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Slovene Home Guard

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134-501: The Slovene Home Guard ( Slovene : Slovensko domobranstvo , SD ; German : Slowenische Landeswehr ) was a Slovene anti- Partisan collaborationist militia that operated during the 1943–1945 German occupation of the formerly Italian-annexed Slovene Province of Ljubljana . The Guard consisted of former Village Sentries ( Slovene : Vaške straže ; Italian : Guardia Civica ), part of Italian-sponsored Anti-Communist Volunteer Militia , re-organized under Nazi command after

268-461: A , an , the ) or German ( der, die, das, ein, eine ). A whole verb or a noun is described without articles and the grammatical gender is found from the word's termination. It is enough to say barka ('a' or 'the barge'), Noetova barka ('Noah's ark'). The gender is known in this case to be feminine. In declensions , endings are normally changed; see below. If one should like to somehow distinguish between definiteness or indefiniteness of

402-609: A Great German war force has come to us at the command of the Führer to protect us ... Under the leadership of Germany, the young nations of Europe will defeat Bolshevism and capitalism." Members of three former MVAC units that had escaped destruction in the aftermath of the Italian surrender came forward, and by 1 October, 1,000 troops were enrolled in the new Slovene Home Guard (Slovene: Slovensko domobranstvo , SD). The new force initially comprised three battalions totalling 2,000 men, based on

536-466: A breakdown in command and communication occurred. The Chetniks decided to stay at Grčarice expecting reinforcements to arrive, and about two-thirds of the men at Turjak, between 695 and 750 in total, elected to remain at the castle until assistance arrived from Ljubljana. They were joined by 26 Catholic priests and seminarians. The remainder of the Slovene National Army troops at Turjak withdrew to

670-671: A call for volunteers, published in main Slovene Catholic newspaper, Slovenec, thus describing the goals of the Slovene Home Guard: "Our beloved Slovenian homeland was to be handed over to Bolshevism with the help of the Anglo-American plutocracy. ... a tragedy that has plunged our good, hardworking and pious people into suffering, violence, famine, robbery and murder by ungodly and heartless servants as well as dishonorable aides working to benefit Jewish world tyranny. To prevent this,

804-855: A front organisation for the Communist Party of Slovenia. From early 1943, the Italians became steadily weaker, and were less capable of conducting large-scale operations against the Partisans. This weakness was exacerbated by the losses of the Italian Army in the Soviet Union and the landing of Anglo-American forces in North Africa in 1942, a worsening relationship with the Germans, increasing economic problems in Italy, and

938-571: A lot ... but among you Slovenes they create such hatred that you will not be able to eliminate it for fifty years." In February 1943, the OF held a conference which resulted in the Dolomite Declaration , a statement that smoothed over the internal conflicts within the OF that had resulted from the leftist errors. The practical effect of the Declaration was that the OF ceased to be a coalition and became

1072-547: A major Italian offensive against the Partisans that commenced in the second half of July 1942 and continued through to early November. Impressed with the potential of such units, and with the approval of the Italian leader, Benito Mussolini , the Italians decided to accept the offer of the Slovene Alliance, and to enrol the anti-Partisan units as auxiliaries . In early August, the Italians directed that all existing and future Slovene anti-Partisan units would be incorporated into

1206-532: A mere 2.8%. During World War II , Slovenia was divided among the Axis Powers of Fascist Italy , Nazi Germany , and Hungary . Each of the occupying powers tried to either discourage or entirely suppress Slovene. Following World War II, Slovenia became part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia . Slovene was one of the official languages of the federation. In the territory of Slovenia, it

1340-463: A noun, one would say (prav/natanko/ravno) tista barka ('that/precise/exact barge') for 'the barge' and neka/ena barka ('some/a barge') for 'a barge'. Definiteness of a noun phrase can also be discernible through the ending of the accompanying adjective. One should say rdeči šotor ('[exactly that] red tent') or rdeč šotor ('[a] red tent'). This difference is observable only for masculine nouns in nominative or accusative case. Because of

1474-748: A pre-existing vicious civil war between the Communist-led resistance force, the Osvobodilna fronta (OF – Liberation Front), and their anti-Communist opponents, many of whom had collaborated with the Italians. On Hitler's birthday, 20 April 1944, members of the SD took an oath to fight together with the SS and German police under the leadership of the Führer , Adolf Hitler , against the Communist guerrillas and their allies. This meant that

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1608-620: A prominent Slovene linguist, commented that, although Slovene is not an endangered language, its scope has been shrinking, especially in science and higher education. The language is spoken by about 2.5 million people, mainly in Slovenia, but also by Slovene national minorities in Friuli-Venezia Giulia , Italy (around 90,000 in Venetian Slovenia , Resia Valley , Canale Valley , Province of Trieste and in those municipalities of

1742-601: A record of a proto-Slovene that was spoken in a more scattered territory than modern Slovene, which included most of the present-day Austrian states of Carinthia and Styria , as well as East Tyrol , the Val Pusteria in South Tyrol , and some areas of Upper and Lower Austria . By the 15th century, most of the northern areas were gradually Germanized : the northern border of the Slovene-speaking territory stabilized on

1876-506: A regular newspaper and pamphlets. Members of the SD, while on the Axis side, occasionally helped Allied airmen who had been shot down over the province. SD units also helped the Germans to capture downed Allied airmen. German bravery medals were the only medals issued to the members of the SD. Over time, Rösener developed the SD into the primary anti-Partisan force in the province. In 1944 the German and

2010-748: A relic from the now modern Russian yery character ⟨ы⟩ , which is itself usually transliterated as ⟨y⟩ ; /j/ as ⟨y⟩ ; /l/ as ⟨ll⟩ ; /ʋ/ as ⟨w⟩ ; /ʒ/ as ⟨ʃ⟩ , ⟨ʃʃ⟩ or ⟨ʃz⟩ . The standard Slovene orthography, used in almost all situations, uses only the letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet plus ⟨č⟩ , ⟨š⟩ , and ⟨ž⟩ . The letters ⟨q⟩ , ⟨w⟩ , ⟨x⟩ , and ⟨y⟩ are not included: /uʷ/ The orthography thus underdifferentiates several phonemic distinctions: In

