Bleiburg massacre

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Yugoslav war and post-war crimes against political and military opponents in the Austro-Yugoslav border area were committed or started at the end of the Second World War by the communist Yugoslav regime and its organizations (especially the army , secret service OZNa and special troops KNOJ ) against prisoners of war and members of anti-communist organizations. The events are known among Croatians under the collective names “ Bleiburg Massacre ”, “Bleiburg Tragedy”, “Croatian Way of the Cross ” and so on. These names refer to a series of war crimes against Croatian troops and civilians that began in or around the Austrian town of Bleiburg in Carinthia . Accordingly, the events among Slovenes are known under the names “Tragedy of Viktring ” and “Drama about Viktring”, the place where predominantly Slovenes from a refugee camp were handed over to Yugoslav partisan units and war crimes fell victim. In the culture of remembrance of the former Yugoslavia , the events were referred to as "final battle", "final military operations" or "the grand finale in Carinthia".

Places where mass killings took place in May and June 1945

The events in Bleiburg and Viktring are individual events of these so-called “final military operations” by the Yugoslav troops, which took place in the period from April 12 to May 8 or 25, 1945 in numerous locations in the Klagenfurt area along the border to Dravograd and Maribor until south of Celje further fighting took place and opposing troops capitulated.

Members of the Ustasha militia and the Croatian Army at Bleiburg in May 1945

Victims of crimes committed in the course of this period, mistreatment , torture , summary executions without trial, forced repatriation and death marches were mostly members of the Croatian military and officials of the Independent State of Croatia , members of the Slovene Home Guard and Serbian and Montenegrin Chetniks . These former allies with the National Socialist German Reich and fascist Italy tried to reach Austria , which was occupied by Allied ( British ) troops. Thousands of German prisoners of war and civilians were among the large number of victims .

With the march back or transport to prisoner-of-war camps in Yugoslavia, a chain of summary executions began for prisoners, which was continued on Yugoslav territory. During the same period, prisoners from camps in Slovenia and northern Croatia were marched to camps in Vojvodina , where they were tried, which usually ended with a conviction of forced labor .

At a site of mass killings in Bleiburg, the Croatian memorial on the Loibacher Feld , built in 1985 , is an important Croatian place of remembrance .

prehistory

After the occupation and division of Yugoslavia in 1941, there was both collaboration and armed resistance. The result was a strong polarization in the population. The policy of the “Independent State of Croatia” envisaged genocide against the Serbian population. Jews and Roma were deported ; on the other hand, the Chetniks carried out massacres of Croats , Albanians and Bosnian Muslims as well as partisans and acts of revenge on entire population groups.

The struggle of the German and Italian occupying powers against the armed Yugoslav resistance was waged with great brutality. The Yugoslav civilian population fell victim to many war crimes. When the Waffen SS and Cossack units appeared on the Yugoslav theater of war, the violence against the population was further de-bordered. In Croatia, the Ustasha regime, whose goal was an "ethnically cleansed" Greater Croatian state, collaborated with the occupying powers. It made local security forces available to the occupiers to fight the partisans. Captured partisans were shot, and completely innocent victims were chosen at random for “expiatory measures”. The rules of the Wehrmacht associations explicitly included the killing of women and children.

Parallel to the struggle of various resistance groups against the occupation forces, a civil war developed between nationally and politically hostile groups for future political power in Yugoslavia, especially in northwestern Yugoslavia. As monarchists and Serbian nationalists, Chetniks strove to restore the former Yugoslav regime. They collaborated on a tactical level with the Italian, but also with German troops against the communist partisans.

Towards the end of World War II , the Independent State of Croatia began to disintegrate. Domobrani soldiers switched to the communist partisans. The moderate Ustaša ministers Ante Vokić and Mladen Lorković tried to oust the radical leaders of the Ustaše movement from the top in order to start negotiations with the Allies for an independent Croatia. The attempted coup was nipped in the bud by Ante Pavelić with German help, the conspirators were arrested and executed.

Course of events

Escape

Destroyed column of German military vehicles near Zagreb in May 1945

On May 6, 1945, the "Zvonimir" position south of Zagreb could no longer be held and the Croatian and German associations had to withdraw. Faced with the threat of defeat, the armed forces, the Ustaše and the government of the Independent State of Croatia tried to get out of the country so as not to fall into the hands of Tito's People 's Liberation Army . The withdrawal movement of the Wehrmacht and its auxiliary troops, Cossacks , Slovenian Landwehr, Serbian Volunteer Corps and the independently operating Chetniks fled. The Croatian armed forces , Ustasha militias and the Muslim units from Bosnia and Herzegovina were concentrated in northern Croatia in order to march from there through Slovenia to Austria.

