This article deals with Slovenians who fought in the ranks of the French Foreign Legion during the Second World War. While some of them joined the Legion in years immediately before the outbreak of the Second World War (or at least the German invasion of France), most of them became legionnaires after the 1940 invasion. In fact, the largest group of Slovenians were previously mobilized in Italian or German armed forces and then deserted to the Legion during the war or joined it from prisoner-of-war camps. With the end of the war, some stayed in the Legion, while most of them returned to their homeland, where some faced persecution from the communist regime.
In the summer of 1945, criminal justice in Slovenia was administered by courts-martial, which also tried civilians, and the Court of Slovenian National Honour. The organisation and operation of the courts, the preparations and course of mass judicial proceedings, and the penalties imposed show that these proceedings had a political background. The mass political judicial proceedings in the summer of 1945 were part of the process of the Communist Party’s consolidation of power and “cleansing,” in which the new authorities dealt with collaborators of the occupying forces and “domestic traitors” as well as (potential) opponents of the new political system. The penalties imposed by the courts had long-term consequences. Deprivation of citizens’ and political rights meant that those convicted were excluded from public participation; they lost the right to perform public service and occupations as well as all citizens’ and political rights. The confiscations of property imposed were a permanent measure and facilitated subsequent nationalisation. In the summer of 1945, the courts handled cases involving at least 10,000 people; the Court of National Honour convicted 3,025, and the courts-martial handled around 7,000 cases.
In May 1945, the forces of the Yugoslav Army were carrying out final operations in central and northwestern Croatia. The area of Zagreb and its surroundings were also encompassed by the military actions. The Prigorje villages in the northern vicinity of the city were affected by the fiercest fighting, as this area served as a retreat route for German forces and their allies. It was precisely there that a whole series of old Roman Catholic parishes were located, from Stenjevec in the west to Granešina in the east. Wartime and post-war events in 1944–1945 were also recorded in the archival material of certain parishes. As a sanctuary and centre of the deanery, Remete was the central settlement of the Zagreb Prigorje area. Based on the available archival material, this paper aims to present the fate of the Remete parish priest and dean of the Remete Deanery, Leopold Rusan, during the final war years and the post-war months of 1945. Furthermore, through his perspective, the events in the Remete parish during the specified period will also be presented.
The paper deals with the operations of Partisan naval units in Slovenia in the final year of the Second World War, based on sources and literature. As part of the National Liberation Army of Yugoslavia, the Partisan Navy was established in the autumn of 1943. In Slovenia, the first naval unit was established only almost a year later. The reason for its establishment can be found in the national liberation movement’s fear that Anglo–American forces might not acknowledge the right of the Slovenian and Croatian nations to towns and villages in Istria and the Littoral. For most of their existence, the naval units in Slovenia operated as infantry units on the plateaus above the Vipava valley and in Slovenian Istria. They were also involved in some of the most intensive offensives by German forces aimed at removing the “Partisan threat” in the hinterland of the North Adriatic. In the concluding phase of theSecond World War, the units actively took part in liberating Slovenian towns and villages on the coast.
The article presents the formation of the system of penal institutions in Slovenia during the first year after the end of the Second World War. Penal institutions became part of the post-war repressive apparatus, which the Communist Party used in the process of consolidating its power and prosecuting individuals it considered a threat. Organizational changes in the administration of penal institutions began as early as May 1945, and in 1946 a structure was established that remained largely unchanged until the beginning of the 1950s. Conditions in penal institutions were extremely poor, with severe overcrowding due to the large number of inmates. The enforcement of sentences was accompaniedby physical and psychological violence, experienced particularly by those individuals convicted for political reasons.