2144-505: A severe and early winter, meant that the Partisans gained little ground until early 1942. In December, the VOS began a campaign against Slovenes who were collaborating with the Italians, assassinating several prominent leaders. Early in 1942, Partisan Supreme Headquarters directed the Slovene Partisans to re-develop its depleted units and increase attacks and sabotage. This order resulted in

2278-444: A singular participle combined with a plural auxiliary verb (known as polvikanje ) signals a somewhat more friendly and less formal attitude while maintaining politeness: The use of nonstandard forms ( polvikanje ) might be frowned upon by many people and would not likely be used in a formal setting. The use of the 3rd person plural oni ('they') form (known as onikanje in both direct address and indirect reference; this

2412-569: A spate of Partisan operations in April–June in the Province of Ljubljana. These operations occurred at the same time that the Italians were concentrating their many small, weak and widely-spread garrisons into larger bases under Plan Primavera. The Partisans were thus able to effectively extend their control to over half of the province and population, and expand their recruiting and number and size of their units. The Partisans' success in mid-1942 meant that

2546-616: A viciously antisemitic speech to the SD troops, calling the Jews, "led by Satan himself", their main enemy, along with the Jews' supporters, the Bolsheviks from the East and the "wealthy gangsters from the West" – all this fully reproduced in the main Slovene Catholic newspaper. The SD operated under the command of SS Lieutenant-General Rösener, who, in turn, reported directly to SS Chief, Heinrich Himmler . The SD

2680-563: A violent policy of Fascist Italianization ; the same policy was applied to Slovene speakers in Venetian Slovenia , Gorizia and Trieste . Between 1923 and 1943, all public use of Slovene in these territories was strictly prohibited, and Slovene-language activists were persecuted by the state. After the Carinthian Plebiscite of 1920, a less severe policy of Germanization took place in the Slovene-speaking areas of southern Carinthia which remained under Austrian administration. After

2814-450: A vowel. Before a consonant or word-finally, they are reduced to /l/ , /n/ and /r/ respectively. This is reflected in the spelling in the case of /rj/ , but not for /lj/ and /nj/ . Under certain (somewhat unpredictable) circumstances, /l/ at the end of a syllable may become [w] , merging with the allophone of /ʋ/ in that position. Slovene has an eight-vowel (or, according to Peter Jurgec, nine-vowel) system, in comparison to

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2948-710: Is a South Slavic language of the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family . Most of its 2.5 million speakers are the inhabitants of Slovenia , majority of them ethnic Slovenes . As Slovenia is part of the European Union , Slovene is also one of its 24 official and working languages . Its syntax is highly fusional , and it has a dual grammatical number , an archaic feature shared with some other Indo-European languages . Two accentual norms (one characterized by pitch accent ) are used. Its flexible word order

3082-409: Is a distinction between animate and inanimate nouns. This is only relevant for masculine nouns and only in the singular, at odds with some other Slavic languages, e.g. Russian, for which it is also relevant in the plural for all genders. Animate nouns have an accusative singular form that is identical to the genitive, while for inanimate nouns the accusative singular is the same as the nominative. Animacy

3216-667: Is based mostly on semantics and is less rigid than gender. Generally speaking a noun is animate if it refers to something that is generally thought to have free will or the ability to move of its own accord. This includes all nouns for people and animals. All other nouns are inanimate, including plants and other non-moving life forms, and also groups of people or animals. However, there are some nouns for inanimate objects that are generally animate, which mostly include inanimate objects that are named after people or animals. This includes: There are no definite or indefinite articles as in English (

3350-580: Is often adjusted for emphasis or stylistic reasons, although basically it is an SVO language. It has a T–V distinction : the use of the V-form demonstrates a respectful attitude towards superiors and the elderly, while it can be sidestepped through the passive form. Standard Slovene is the national standard language that was formed in the 18th and 19th century, based on Upper and Lower Carniolan dialect groups , more specifically on language of Ljubljana and its adjacent areas. The Lower Carniolan dialect group

3484-613: Is proved by the survival of certain ritual formulas in Slovene (such as the ritual installation of the Dukes of Carinthia). The words Buge waz primi, gralva Venus! ('God be With You, Queen Venus!'), with which Bernhard von Spanheim greeted the poet Ulrich von Liechtenstein , who was travelling around Europe in guise of Venus, upon his arrival in Carinthia in 1227 (or 1238), is another example of some level of Slovene knowledge among high nobility in

3618-505: Is similar to using Sie in German) as an ultra-polite form is now archaic or dialectal. It is associated with servant-master relationships in older literature, the child-parent relationship in certain conservative rural communities, and parishioner-priest relationships. Foreign words used in Slovene are of various types depending on the assimilation they have undergone. The types are: The loanwords are mostly from German and Italian , while

3752-463: The Sicherheitsdienst (Security Service), and Sicherheitspolizei (Security Police), who were responsible for political and security work in the province. The provincial department of these services controlled local political police, headed by Rupnik's delegate and former Ljubljana police chief, Lovro Hacin. The Germans understood the previous relationship between the collaborationist forces and

3886-582: The 71st Infantry Division to secure Ljubljana and the Ljubljana– Postojna railway line that ran towards Trieste on the Adriatic coast. Over the period 9–14 September, they moved in additional troops, including elements of the SS , police and gendarmerie. Their initial aim was to secure the main lines of communication that passed through the province. The areas previously part of the province were incorporated into

4020-529: The Allied invasion of Sicily and the ousting of Mussolini in July 1943. By this time, increasing numbers of the Slovene population were joining the Partisans as the prospects of their victory grew. In February 1943, Novak, Mihailović's chief representative in the province, having tried for many months to get the Slovene Alliance to place some of their forces under his command, formed his own collaborationist militia, known as