The column of people and vehicles is said to have been 45 to 65 kilometers long. Parts of the marching columns did not reach the Slovenian-Austrian Alpine crossings, were involved in battles with partisans, disbanded or were taken prisoner. The others marched via Dravograd (Unterdrauburg) and Prevalje (Prävali) in the direction of Carinthia and came across British units at Bleiburg, but also units of the People's Liberation Army that had invaded Carinthia.

On May 8, 1945, troops and partisan units of the 4th Yugoslav Army occupied the south-east of Carinthia and marched into Klagenfurt , a few hours after the 8th Army of British Field Marshal Harold Alexander . Colonel-General Alexander Löhr surrendered to the 4th Yugoslav Army with Army Group E of the Wehrmacht on May 10th in Lower Styria , Slovenia .

An escape route led the main train of Croatian troops and civilians from Zagreb to Lower Styria , Slovenia , through the cities of Zidani Most , Celje , Šoštanj and Slovenj Gradec to Dravograd . There, the tips came to the columns of refugees on May 11 and found the bridges over the Drava River in the direction of Austria Bulgarian troops of the Red Army blocked, who had arrived there on 9 May. On May 12th the 51st Vojvodina Division of the 3rd Yugoslav Army arrived by train. British air surveillance reported 700,000 Croatians, including 500,000 civilians and 200,000 military. Few refugees were able to escape from the Dravograd Basin over a bridgehead in the direction of Lavamünd , where, after crossing the Griffner Berg, they advanced into the Lavant Valley to Wolfsberg and were arrested by British troops. After an attempt by the Croatians to negotiate with Bulgarian and British representatives on May 13th failed and an unconditional surrender failed, heavy fighting broke out. Croatian elite units (e.g. Black Legion ) under General Rafael Boban broke through the pocket on the night of 13-14 May and fought crossings over the Drava. The refugees now moved through the Miessal towards Bleiburg. At the same time, the 51st Vojvodina Division of the 3rd Yugoslav Army under Milan Basta marched on the hills. Parts of the 7th and 8th Vojvodina Battalions and the 14th Division of the Yugoslav Army also blocked the hills. Fighting took place in the valley and before arrival there was a last sharp battle between Holmec and Poljana .

Arrivals

Schematic representation of the situation on the Loibacher Feld (also Bleiburger Feld) on May 15, 1945.

From May 13th, Croatian refugees arrived at Bleiburger Feld, where the 38th (Irish) infantry brigade and Yugoslav partisan units had been staying since May 12th. More refugees arrived on May 15, including parts of the Croatian SS divisions Handschar and Kama. British forces erected a tank barrier to the west and forced the refugees to camp. At the same time, the 3rd Yugoslav Army surrounded the refugees. The refugee camp stretched north and south of the embankment; south the civilians. In the west it reached up to 3 km to Bleiburg (up to the Hrust inn) and in the east it went over the border into Yugoslav (now Slovenian) territory (up to the Kavzar and Kuštar farms).

Surrender and forced repatriation

In Bleiburg, the commanders of the Croatian troops asked a British brigade commander, General Patrick Scott , on May 14, 1945 , to accept him as a British prisoner of war and asylum for the refugees. Scott, who was connected to a command of the People's Liberation Army, refused, whereupon the Croatian negotiators had to accept an unconditional surrender in the face of military pressure from the British and the People's Liberation Army.

The eyewitness report of the Croatian Home Guard soldier Ante Dragošević is an example of what happened on the Loibacher and Bleiburger Feld. After his escape he was taken prisoner in Bleiburg and was sent from there on a death march to Yugoslavia. After four days the marching column reached the Slovenian town of Maribor, where the Ustashe were separated from the Domobranen. After two more nights, he and his comrades escaped the murder only thanks to the intervention of a partisan major of Serbian descent, who prevented the execution and had the column transported to Zagreb. Dragošević reported on the events on the Bleiburg field:

Refugees on the Bleiburg field north of the railway embankment opposite the Hrust inn.

