Sunday, March 08, 2009

Investigating Communist Atrocities in Slovenia

Janez, a Gates of Vienna reader from Slovenia, volunteered to translate an article from 24ur.com about the recent discovery of the remains of Slovenian victims murdered by the Communists.

Janez includes this prefatory note:

I must state that I added a few bits of information. For instance, the article never openly states that these were communist atrocities, because it is common knowledge here, but I thought it would be good to clarify. I also added the number of dead found in Slovenska Bistrica and in Maribor, and I added the number of estimated mass graves in Slovenia.

If you would like to see some more photos from the mine, they are here.

And now for his translation:

Mummified corpses found in mine shaft in Slovenia — victims of communist atrocities

Corpse unearthed in SloveniaHistorians have found a mass grave in Huda Jama near the town of Laško, Slovenia. The victims were supposedly killed on the spot, but it isn’t yet known where they were brought from.

The only eyewitness found so far, the driver who drove the victims to the mine, claims they were Slovenians, while locals believe they were Croats. Further investigations will try to establish the nationality of the victims.

The authorities say that they started work on the location last August and it took them seven months to dig through the concrete walls and the scree that were put there by the perpetrators of the crime in order to prevent the discovery of the bodies. The site has long been on the list of about 600 mass graves of communist atrocities in Slovenia. Work on mass graves and communist killings after WW2 in Slovenia is done by a special team of historians and forensic detectives.
- - - - - - - - -
Reconciliation — code name for investigating communist atrocities in Slovenia after WW2

The Slovenian police started investigating communist atrocities that took place in Slovenia after WW2 in 1994. At first they mostly worked on the concentration camp Teharje near the town of Celje, but the investigation soon died down. In 1997 about 1,100 corpses were found in approximately a hundred metres of antitank trenches while a road was being built around the city of Maribor. The police tried to identify the victims as well as the perpetrators, but without success, so the investigation stalled again. In 2001 around 400 corpses were found in a bomb shelter near Slovenska Bistrica — they were killed in 1946 — and at that time the police authorities and the attorney general demanded the investigation be restarted. So the special team was formed for the task. It is estimated that about 100,000 people were killed in Slovenia in 1945 by communist forces. No one has been indicted for these crimes so far.

8 comments:

Lizi Kurac said...

The "Bleiburg Massacre":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bleiburg_massacre
Has long been known about by Croatians around the world. There were Slovenians, and even some Serb Chetniks (they too were allied with the Nazis) massacred by the communists, but the vast majority of the victims were the Croatians who fought with the Nazi's (and their families).

Sadly, the British played a part in this war crime, in the same way as they did with the repatriation of the Cossacks to Russia that were also massacred :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betrayal_of_Cossacks

Chaim said...

That's simply laughable. 65 years after the war and Slovenia resurrects statistical evidence of 100,000 dead while the fascists of Slovenia, Croatia, Germany and Austria refuse to even admit that over 500,000 people were killed at a Death Camp in Croatia - Jasenovac.

Zealous Roman Catholic Clergy staffed the camp and Nuns ran the children's camp. They killed without remorse.

So now you want me to cry tears for the fascists who exterminated over 500,000 Serbs and killed 80% of the Jews of the Balkans?

Let it go - this is old news and nothing good will come from this atrocity revelation.

Czechmade said...

60 000 Cossaks - if I am not mistaken.

If you want to dwell on something strange - find some facts about Vlasov´s Red army, which switched the sides and went over to Hitler, was never used in combat, entered Prague on their own, probably stopped
the destruction of Prague and was not allowed to negotiate with the victors. Patton was locked in Pilsen - not allowed to move towards Prague...which was ready for pre-planned distruction just like Paris. (Nazis moved from the south to take Prague) Warsaw scenario did not take place. Amazing.

Unknown said...

Chaim, Slovenia had no fascists or very few to speak of. While home guards' collaboration with the fascists and nazis is undobutedly a sad and shameful event, they were forced into it. The communists had assassinated over a thousand Slovenians and it was only then that they took up arms. After the war they were killed indiscriminately. Compare this: the collaboration side killed about 1500 civilians during the war in Slovenia and the communists three times that many. Of about 90000 victims of WW2 in Slovnia, one third were communist atrocities, almost exclusively after the war. Their first victim was a Slovenian and their last vicim was a Slovenian. As far as Croatia goes, it is a completely different matter. From what I have been taught at school you miss the victims of Jasenovac by 200000. But then on the other hand, there are many independent researches which claim far less victims. A lot of Slovenians perished there, too. But were all those killed guilty of murder? I believe not. So, to sum up - killing a 100000 people was part of a communist clean-up during their take over, just like everywhere else, only this time they said they had an excuse.

Chaim said...

Janez, I firmly disagree with your white-washing of the Slovene Domobrani during World War II. They were working with the Ustashe as their "Northern Guard". Ask Cardinal Ambrozic in Toronto, Ontario. He is a Slovene who fled the purges that were going on at that time wherein his family spent a year in the Displaced Persons camp in Spittal am der Drau.

Ask Cardinal Ambrozic why a Slovene would flee Croats and end up protected by Roman Catholic Clergy in a displaced persons camp.

Ask Cardinal Ambrozic what his involvement with Ustashe and Domobrani might have been.

Drop it Janez - that rock should not be overturned, don't you agree? Lest Cardinal Ambrozic be compelled to actually account for his and his father's role during World War II.

Unknown said...

Chaim, of course they must have cooperated with the Ustashe at one point or another. Even the chetniks cooperated with the ustashe in certain battles, even though they were mortal enemies. I of course don't know anything about cardinal Ambrožič or his father, but to answer your question: why would they flee? Well, simply because of what happened to many of those who did not flee. I know many of the things the domobranci did were terrible, but as I said - it was a reaction to what the communists had been doing for a year and a half prior to the establishment of the village guards (MVAC). Drop it? You see, the topic has not only been dropped but buried for too long. Now it's time to see what the Yugoslavian 'fairy tale' was really based on.

Chaim said...

I you are to expose the fairy tale, then make certain you also are clear in the names of Roman Catholic Clergy (230) who were killed for their roles in the killing at Jasenovac as well as the roles of Stepanic and Montini in whisking Ustashe, and Domobrani, murderers to Argentina.

Make certain you are crystal clear in your description of the "Yugoslavian Fairy Tale" becausee it has the Vatican's fingerprints all over it.

Ask Cardinal Ambrozic - he remembers....believe me he remembers...

Unknown said...

Chaim,
I have tried to find anything incriminating about Cardinal Ambrožič or his father, but in vain. Please enlighten me!

Also, could you give me some more information about the collaboration of the Slovenian domobranci and the ustaše? When, where, its nature...

Speaking of remembering things - we have quite a lot of high-ranking communist officers with selective amnesia.

Please don't take my comments as being sarcastic. I am genuinely interested. If this debate cannot go on on this site, please email me janezgorenc@gmail.com.

Best wishes,
Janez