4154-519: The Anschluss of 1938, the use of Slovene was strictly forbidden in Carinthia, as well. This accelerated a process of language shift in Carinthia, which continued throughout the second half of the 20th century: according to the Austro-Hungarian census of 1910, around 21% of inhabitants of Carinthia spoke Slovene in their daily communication; by 1951, this figure dropped to less than 10%, and by 2001 to

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4288-742: The Anti-Communist Volunteer Militia ( Italian : Milizia Volontaria Anti Comunista , MVAC). In the same month, armed units in rural areas were formed into the Village Guards (Slovene: Vaške straže ), which was also included in the MVAC, and ultimately became the largest grouping among the Italian auxiliaries. MVAC growth was greatly aided by the letter Bishop Rožman sent to Italian General Mario Robotti, in September, 1942, wherein Rožman proposed

4422-585: The Blue Guards (Slovene: Plava garda ) but also referred to as the Slovene Chetniks. However, this unit never grew larger than 400 troops, and because Novak had no political base in Slovenia, it was never a significant military or political force. After the war, Novak claimed that the Blue Guards had armed encounters with Italian troops and gathered intelligence on the Italians for Mihailović, but according to

4556-543: The Communist Party of Slovenia , quite a large number of members of the Christian Socialist Party , some members of the gymnastic body Sokol , various progressive intellectuals, some former Royal Yugoslav Army officers, and even some members of the strongly- Catholic Slovene People's Party . These bodies varied in origin, ideology and strength, but were united in their policy of immediate armed resistance to

4690-543: The Italian Armistice in September 1943), and weapons, uniforms and equipment supplied by the Germans, especially later in the war. In its aims and ideology, the SD was anti- Partisan , anti-communist and antisemitic. The Slovene Home Guard (SD) functioned like most collaborationist forces in Axis -occupied Europe during World War II, but had limited autonomy, and at first functioned as an auxiliary police force that assisted

4824-636: The Italian Armistice of September 1943. The Guard had close links with Slovenian right-wing anti-Communist political parties and organizations, which provided most of the membership, receiving assistance from the Germans rather than providing assistance to them. In the Slovenian Littoral , a similar but much smaller unit, called the Slovenian National Defense Corps ( Slovene : Slovensko narodno varnostni zbor , German : Slowenisches Nationales Schutzkorps ), more commonly known as

4958-734: The Lika region of the neighboring Independent State of Croatia . Partisan units attacked the Chetnik force, pushing them southwest to the village of Grčarice , about 55 kilometres (34 mi) south-southeast of Ljubljana. At the same time, the former MVAC units, now renamed the Slovene National Army, and part of Mihailović's "Yugoslav Army in the Homeland", concentrated a large force of around 1,600 men at Turjak Castle , 20 kilometres (12 mi) south-southeast of Ljubljana. The force at Turjak had considerable ammunition and food supplies. Partisan forces were moving in

5092-707: The Operational Zone of the Adriatic Littoral under the overall control of the Gauleiter of Reichsgau Kärnten , SS- Obergruppenführer Friedrich Rainer , who was appointed Reich Defense Commissioner for the zone. The designation of this area as an operational zone was to ensure that military needs were prioritised. From September until early November 1943, the zone was the responsibility of Army Group B under Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel . After Army Group B

5226-530: The Protestant Reformation . The most prominent authors from this period are Primož Trubar , who wrote the first books in Slovene; Adam Bohorič , the author of the first Slovene grammar; and Jurij Dalmatin , who translated the entire Bible into Slovene. From the high Middle Ages up to the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, in the territory of present-day Slovenia, German

5360-616: The Province of Gorizia bordering with Slovenia), in southern Carinthia , some parts of Styria in Austria (25,000) and in the western part of Croatian Istria bordering with Slovenia. It is also spoken in Rijeka and Zagreb (11,800-13,100), in southwestern Hungary (3-5,000), in Serbia (5,000), and by the Slovene diaspora throughout Europe and the rest of the world (around 300,000), particularly in

5494-800: The Slavic languages , together with Serbo-Croatian . It is close to the Chakavian and especially Kajkavian dialects of Serbo-Croatian, but genealogically more distant from the Shtokavian dialect , the basis for the Bosnian , Croatian , Montenegrin , and Serbian standard languages. Slovene in general, and Prekmurje Slovene in particular, shares the highest level of mutual intelligibility with transitional Kajkavian dialects of Hrvatsko Zagorje and Međimurje . Furthermore, Slovene shares certain linguistic characteristics with all South Slavic languages , including those of

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5628-851: The Slovene Lands where compulsory schooling was in languages other than Standard Slovene, as was the case with the Carinthian Slovenes in Austria, and the Slovene minority in Italy . For example, the Resian and Torre (Ter) dialects in the Italian Province of Udine differ most from other Slovene dialects. Slovene is an Indo-European language belonging to the Western subgroup of the South Slavic branch of

5762-495: The United States (most notably Ohio , home to an estimated 3,400 speakers), Canada , Argentina , Australia and South Africa . Slovene is sometimes characterized as the most diverse Slavic language in terms of dialects , with different degrees of mutual intelligibility. Accounts of the number of dialects range from as few as seven dialects, often considered dialect groups or dialect bases that are further subdivided into as many as 50 dialects. Other sources characterize

5896-439: The Ustaše Militia in Croatia, the SD suffered fewer desertions and defections in the last months of the war. As one curate expressed it at the time, there existed a sentiment among the SD troops that it was better to die than live under Communist rule. Although some 40 Catholic priests joined the Partisans and 3 served in its leadership, most of the Catholic Church in Ljubljana Province, led by Bishop Gregorij Rožman supported

6030-455: The 16th century, and ultimately led to the formation of more standard language. The Upper dialect was also used by most authors during the language revival in the 18th and early 19th centuries, and was also the language spoken by France Prešeren , who, like most of Slovene writers and poets, lived and worked in Ljubljana, where speech was growing closer to the Upper Carniolan dialect group. Unstandardized dialects are more preserved in regions of

6164-416: The 1910s is frequently closer to modern Slovene than a text from the 1920s and 1930s. Between 1920 and 1941, the official language of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was defined as "Serbo-Croato-Slovene", which was in practice merely Serbo-Croatian. In Slovenia however, Slovene remained in use in education and administration. Many state institutions used only Serbo-Croatian, and a Slovene–Serbo-Croatian bilingualism