“We began our retreat from Zagreb on May 6, 1945, passing through Ilica to Zapresic , and then along the route Zidani Most - Celje - Slovenjgradec - Bleiburg. Although we did have to brush aside Communist resistance here and there, combat was rare. [...] I remember that when we went through Celje, the partisans were in possession of the town. Although they disarmed the German troops who were retreating along with us, they were afraid to oppose the passage of our contingent. [...] The military morale of our troops was very high. […] Perhaps, this was because allegedly reliable information was circulating through our ranks to the effect that the political authorities of the Croatian State had made an agreement with the British for an honorable capitulation. [...] Shortly after sunrise on May 15, we reached a small field about a mile and a half from the great meadow near Bleiburg. Following a short period of rest, we went on to the Bleiburg field, arriving between nine and ten o'clock in the morning. The great flat or rolling expanse of land on which we found ourselves, was packed full of troops and civilian refugees, many of whom were women and children. There was also a great number of vehicles and even some cattle. British planes hovered overhead, and we were foolish enough to greet their presence with enthusiasm, tossing our caps into the air and waving to them. A Croatian Air Force officer warned us, however, that the British were making a display of their military strength only to intimidate us to surrendering. The English planes flew very low over our heads several times. About three o'clock that afternoon, we were advised that we were to lay down our arms, and display white flags. Afterwards we received orders to advance to the edge of the woods, where the process of surrender would be initiated. As we approached the woods I saw Yugoslav Communist troops standing in line along the border of the forest. [...] They adressed us with great courtesy and even with submissivness and humility. Without voicing any threats whatsoever, they asked us to surrender all of our weapons because the war was over and we were going to be allowed to return to our homes. [...] We were fools enough to believe them, so we threw away our last chance to escape. [...] In our naivete, we had assumed that the British would have the good sense to accept our surrender and thus secure valuable allies for themselves in the struggle that they must sooner or later engage in with the Russians. [...] We were amazed to find that we were expected to capitulate to the Communists. Great confusion attended the surrender of our arms, which dragged on over a long period of time. The Communists adressed a number of questions to each man. About twenty yards away from where I was standing, a young Domobran lieutenant committed suicide in a fit of despair. [...] The Domobran lieutenant was not the only one who took this way out of the predicament in which we suddenly found ourselves. Dusk fell before the surrender of our weapons was completed. We were ordered to line up in columns of fours, and begin the march back to the Domovina . "

“We began our retreat from Zagreb on May 6, 1945, via Ilica to Zapresic and then along the route Zidani Most - Celje - Slovenjgradec - Bleiburg. Although we had to eliminate communist resistance here and there, the struggle was rare. […] I remember that the city was in the hands of the partisans when we drove through Celje. Although they disarmed the German troops who were withdrawing with us, they were afraid to oppose the transfer of our contingent. [...] The military morale of our troops was very high. [...] Perhaps this was due to the fact that supposedly reliable information was circulating in our ranks, saying that the political authorities of the Croatian state had reached an agreement with the British on an honorable surrender. […] Shortly after sunrise on May 15, we reached a small field a mile and a half from the large meadow near Bleiburg. After a short break, we drove on to Bleiburger Feld, where we arrived between nine and ten in the morning. The great plain we were on was full of troops and civilian refugees, many of whom were women and children. There were also large numbers of vehicles and even livestock. British planes flew overhead, and we were foolish enough to greet their presence with enthusiasm, toss our hats in the air and wave to them. However, a Croatian air force officer warned us that the British would demonstrate their military strength just to intimidate us into surrendering. The English planes flew very low over our heads several times. At around three in the afternoon we were advised to lay down our weapons and show white flags. Then we received the order to advance to the edge of the forest, where the handover was to be initiated. As we approached the forest, I saw Yugoslav communist troops standing at the tree line. [...] You addressed us with great courtesy and even with submission and humility. Without making any threats, they asked us to surrender all of our weapons because the war was over and we were allowed to return to our homes. [...] We were so stupid to believe them that we missed our last chance to escape. […] In our naivete we had assumed that the British would have the good will to accept our surrender in order to secure valuable allies for the struggle that they will sooner or later have to wage with the Russians. [...] We were amazed that we were expected to capitulate to the communists. There was great disorder when we handed over our weapons, which took place over a long period of time. The communists asked every man a series of questions. About twenty meters from where I stood, a young Domobranen lieutenant committed suicide in a fit of desperation. [...] The Domobranen lieutenant was not the only one who found this way out of the emergency in which we suddenly found ourselves. Dusk fell before the handover of our weapons was completed. We should line up in rows of four and march back home. "

A British-Yugoslav military agreement of May 19 stipulated not only the withdrawal of Yugoslav troops from Carinthia by May 21, 1945, 7 p.m., but also the extradition of all “Yugoslav Nationals” to Yugoslavia. One of the two Yugoslav representatives assured that the civilian refugees would be returned to their areas of origin and that the members of the armed forces would be treated in accordance with international law. However, he also announced that officers who committed war crimes could face court martial.

