usually also smashing Slovene shops and attacking communist offices and seats. Italian violence grew specially between summer 1946 and summer 1947. Yugoslav side and its Italian communist allies on the other hand organized many strikes in the area.

Some examples of terrorism

In July and August 1946 three Slovenes were killed by Italian nationalists. Two in Gorica and one in Trst.

In September 1946 catholic priest and anti-communist Izidor Zavadlav from Gorenje polje was kidnapped and later found dead. Allied police report said he was tortured before being shot. Local communist activists were making threats to the people which wanted to go on his funeral.

In September 1946 certain Meo Vincenzo was kidnapped. He was working in American storage near Gorica.

In February 1947 local allied police leader in Slovene town of Komen was killed in his office. Police later arrested three people in the connection of his murder.

Also in February 1947 Italian teacher, nationalist and former fascist Maria Pasquinelli shot and killed British brigadier Robert de Winton in Pula/Pola.
Later she was sentenced by allied court to death, but punishment was reduced to prison sentence. Pasquinelli acted when it was clear that Pula will belong to Yugoslavia.

In August 1947 mr. Andrej Uršič was kidnapped by Yugoslav secret political police Udba in Kobarid. He died or was killed some months later in their custody. Uršič was advocating that zone A should remain independent from both Italy and Yugoslavia and that it should be under western allied rule.

In September 1947 during big riots an eleven years old girl was killed with automatic rifle by Italian nationalist in Trst.

In March 1946 allied police found some illegal weapons at the communist cultural society in Trst. Yet much bigger amounts of weapons were discovered by the British military police in December 1946 at the seat of Italian political party ( partito d'Azione ) in Trieste. 150 pieces of different machine guns and automatic rifles, together with 1000 bombs were discovered. Italian side claimed they would use the weapons in the case of Yugoslav army attack on the town.


Sources:

Some basic informations:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Terr ... government

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Pasquinelli

About Andrej Uršič: Enciklopedija Slovenije. (2002). Knjiga 16. Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga.

Zadnja tuja okupacija slovenskega ozemlja, written by dr. Cvetko Vidmar, published in 2009.