6298-399: The 1st Combat Group; the 2nd Railway Security Group, comprising the former 4th and 5th Combat Groups; the 3rd Operational Group, formed from the 2nd, 6th and 7th Combat Groups, and including the Assault Battalion Kriz ; and the 4th Novo Mesto Protection Group. On 16 May, the SD, now totalling 12,000, was split up across four operational zones. Each zone formed an assault battalion. On 5 July,

6432-404: The 2nd person singular ti form (known as tikanje ) is officially limited to friends and family, talk among children, and addressing animals, it is increasingly used among the middle generation to signal a relaxed attitude or lifestyle instead of its polite or formal counterpart using the 2nd person plural vi form (known as vikanje ). An additional nonstandard but widespread use of

6566-423: The 4th Battalion was a training unit. In December, conscription was imposed, which helped bring the total strength of the SD to 10,500. With this increased strength, the battalions were reformed into seven combat groups (Slovene: Bojna Skupina 1–7) and two training groups. On 25 February 1944, the SD underwent a further re-organisation into four groups (Slovene: Skupine ): the 1st Training Group, formed from

6700-479: The Black Hand, was created to arrest, torture and kill suspected members of the Liberation Front, and they are estimated to have killed between 129 and one thousand Slovenes. As a result, in 1944, the anti-Partisan, Slovene intelligence officer, Colonel Vladimir Vauhnik , who helped organize spy networks for the British in Slovenia and Croatia, wrote that the Police and Slovene Home Guard "have mopped up everything that could be suspected of leftist sympathies". In 1944,

6834-447: The Eastern subgroup, namely Bulgarian , Macedonian and Torlakian dialects. Mutual intelligibility with varieties of Serbo-Croatian is hindered by differences in vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation, Kajkavian being firmly the most mutually intelligible . Slovene has some commonalities with the West Slavic languages that are not found in other South Slavic languages. Like all Slavic languages , Slovene traces its roots to

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6968-680: The Germans in anti-Partisan operations. Later, it gained more autonomy and conducted most of the anti-Partisan operations in Slovenia, while still having German officers in command. This helped the Germans by allowing them to commit more of their troops against the Allies. The Home Guard also directly assisted German war efforts against the Allies in Italy and the Balkans, by guarding critical war infrastructure – roads, railroads, bridges, electricity lines, fuel depots, etc. Home Guard propaganda urged Slovenes to join Nazi labor units in Slovenia and Germany, and captured escaped members of Nazi forced labor units. The SD supported their military actions by publishing

7102-492: The Germans sought to maintain an open corridor through Slovenia for hundreds of thousands of their troops and collaborators who were withdrawing all the way from Greece and Albania, plus the rest of Yugoslavia. Thus in these final pitched battles an additional 20,000 Slovenes were killed in 1945, prior to liberation, with the Partisans again suffering the greatest number of casualties, 8,200, followed by 6,200 Slovene civilians. Unlike auxiliary units in other Balkan territories such as

7236-419: The Home Guard Police Corps rounded up the few remaining Jews in Ljubljana, and sent them to Auschwitz. Antisemitism was central to Slovene Home Guard ideology, even though Slovene Jews constituted a minuscule 0.1% of the population. Before the war, the clericalist forces which later formed the core of the Home Guard, spread antisemitic propaganda in Slovenec and other Catholic papers. While Interior Minister in

7370-558: The Italians in the Consulta, a supposedly consultative body, that had no power. Much of the prewar police force and public administration continued to work for the new Fascist authorities. Soon after the annexation, several resistance groups emerged, but only the communist-led Liberation Front of the Slovene Nation ( Slovene : Osvobodilna fronta slovenskega naroda ), or simply Liberation Front ( Osvobodilna fronta , OF) raised armed units and engaged in sabotage and active resistance. The OF consisted of eighteen distinct groupings, including

7504-405: The Italians testified. The main part of the Slovene People's Party formed the Slovene Legion, the Yugoslav National Party and the majority of Sokol formed the Sokol Legion, and another group that was formed was the National Legion. All of these latter organisations tried to position themselves to take advantage of whatever outcome resulted from the war. These non-OF groups were collectively known by

7638-405: The Italians were even more committed to combating them, and the non-OF forces sought to find an effective way to collaborate with the Italians in order to fight the Partisans. By early 1942, the non-OF forces had concluded that the OF was working towards a communist takeover of Yugoslavia, which made the OF a far greater threat to them than the Italians, especially if the Allies prevailed. Likewise,

7772-404: The Italians, and wanted to establish a similar arrangement to supplement their limited manpower. This intent coincided with that of the anti-Partisan forces, who were under a greater threat from the Partisans after the Italian surrender. Immediately after the Germans took control, Rösener suggested to Rupnik that he organise a new anti-Partisan force in the province. On 24 September, Rupnik issued

7906-484: The Italians. Members of the Sokol and National Legions were also absorbed into the MVAC for the same reasons. Following Partisan reverses in the Italian offensive that commenced in July, and the loss of Partisan territory, many Slovenes considered them defeated and were drawn towards collaboration. During 1942, at the urging of the Slovene People's Party, around 600 anti-Partisan former Royal Yugoslav Army prisoners-of-war (POWs) were released from Italian camps, returned to

8040-474: The Littoral Home Guard ( Slovene : Primorsko domobranstvo ) was ideologically and organizationally linked to the SD. An even smaller Upper Carniolan Self-Defense ( Slovene : Gorenjska samozaščita , German : Oberkrainer Landschutz ), also known as the Upper Carniolan Home Guard ( Slovene : Gorenjsko domobranstvo ) operated in Upper Carniola between 1944 and 1945. All three "home guard" units comprised almost exclusively ethnic Slovenes . The officers and