Captured members of the German armed forces, Ustasche and Tschetniks near Maribor

First, most of the Croats and Serbs were handed over to the Yugoslav People's Liberation Army, at the end of May / beginning of June 1945 the majority of the Slovenes from the Viktring camp near Klagenfurt . The People's Army drove the soldiers and civilians who had been handed over to it from British custody mainly via Dravograd towards Maribor . The British also took part in the repatriation, mainly by train via the Karawanken tunnel to Jesenice or via Bleiburg and Lavamünd in the direction of Maribor, sometimes via Arnoldstein .

The prisoners were handed over to the Yugoslav troops partly on Austrian soil and partly on the border. The British soldiers made them believe they would be brought to Italy so that the surrenders could take place without resistance. After the handover, the prisoners were driven on on foot and taken to camps in Slovenia and northern Croatia, which were built there in large numbers in May and June 1945. In the camps, they were divided into different groups, separated between military personnel and civilians, and according to type of service, ranks and national affiliation. In the case of the Croatians, emphasis was placed on the division into Domobrani and Ustascha, which, as with the other divisions, was not always carried out precisely.

Executions

Double karst cave at Zinkkreuz (Dvojno brezno pri Cink križu) in the Gottscheer Hornwald , where victims of a post-war massacre lie (May and June 1945)
Memorial at the Jazovka Karst Cave
Jazovka vertical karst cave

After the surrender of the military refugee organizations on May 15, 1945, there were numerous attacks and massacres around the Bleiburger Feld. Numerous executions were carried out in Carinthia, beyond the sight of the British . Individual and collective graves were found, the largest in Homberg (Holmec) at the border crossing with around 200 dead.

The executions on Yugoslav territory have dimensions that are still not manageable today. There are many eyewitness accounts of executions on the marches and transports. Hundreds are said to have been killed on the way from Bleiburg to Dravograd (Unterdrauburg). Around 800 dead were found in Leše (Liescha) - including Austrians arrested in Carinthia - and there are many individual graves near Slovenj Gradec (Windischgraz). In a mass grave near Opicina (Opčine) near Trieste, which, like Carinthia, was a British occupation area at the time, hundreds of Croatian victims were found alongside German and Italian victims.

One of the largest massacres took place in Tezno near Maribor . Entire troop units may have been executed there and are buried in extensive former anti-tank trenches. The excavations, which began many years ago, have not yet been continued after the first discoveries.

Other places where executions are suspected are the former Tüchern (Teharje) concentration camps near Celje (Cilli) and Sterntal (Strnišče, now Kidričevo ) near Ptuj (Pettau), near Šentvid northwest of Ljubljana , near Slovenska Bistrica , near Škofja Loka and especially several karst caves in the mountain area of ​​the Gottschee (Kočevje). The largest mass grave to date with victims of the Yugoslav partisan army was found there in a karst cave in the Gottscheer Hornwald ( Kočevski Rog ). Karst crevices and caves were suitable for causing corpses to disappear into the depths and were easy to close by blasting them.

There are also many eyewitness accounts of the shootings in and around the camps, many of which were reprinted by John Prcela and Stanko Guldescu in their book Operation Slaughterhouse . They are meaningful, but do not allow any conclusions to be drawn about the number of victims and their origins.

Death marches

German and Croatian soldiers prisoners of war on a death march through Maribor .

From May to August 1945, large marching columns, mainly German prisoners of war and Croats, were set off from the prison camps in Slovenia and northern Croatia to the south-east, mostly on foot, some stretches also by rail. The marching routes stretched across eastern Croatia (Slavonia) roughly along the Hungarian border, then in the direction of Belgrade and into the western Banat up to the vicinity of the border with Romania. Some branched off towards Bosnia. Many of the marchers are said to have died of exhaustion, illness or the consequences of abuse, and were shot arbitrarily or for trivial reasons. According to witness reports, in some places the columns of people who passed through were taken away from clothing, especially shoes. Anyone who could no longer keep up the march was killed.

The goal of these death marches ( smrtni put , with the Croats also križni put , way of the cross ) was Vojvodina , where camps for the Danube Swabians had been set up in southern Batschka and especially in western Banat since the end of 1944 . At this point at the latest, the prisoners were sentenced individually, mostly to forced labor , and heavily burdened people were taken to prisons, mostly to Belgrade. Some of the prisoners from the camps, including no Germans and only a few Croatians, fell under an amnesty issued in August 1945 .