8174-408: The MVAC forces must be their first priority. Italian officers, among them general Roatta, criticized the MVAC's poor discipline, stating they "resembled goon-squads", were "insubordinate and rowdy" and pillaged. Speaking to Rožman in the autumn of 1942, Italian general Vittorio Ruggero warned Rožman: "I am not Slovenian, but this is how I see Slovenes and their struggle: the MVAC units help us Italians

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8308-405: The Nazis sought to Germanize all Slovenes, brutally expelling 83.000, including nearly all teachers and priests, forbade the Slovene language in schools and public institutions, executed thousands of hostages, etc. Unlike Bishop Rožman, the Styrian Bishop of Maribor, Ivan Tomažič , remained neutral and did not support the SD. Thus partly as a result, there was not only less collaboration, but the war

8442-403: The OF and against the civilian population, conducting operations in the late summer and early autumn that destroyed or broke up many of the Partisan companies and caused losses to others. The non-OF groups made contact with Mihailović and planned to provide recruits for his "Yugoslav Army in the Homeland" during a future uprising against the Italians. Setbacks to the OF, followed by the onset of

8576-429: The OF as "White Guards" (Slovene: Bela garda ). The pro-Western groups sought the re-establishment of Yugoslavia, and in common with the communists, the expansion of Yugoslavia to include those Slovene lands that had been annexed by Italy or remained part of Austria after World War I . The leadership of the OF lay in the hands of several communists, Boris Kidrič , Edvard Kardelj , and Franc Leskošek . In August,

8710-413: The OF created the Security and Intelligence Service (Slovene: Varnostno-obveščevalna služba , VOS) to coordinate resistance activities. This was a small and select secret police organisation, led by Zdenka Kidrič, Boris Kidrič's wife. Although it was part of the OF, the VOS was under exclusive communist control. During the second half of 1941, the White Guards remained inactive against the Italians. This

8844-517: The Partisans even after the German surrender, attacking a Slovene Partisan brigade near Ferlach, Austria, on 11 May 1945, killing 180 Partisans. The Nazis also established a Slovene Home Guard Police Corps, commanded by Lovro Hacin, the police chief in pre-war Ljubljana. The Corps had a secret branch, whose main task was to identify members of the Liberation Front and their sympathizers, as well as create lists of hostages to be shot in revenge for partisan actions. Beyond that, they spied on all members of

8978-415: The Partisans realised that the non-OF forces were their main enemy. These realisations resulted in bitter enmity between the two groups. The non-OF forces then made a series of proposals to the Italians, aimed at opposing the objectives of the OF and Partisans. They also established the Slovene Alliance (Slovene: Slovenska zaveza ) to coordinate their anti-Partisan policies. The alliance was dominated by

9112-603: The Provincial Administration, as well as on health care workers, teachers, university professors, industrial workers, bank employees, etc., in what became "a Slovene-administered police state". Working with the Home Guard Army and the Gestapo, the Police Corps jailed some 6,000 political prisoners in Ljubljana Province, one-third of them women, and many more female Partisan supporters were jailed as "prostitutes". The police created lists of Slovene political prisoners to be sent to Nazi concentration camps, and assisted in their deportations. A separate, secret Police-associated organization,

9246-467: The SD forces intensified their attempts to eliminate the Partisans, and total Slovene casualties greatly increased, from 16,600 killed in 1943 to 27,000 in 1944. Of these the Partisans were responsible for 2,700, or 10% of the casualties, while the German-SD forces killed the other 90%, or 24,300 Slovenes. Partisans suffered the greatest number of casualties, with 12,400 killed, followed by 5,500 civilians killed and 1,000 SD troops. With liberation approaching,

9380-419: The SD had sworn an oath to fight against the Soviet Union and Western Allies. It is likely that the members of the SD took this oath under duress and had reservations about it, but the oath made them suspect from the perspective of the Western Allies. The SD swore a second oath of allegiance on 30 January 1945, the anniversary of the Nazis coming to power. After the oath, the SD Inspector-General, Leon Rupnik, gave

9514-422: The SD to transfer their allegiance to the Partisans, and recognize the Tito-Šubašić agreement , which the Allies also supported. Yet despite Partisan offers of amnesty, most SD members continued fighting against the Partisans, on the side of the Nazis, unlike many Croat Home Guards, Chetniks and other collaborationist troops who either joined the Partisans, or just stopped fighting. Some SD members continued fighting

9648-555: The SD, which helped make Ljubljana Province the epicenter of armed collaboration. By contrast, in the Primorska (Slovene Littoral), which suffered under 20 years of Fascist rule, many local priests supported the Liberation Front, and Primorska experienced much less collaboration, with only 2,000 SD-affiliated troops, commanded by officers imported from Ljubljana Province. There was also less collaboration in Štajerska (Lower Styria), where

9782-700: The Slovene Home Guard Police arrested 32 Jews, who had until then managed to hide in Ljubljana, and turned them over to the Nazis, who then sent them to Auschwitz and other concentration camps, where most were exterminated. Slovene language Slovene ( / ˈ s l oʊ v iː n / SLOH -veen or / s l oʊ ˈ v iː n , s l ə -/ sloh- VEEN , slə- ) or Slovenian ( / s l oʊ ˈ v iː n i ə n , s l ə -/ sloh- VEE -nee-ən, slə- ; slovenščina )

9916-606: The Slovene Partisans reinforced this disconnect, stating that the collaboration by the SD deprived the Partisans of much-needed manpower and made the task of the Germans easier, concluding "therefore the White Guards (another name for Home Guards) are declared enemies of the Allies". In 1944, at the urging of Western Allies, Slovene members of the Yugoslav government-in-exile in London, called on

10050-709: The Slovene People's Party, Village Guards and Slovene Legion were preferred. Rupnik had no control over the SD, even after he was appointed inspector-general in September 1944. Even in this role, he was only involved with recruiting and training. After it was formed, the SD was organised into 43 infantry companies as local garrisons for population centres, with 20 more grouped into the battalions. It also had engineers , signals , medical and labour companies, and four artillery batteries . A separate company operated five armoured trains . The battalions were re-organised several times. By October 1943, there were five battalions, but

10184-572: The Slovene People's Party, with its Slovene Legion. The leader of the Slovene People's Party, Miha Krek , who was vice-premier in the Yugoslav government-in-exile in London, broadcast messages urging all members of the alliance to follow the orders of Mihailović, who was by this time the Minister of Army, Navy and Air Force in the government-in-exile, despite being physically located in occupied Yugoslavia. In May 1942, clandestine recruiting and organisation of

10318-614: The War. When the Nazis appointed Rupnik as Inspector General of the Home Guard, he proclaimed in his speech: "that the Partisans were drugged and bought by Jews, with the task of destroying the Slovene nation, and that on the side of the Slovenian nation was a German soldier fighting against world Jewry". Home Guard propagandists regularly railed against "the Jewish-Bolshevik conspiracy", and in 1944

10452-708: The Western Allies if they landed in the Slovene Littoral ; coming to an arrangement with the Partisans; or preparing to collaborate with the Germans in order to keep fighting the Partisans. Given the political views of the collaborationists, unless the Western Allies landed on the coast, the only viable option remaining was to collaborate with the Germans. For their part, the Partisans, whilst continuing to attack Italian and MVAC units in July and August 1943, began to strengthen and conserve their forces to take advantage in

10586-526: The Yugoslav government, the leading Slovene politician and former Catholic priest, Anton Korošec , declared "all Jews, Communists, and Freemasons as traitors, conspirators, and enemies of the State". In 1940, Korošec introduced two antisemitic laws in Yugoslavia, to ban Jews from the food industry and restrict the number of Jewish students in high schools and universities. Such antisemitism greatly intensified during

10720-538: The Yugoslav government-in-exile and to the British. They argued that the communists were a greater threat than the Germans, and that their resistance to the Partisans was forced on them by the communists. This stance was seriously undermined after the Tehran Conference of November–December 1943 which formally designated the Partisans as an Allied force and urged support for their struggle. The British liaison officers with

10854-554: The aftermath of the Italian collapse. Italy surrendered on 8 September. At the time that the Italians surrendered, the Italians had about 50,000 troops in the province, assisted by 6,049 MVAC soldiers and 300–400 Slovene Chetniks. The Partisans fielded around 3,000 men, although there were many more in non-combat organisations. About half of Novak's Chetniks, anticipating an Allied landing in the Slovene Littoral, moved south to meet reinforcements that they were expecting to arrive from

10988-418: The annexation forces. Besides the OF, other political groups organised on the basis that they would form the core of resistance against the Italians at some time in the future. These groups generally considered immediate resistance to be pointless given the overwhelming enemy, and that it would be too expensive in terms of lives, property and suffering. Instead they planned to wait until Allied troops arrived in

11122-515: The areas around Trieste . During most of the Middle Ages, Slovene was a vernacular language of the peasantry, although it was also spoken in most of the towns on Slovenian territory, together with German or Italian. Although during this time, German emerged as the spoken language of the nobility, Slovene had some role in the courtly life of the Carinthian, Carniolan and Styrian nobility, as well. This

11256-576: The battalions were renumbered; 1st Battalion remained unchanged, 2nd Battalion became the 5th Battalion, 4th Battalion was renamed as the 2nd Battalion, the 5th Battalion became the 6th, and the 6th Battalion was renamed as the 10th Battalion. At this point there was also a 12th Battalion. Marching into the Province of Ljubljana in September 1943 on the heels of the capitulating Italians, the Germans hoped quickly to re-establish order and pacify this strategic central European communication and transportation nexus. Instead they were absorbed, willingly or not, into

11390-499: The castle for five days, again using captured heavy weapons against the defenders until they capitulated. During this period, the Partisans also captured other MVAC troops, including some of those located at Zapotok. The rest withdrew towards Ljubljana, suffering devastating losses, where they were disarmed by the newly arrived Germans. Boris Kidrič stated the Partisans had captured about 1,200 collaborationist troops by 21 September. A small number were charged with war crimes and shot, while

11524-473: The creation of a Slovene collaborationist army and police force, under Italian command, to help fight Partisans and track down their supporters. MVAC forces participated in the brutal Italian offensive of Summer-Fall 1942, when 80,000 well-armed Italian troops, attacked 3,000 poorly-armed Partisan forces, killing half of them, shooting all prisoners they found with arms. With MVAC help, the Italians ultimately sent to concentration camps 30,000 Slovenes, nearly 10% of

11658-484: The end of September, MVAC units in the province numbered some 2,219 armed men. Each unit had one or more Italian liaison officers attached to it. This rapid growth was driven by the close alignment of the MVAC with the Catholic Church at all levels, along with the Slovene Alliance viewing the MVAC as a simple method by which to legalise a large number of its members, whilst also gaining arms, ammunition, food and pay from

11792-542: The end of words unless immediately followed by a word beginning with a vowel or a voiced consonant. In consonant clusters, voicing distinction is neutralized and all consonants assimilate the voicing of the rightmost segment, i.e. the final consonant in the cluster. In this context, [v] , [ɣ] and [d͡z] may occur as voiced allophones of /f/ , /x/ and /t͡s/ , respectively (e.g. vŕh drevésa [ʋrɣ dreˈʋesa] ). /ʋ/ has several allophones depending on context. The sequences /lj/ , /nj/ and /rj/ occur only before

11926-483: The excessive usage of regionalisms. Regionalisms are mostly limited to culinary and agricultural expressions, although there are many exceptions. Some loanwords have become so deeply rooted in the local language that people have considerable difficulties in finding a standard expression for the dialect term (for instance, kremšnita meaning a type of custard cake is kremna rezina in Standard Slovene, but

12060-554: The federation, its right to secede and set foundations to a multi-party system . These amendments were bitterly opposed by the leadership of Serbia under Slobodan Milošević . On 23 January 1990, the Slovene delegation, headed by Milan Kučan , left the Party Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, leading to the collapse of the all-Yugoslav party. On 4 February 1990, the League of Communists of Slovenia changed its name to