Legal proceedings

The independent state of Croatia was not recognized by the London-based government in exile . In an agreement with Tito on June 16, 1944, she committed herself to publicly ostracizing all “traitors and collaborators”. From their point of view, the troops of the Independent State of Croatia were not opponents of the war, but deserters and traitors who worked together with the enemy. As a result, military jurisdiction was at most responsible for the troops of the Independent State of Croatia .

After the end of the Nazi occupation and the elimination of the Ustasha -Regimes came in 1945 for a few weeks to "spontaneous settlements" and "wild" purges from late May. They were directed against uniformed associations, especially the Croatian Ustaša . The Croatian Home Guard , Slovenian, Montenegrin, Serbian ( Chetniks ) and German associations also fell victim to mass executions or died on “death marches”. Civilians classified as political opponents were liquidated without any legal proceedings during these weeks.

After the liquidations in the first time after the surrender, which were carried out without any further proceedings, express proceedings were consequently set up before military courts in which judgments were made without any special formalities. Already in the summer of 1944 a formalized fast-track procedure had been introduced that fell within the competence of the military courts. The legal basis was the military penal laws and the 1929 Criminal Code, which made cooperation with an enemy a criminal offense. Such military courts are known from Zagreb, Osijek and Karlovac . In view of the large number of prisoners after the surrender, however, trials against all of them would hardly have been feasible. The dissident Milovan Djilas put it this way: “There were no ordinary courts. There was no way to reliably investigate the 20,000 to 30,000 cases. So the easiest way out was to shoot them all and get rid of the problem. ”After the surrender, the military tribunals continued to function. From 1945 onwards, with the establishment of civil courts, the rapid proceedings passed into the area of ​​civil jurisdiction. On August 25, 1945 the law “On crimes against the people and the state” was enacted, which also listed offenses related to the war. This law was applied retrospectively. It was valid until the introduction of the new penal code (1947 and 1951), which revised the basic offenses of treason and “collaboration with the enemy”.

Casualty numbers

The Croatian deaths from post-war crimes alone, which began in Bleiburg and the surrounding area, are estimated by the extremists among the Croatian exiles at 300,000 or more. The demographer Vladimir Žerjavić (1912–2001) refuted this number with his calculations and put the fatalities at 45,000 Croatians, 4,000 Muslims, 8,000 to 10,000 Slovenes and 2,000 Montenegrin and Serbian Chetniks.

Reliable information on the number of refugees and the total number of victims is not yet available; the exact numbers are disputed. There are no official casualties from either the Yugoslav or British sides, as the events in the SFR Yugoslavia were not allowed to be publicly discussed and the Western Allies did not conduct any official investigation either. In the successor states of Yugoslavia, Croatia and Slovenia, further excavations rarely take place, although the location of a large number of graves is known. Another difficulty is to filter out the group of people who came from the NDH state from the total number of victims. In addition to German prisoners of war from the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS, Italian prisoners of war, who were mainly deployed in Dalmatia, fell victim to the accounts. The number of German prisoners of war who lost their lives on the death marches is estimated at 10,000. There are no official reports on the fate of the German personnel of the Croatian legions who served in the Wehrmacht.

Sacrifice Myth and Remembrance

Memorial to the victims of the mass executions in the Mirogoj Cemetery in Zagreb .

The events around Bleiburg have been an important Croatian historical and national myth since 1945. They were and are seen by Croatian emigrants as a national tragedy. As early as 1951, the first commemorative events of Croatian emigrants around the Austro-Croatian Bleiburger Ehrenzug / Počasni Bleiburški vod association, based in Klagenfurt, took place in Yugoslavia . First on the Catholic feast day of All Saints' Day , later around Mother's Day , which is closer to Remembrance Day. Every year on May 15, fairs and wreath- laying ceremonies take place at the Croatian memorial on Loibacher Feld and in many Croatian cities , at which Croatians from all over the world commemorate the capture and murder of the victims.

At the events, however, people were also regularly spotted who attracted attention by wearing uniforms and badges of the Ustaša movement. These symbols are prohibited in Croatia, but allowed in Austria.

Official government representatives of Croatia have also participated since the end of the communist regime . However, the commemoration is controversial in Croatia. Every year there is a political discourse between left and right parties. The center-left coalition stopped all cash flows to the Bleiburger Ehrenzug association in 2012.

In 2019, the administrator of the diocese of Gurk-Klagenfurt , Engelbert Guggenberger , refused to approve the celebration of the Mass after crimes and convictions of Ustaša supporters in 2018. The General Secretary of the Croatian Bishops' Conference , Petar Palić , asked his Austrian counterpart Christoph Schönborn to lift the ban. The fair also applies to civilian victims.