12194-564: The first Slovene anti-Partisan forces began. Initially this effort was very small, and included members of the Slovene, Sokol and National Legions, as well as a number of Major Karl Novak 's Slovene Chetniks . This organisation was known as the Legion of Death . Whilst small initially, once this force was raised, it became critical to obtain Italian endorsement for its operation. Units of the Legion of Death informally collaborated with Italian units during

12328-505: The first novel in Slovene in 1866. This tendency was reversed in the Fin de siècle period by the first generation of modernist Slovene authors (most notably the writer Ivan Cankar ), who resorted to a more "pure" and simple language without excessive Serbo-Croatian borrowings. During the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in the 1920s and 1930s, the influence of Serbo-Croatian increased again. This was opposed by

12462-415: The five-vowel system of Serbo-Croatian. Slovene nouns retain six of the seven Slavic noun cases: nominative , accusative , genitive , dative , locative and instrumental . There is no distinct vocative ; the nominative is used in that role. Nouns, adjectives and pronouns have three numbers: singular, dual and plural. Nouns in Slovene are either masculine, feminine or neuter gender. In addition, there

12596-413: The historian Jozo Tomasevich the first claim is groundless as the Italians allocated an operational zone to Novak's principal unit and indirectly provided it with supplies, and its size and restrictions on its movement precluded the gathering of much useful intelligence. With the pending collapse of the Italians, those that had been collaborating with them were faced with difficult choices: trying to join

12730-433: The lack of article in Slovene and audibly insignificant difference between the masculine adjective forms, most dialects do not distinguish between definite and indefinite variants of the adjective, leading to hypercorrection when speakers try to use Standard Slovene. Slovene, like most other European languages, has a T–V distinction , or two forms of 'you' for formal and informal situations. Although informal address using

12864-642: The language of command were Slovene. Some of the resistance groups outside of the communist-led Liberation Front of the Slovene Nation (OF) were collectively known by the OF as White Guards (Slovene: Bela garda ). The British liaison-officers with the Slovene Partisans saw the White Guards as another name for the Home Guards, and declared them enemies of the Allies . In April 1941, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia

12998-406: The large amounts of Italian arms and equipment captured by the Partisans, which allowed a substantial increase in their forces. At the time of the Italian surrender, the Germans had occupied the Province of Ljubljana as part of Operation Achse , the plan to disarm the Italians in case they signed an armistice with the Allies. Two weeks prior to the surrender, the Germans had moved in a regiment of

13132-549: The latter term is very rarely used in speech being considered inappropriate for non-literary registers ). Southwestern dialects incorporate many calques and loanwords from Italian, whereas eastern and northwestern dialects are replete with lexemes of German origin. Usage of such words hinders intelligibility between dialects and is greatly discouraged in formal situations. Slovene has a phoneme set consisting of 21 consonants and 8 vowels . Slovene has 21 distinctive consonant phonemes. All voiced obstruents are devoiced at

13266-476: The line going from north of Klagenfurt to south of Villach and east of Hermagor in Carinthia, while in Styria it was more or less identical with the current Austrian-Slovenian border. This linguistic border remained almost unchanged until the late 19th century, when a second process of Germanization took place, mostly in Carinthia. Between the 9th and 12th century, proto-Slovene spread into northern Istria and in

13400-581: The main Slovene Home Guard newspaper wrote: "Judaism wants to enslave the whole world. It can enslave it if it also economically destroys all the nations. That is why it drove nations into war to destroy themselves and thereby benefit the Jews. Communism is the most loyal executor of Jewish orders, along with liberal democracy. Both ideas were created by Jews for non-Jewish peoples. The Slovenian nation also wants to bring Judaism to its knees, along with its moral decay and impoverishment" . In September 1944,

13534-752: The more recently borrowed and less assimilated words are typically from English . This alphabet ( abeceda ) was derived in the mid-1840s from the system created by the Croatian linguist Ljudevit Gaj . Intended for the Serbo-Croatian language (in all its varieties), it was patterned on the Czech alphabet of the 1830s. Before that /s/ was, for example, written as ⟨ ʃ ⟩ , ⟨ʃʃ⟩ or ⟨ſ⟩ ; /tʃ/ as ⟨tʃch⟩ , ⟨cz⟩ , ⟨tʃcz⟩ or ⟨tcz⟩ ; /i/ sometimes as ⟨y⟩ as

13668-466: The non-OF political forces remained splintered, and the various other armed forces tried to maintain their identity within the MVAC. This division within the non-OF forces made the work of the OF easier. However, the communist-led OF made many mistakes before and during the 1942 Italian offensive which eroded their chances of gaining the allegiance of those who were uncommitted to either the OF or non-OF forces. Among these were leftist errors , which involved

13802-585: The number of dialects as nine or eight. The Slovene proverb "Every village has its own voice" ( Vsaka vas ima svoj glas ) depicts the differences in dialects. The Prekmurje dialect used to have a written norm of its own at one point. The Resian dialects have an independent written norm that is used by their regional state institutions. Speakers of those two dialects have considerable difficulties with being understood by speakers of other varieties of Slovene, needing code-switching to Standard Slovene. Other dialects are mutually intelligible when speakers avoid

13936-478: The population of Ljubljana Province, including thousands of women and children, and where thousands died. The Italian army shot thousands of additional Slovene civilians as hostages, surrounded Ljubljana and other cities with barbed-wire, forbade entry and exit. In Ljubljana, MVAC units conducted the "Christmas raids" in December 1942, arresting 550 suspected Liberation Front members, many sent to concentration camps. By

14070-466: The post-breakup influence of Serbo-Croatian on Slovene continued to a lesser extent, most prominently in slang in colloquial language . Joža Mahnič , a literary historian and president of the publishing house Slovenska matica , said in February 2008 that Slovene is a language rich enough to express everything, including the most sophisticated and specialised texts. In February 2010, Janez Dular ,

14204-399: The previous MVAC units. Shortly after Rupnik began recruiting for the SD, Rösener took over the SD organisation, created a headquarters staff to control it, and split it into organisational and propaganda departments. Royal Yugoslav Army officers of Slovene background with previous MVAC experience were placed in charge, but under close German supervision. In particular, those with close links to