The memorial stone erected in 1987 for the victims of Bleiburg on the Loibacher Feld (2005).

In the period from 1974 to 1976, a larger memorial stone was erected in the center of the Loibach cemetery. On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the massacre, the construction of the memorial on the Loibacher Feld began in 1985, which was financed by Bleiburg survivors, Croatian exiles and the Croatian government. Further monuments for Croatian victims are in the vicinity on Ulrichsberg , in Sankt Veit an der Glan , Bad Eisenkappel and on the Völkermarkt military cemetery . On May 16, 2020, a memorial service was celebrated in Sarajevo with the participation of Bishop Vinko Puljić . The event met with massive criticism: Numerous politicians as well as voices from civil society and other churches and religious communities had called Puljić to cancel. The President of the Jewish Community in Sarajevo, Jakob Finci , wrote in an open letter that the service commemorates the "executioners of our mothers, fathers, grandfathers, compatriots and all other innocent people who were killed by the fascist 'Independent State of Croatia'".

Assessments

The partisan historiography of Yugoslavia idealized the partisan struggle against the fascist occupiers and their allies, the Ustashe and Chetniks. The civil war character of the fighting between partisans and Chetniks was concealed. The bloody settlement with the opponents, which included the Bleiburg massacre, was not allowed to be discussed. Differentiated research into the Second World War in Yugoslavia did not begin until the 1980s. However, it was often linked to nationalist perspectives, especially in Croatia and Serbia.

In Great Britain, in particular, a controversy arose over the role that the British Army had played in handing over the Croats to Yugoslavia and the Cossacks who had fled the Croatian region to the Soviet Union. A commission chaired by Brigadier General Anthony Cowgill drew up two reports in 1990, which stated, among other things, that there was no indication that the British command posts had consciously accepted their subsequent liquidation when the prisoners were handed over.

Current research

Only in the last few years have the events of mass murder been scientifically recorded and mass graves marked and examined. In March 2011, 600 mass graves were recorded in Slovenia, but by then not a single one had been set up as a war cemetery with proper burial of all victims, according to Marko Štrovs , head of the war cemetery department at the Slovenian Ministry of Labor, Family and Social Affairs.

The places where most of the victims are said to lie include the karst caves Pod Krenom, Macesnova gorica, Rugarski klanci and Dvojno brezno pri Cink križu in the Gottscheer Hornwald ( Kočevski Rog ), Bodoveljska grapa, pod Blegošem, Repičnikova jama (Krvava peč ), Krvava peč pod Sv. Primožem ( Velike Lašče ), the Teharje camp , Griže (Savinjska dolina), Stari Hrastnik-Zasip, the Barbara tunnel (Barbarin rov) from Huda Jama near Laško , Marno (Rimske Toplice-Hrastnik road), Krištandol, the Ana pod mine Jelenico, Praprotno, the Rikelik and Klembas quarries, the Bacher Mountains ( Pohorje ), Maribor ( Tezno ) and the Sterntal camp (Strnišče, today Kidričevo).

Film adaptations

In 1999 the film Četverored (The Series of Four) was released in Croatia , which deals with the suffering of the soldiers participating in the death marches and contains numerous scenes of violence. Another film dealing with the events is the 2004 film Duga mračna noć (The Long Dark Night) with Goran Višnjić , one of the most elaborate and expensive productions in Croatian film history.

See also

literature

  • Florian Thomas Rulitz: The tragedy of Bleiburg and Viktring: Partisan violence in Carinthia using the example of the anti-communist refugees in May 1945 . Extended and revised 2nd edition. Mohorjeva Hermagoras, Klagenfurt 2012, ISBN 978-3-7086-0655-2 .
  • Stefan Dietrich: The Bleiburg victim myth . In: contemporary history . 35th year, no. 5 . Studienverlag, 2008, ISSN  0256-5250 , p. 298-317 .
  • Dunja Melčić: Settlements with the political opponents and the communist post-war crimes . In: Dunja Melčić (Ed.): The Yugoslavia War: Handbook on Prehistory, Course and Consequences . 2nd updated and expanded edition. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2007, ISBN 978-3-531-33219-2 , 12.6, pp. 198-200 .
  • Martina Grahek Ravančić: Controversies about the Croatian Victims at Bleiburg and in "Death Marches" [Controversies about the Croatian victims near Bleiburg and in the "Death Marches"] . In: Review of Croatian History . tape II , no. 1 , 2006, p. 27-46 ( http://hrcak.srce.hr/file/21966 PDF, 193 kB).
  • John Prcela, Stanko Guldescu (eds.): Operation Slaughterhouse: Eyewitness Accounts of Postwar Massacres in Yugoslavia [Operation Slaughterhouse: Eyewitness accounts of postwar massacres in Yugoslavia] . 2nd Edition. Dorrance, Philadelphia 1995, ISBN 978-0-8059-3737-4 .
  • Ekkehard Völkl: Settlement fury in Croatia . In: Klaus-Dietmar Henke, Hans Woller (ed.): Political cleansing in Europe. The reckoning with fascism and collaboration after World War II . Munich 1991, ISBN 3-423-04561-2 , pp. 358-394 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dietrich 2008, p. 301 (see literature).
  2. ↑ Tomislav Pintarić: The legal processing of the communist past in Croatia . In: Friedrich-Christian Schroeder , Herbert Küpper (Hrsg.): The legal processing of the communist past in Eastern Europe . Peter Lang GmbH Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften, Frankfurt am Main 2010, ISBN 978-3-631-59611-1 , p. 99–126, here p. 113 .
  3. ↑ Holm Sundhaussen : Yugoslavia and its successor states 1943–2011: An unusual history of the ordinary . Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 2014, ISBN 978-3-205-79609-1 , p. 64 : "Today Bleiburg or the nearby Loibacher Feld is an important Croatian place of remembrance."
  4. ↑ Michael Phayer: The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 1930-1965 . Indiana University Press, Bloomington 2000. pp. 35 ff.
  5. ↑ Mihran Dabag , Kristin Platt : Genozid und Moderne, Volume 1 . Leske + Budrich, 1998. p. 348.
  6. ^ Holm Sundhaussen: History of Serbia . Böhlau, 2007. p. 316.
  7. ^ Dieter Pohl: Persecution and mass murder in the Nazi era 1933-1945 . Scientific Book Society, 2008. p. 123.
  8. ^ Lutz Klinkhammer : The partisan war of the Wehrmacht 1941–1944 . In: Rolf-Dieter Müller, Hans-Erich Volkmann (Hrsg.): The Wehrmacht - Myth and Reality . Oldenbourg, Munich 1999, p. 822 .
  9. ↑ ↑ Konrad Clewing: No Liberators: Germans and Italians as Occupying Power in World War II in: Agilolf Keßelring (ed. On behalf of MGFA): Wegweiser zur Geschichte. Bosnia-Herzegovina , Paderborn 2007, ISBN 978-3-506-76428-7 , p. 45.
  10. ↑ http://www.hagalil.com/archiv/98/06/kroatien.htm
  11. ↑ Konrad Clewing: No Liberators: Germans and Italians as Occupying Power in World War II in: Agilolf Keßelring (ed. On behalf of the MGFA ): Wegweiser zur Geschichte. Bosnia-Herzegovina , Paderborn 2007, ISBN 978-3-506-76428-7 , p. 54.
  12. ↑ Konrad Clewing: No Liberators: Germans and Italians as Occupying Power in World War II in: Agilolf Keßelring (ed. On behalf of the MGFA ): Wegweiser zur Geschichte. Bosnia-Herzegovina , Paderborn 2007, ISBN 978-3-506-76428-7 , p. 51 ff.
  13. ↑ Holm Sundhaussen : Effects of the Second World War in: Agilolf Keßelring (Ed. On behalf of MGFA ): Guide to history. Bosnia-Herzegovina , Paderborn 2007, ISBN 978-3-506-76428-7 , p. 105 ff.
  14. ↑ Holm Sundhaussen: Effects of the Second World War in: Agilolf Keßelring (Ed. On behalf of MGFA ): Guide to history. Bosnia-Herzegovina , Paderborn 2007, ISBN 978-3-506-76428-7 , p. 112 ff.
  15. ↑ PRO, WO 170/4241, 05./06./07.1945: W67, War Diary of the HQ 5 Corps under LtGen Keightley, entry from May 15, 1945. Quoted from Rulitz 2012, p. 113.
  16. ↑ http://www.hic.hr/books/seeurope/015e-tolstoy.htm The Bleiburg massacres by Count Nikolai Tolstoy
  17. ↑ Report of Ante Dragošević of 8 and 9 May 1959 in Rome. Reprinted in John Prcela, Stanko Guldescu: Operation Slaughterhouse: Eyewitness Accounts of Postwar Massacres in Yugoslavia [Operation Slaughterhouse: Eyewitness accounts of post-war massacres in Yugoslavia] . 1st edition. Dorrance, Philadelphia 1970, Document XXVI, pp. 286-288 .
  18. ↑ Christa Zöchling: Denied Massacre, news magazine for Austria profile 39 • September 26, 2011 ( Memento of August 26, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 665 kB)
  19. ↑ Ekkehard Völkl: Accounting furor in Croatia in: Klaus-Dietmar Henke, Hans Woller (ed.): Political cleansing in Europe. Reckoning with fascism and collaboration after the Second World War, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-423-04561-2 , p. 368.
  20. ↑ MN, Koroška: V na novo potrjenem povojnem grobišču 700 žrtev? [700 victims in the newly confirmed post-war mass grave?], RTV Slovenija, September 5, 2010.
  21. ↑ Bor M. Karapandžić: Tito's bloodiest crime, 1945-1965 , Cleveland 1965
  22. ↑ John Prcela and Stanko Guldescu (eds.): Operation Slaughterhouse. Eyewitness Accounts of Postwar Massacres in Yugoslavia, Philadelphia 1970
  23. ^ Ekkehard Völkl: Settlement furor in Croatia . In: Klaus-Dietmar Henke, Hans Woller (ed.): Political cleansing in Europe. The settlement with fascism and collaboration after the Second World War , Munich 1991, ISBN 3-423-04561-2 , p. 367f., P. 370 f.
  24. ^ Ekkehard Völkl: Settlement furor in Croatia . In: Klaus-Dietmar Henke, Hans Woller (ed.): Political cleansing in Europe. The settlement with fascism and collaboration after the Second World War , Munich 1991, ISBN 3-423-04561-2 , p. 371, p. 391.
  25. ^ Ekkehard Völkl: Settlement furor in Croatia. In: Klaus-Dietmar Henke, Hans Woller (ed.): Political cleansing in Europe. Reckoning with fascism and collaboration after the Second World War , Munich 1991, ISBN 3-423-04561-2 , p. 371.
  26. ↑ quoted from Ekkehard Völkl: Abrechnungsfuror in Croatia. In: Klaus-Dietmar Henke, Hans Woller (ed.): Political cleansing in Europe. The reckoning with fascism and collaboration after World War II. Munich 1991, ISBN 3-423-04561-2 , p. 374.
  27. ↑ Vladimir Žerjavić: Population losses in Yugoslavia 1941-1945 . Ed .: Hrvatski institut za povijest. Zagreb 1997, ISBN 953-6324-06-7 , How many Croats and Muslims were killed in the vicinity of Bleiburg ?, p. 94 f .
  28. ↑ Kurt W.Böhme: On the history of the German prisoners of war of the Second World War I / 1: The German prisoners of war in Yugoslavia 1941-1949 , Munich 1962, p. 134.
  29. ↑ Croatia's President "amazed" , article on ORF .at from May 17, 2007.
  30. ↑ Dear Fascists , essay by Jörg Kronauer from July 9, 2016.
  31. ^ Advertisements according to the Prohibition Act , article in the Kleine Zeitung of May 17, 2017.
  32. ↑ Carinthia: Ustaša commemoration
  33. ↑ http://www.kleinezeitung.at/kaernten/voelkermarkt/3947785/Bleiburg_Kroatien- stellen-Geldfluss-fuer-Gedenkstaette- ein
  34. ^ Croatian bishop hopes to commemorate Bleiburg. ORF from March 11, 2019.
  35. ^ "Bleiburg Memorial Service" in Sarajevo provokes protests. In: domradio.de. May 17, 2020, accessed May 17, 2020 .
  36. ↑ Katrin Boeckh: Yugoslavia and the partisan myth in: Agilolf Keßelring (ed. On behalf of MGFA): Wegweiser zur Geschichte. Bosnia-Herzegovina , Paderborn 2007, ISBN 978-3-506-76428-7 , pp. 119–127.
  37. ^ Anthony Cowgill (Ed.): The Repatriations from Austria in 1945. Report of an Inquiry. London 1990
  38. ^ Anthony Cowgill (Ed.): The Repatriations from Austria in 1945. The Documented Evidence Reproduced in Full from British, American, German and Yugoslav Sources. London 1990
  39. ↑ Štrovs: V Sloveniji od 600 prikritih grobišč ni niti eno urejeno kot vojno pokopališče žrtev komunizma , Politikis.si, March 3, 2011
  40. ↑ Tamara Griesser-Pečar (2003): The torn people. P. 516.