14338-447: The province at the time of the Italian surrender, about 500 were killed fighting the Partisans in the immediate aftermath of the capitulation, about 3,000 were captured, and about 1,000 agreed to join the Partisans. The remaining 2,000 were still in the field, although they were quickly disarmed by the Germans. The aftermath of the Italian surrender was devastating for the collaborationist forces, not only due to their losses, but also due to

14472-580: The province, and enlisted in the MVAC. One of these, Lieutenant Colonel Ernest Peterlin , was appointed to command the MVAC unit in Ljubljana which was formed in October. By the following month, the MVAC had 4,471 men under arms. While the MVAC included some members of the Sokol Legion and many former POWs, the dominant force within it was the Slovene Legion, and through it, the Slovene People's Party. However,

14606-518: The region, then mobilise and, using arms obtained from the Allies or through capture, turn against the Italians and be on the winning side when the war ended. In this they reflected the same approach as the Chetnik leader in the German-occupied territory of Serbia , Draža Mihailović . Some of these groups had a pro- Western stance, but others were pro-Axis, as the number of active collaborators with

14740-462: The region. The first printed Slovene words, stara pravda (meaning 'old justice' or 'old laws'), appeared in 1515 in Vienna in a poem of the German mercenaries who suppressed the Slovene peasant revolt : the term was presented as the peasants' motto and battle cry. Standard Slovene emerged in the second half of the 16th century, thanks to the works of Slovene Lutheran authors, who were active during

14874-435: The rest were allocated to labour units in preparation for integration into Partisan units. There is a great deal of controversy regarding the fate of the collaborationist troops captured at Grčarice and Turjak. According to Partisan records, a total of 115 former MVAC troops and Chetniks were sentenced to death, and others were shot trying to escape from work units. Anti-Partisan sources claim that up to 1,000 were killed. Given

15008-533: The rise of Romantic nationalism in the 19th century, the cultural movements of Illyrism and Pan-Slavism brought words from Serbo-Croatian , specifically Croatian dialects, and Czech into standard Slovene, mostly to replace words previously borrowed from German. Most of these innovations have remained, although some were dropped in later development. In the second half of the 19th century, many nationalist authors made an abundant use of Serbo-Croatian words: among them were Fran Levstik and Josip Jurčič , who wrote

15142-442: The same direction as the collaborationists, with orders to disarm Italian troops and capture or destroy any Chetnk or MVAC forces they encountered. The Partisans aimed to inflict as much damage as possible on the former Italian auxiliaries to make them of less value to the Germans when they took over. These Partisan units managed to recruit some Italians to join them, including some equipped with tanks and artillery. At both locations,

15276-514: The same proto-Slavic group of languages that produced Old Church Slavonic . The earliest known examples of a distinct, written dialect connected to Slovene are from the Freising manuscripts , known in Slovene as Brižinski spomeniki . The consensus estimate of their date of origin is between 972 and 1039 (most likely before 1000). These religious writings are among the oldest surviving manuscripts in any Slavic language. The Freising manuscripts are

15410-684: The standard orthography, Slovene also uses standardized diacritics or accent marks to denote stress , vowel length and pitch accent , much like the closely related Serbo-Croatian . However, as in Serbo-Croatian, use of such accent marks is restricted to dictionaries, language textbooks and linguistic publications. In normal writing, the diacritics are almost never used, except in a few minimal pairs where real ambiguity could arise. League of Communists of Slovenia The League of Communists of Slovenia ( Slovene : Zveza komunistov Slovenije , ZKS ; Serbo-Croatian : Savez komunista Slovenije )

15544-406: The tendencies of both sides to either minimise or inflate these figures to their own ends, it remains unclear how many collaborationist troops were killed following capture. Disgusted with his dealings with the Slovene Alliance, and following the defeat at Grčarice, Novak disbanded his remaining troops and escaped to Italy in late September. Of the approximately 6,500 collaborationist troops present in

15678-414: The tonemic varieties of Slovene, the ambiguity is even greater: ⟨e⟩ in a final syllable can stand for any of /éː/ /èː/ /ɛ́ː/ /ɛ̀ː/ /ɛ/ /ə/ (although /ɛ̀ː/ is rare; and Slovene, except in some dialects, does not distinguished tonemic accentuation). The reader is expected to gather the interpretation of the word from the context, as in these examples: To compensate for the shortcomings of

15812-413: The use of terror against real and alleged collaborators, and those who, due to their social class, were considered future opponents of the OF, such as wealthier peasants. The OF also made a number of military mistakes, mainly due to lack of experience or poor leadership. The Partisans sought to rectify their mistakes, and by November 1942 had recovered to a significant extent and concluded that destruction of

15946-466: The village of Zapotok , about 3–4 kilometres (1.9–2.5 mi) west of Turjak. There they were joined by elements of other former MVAC units and two small Chetnik detachments. On 9–10 September, a Partisan brigade , supported by two Italian howitzers , overran the Chetniks at Grčarice. Four days later, the Partisans completely encircled Turjak Castle, and after their surrender demands were rejected, besieged

16080-414: The younger generations of Slovene authors and intellectuals; among the most fierce opponents of an excessive Serbo-Croatian influence on Slovene were the intellectuals associated with the leftist journal Sodobnost , as well as some younger Catholic activists and authors. After 1945, numerous Serbo-Croatian words that had been used in the previous decades were dropped. The result was that a Slovene text from

16214-484: The zone into six provinces, of which Ljubljana was one. In Ljubljana Province, Rainer appointed Leon Rupnik as president of the provincial government. Rupnik was a pre-war Yugoslav general, and had been mayor of Ljubljana under the Italians. In addition to his military experience and previous collaboration with the Italians, Rupnik was also recommended by Gregorij Rožman , Catholic Bishop of Ljubljana . The main German occupation "advisor", and Rupnik's effective superior,

16348-559: The zones were named for the four cardinal directions , and a single battalion was formed in each. A fifth battalion was raised in August, and a sixth in March 1945. However, in December 1944, as Slovene desertions were increasing, the German 14th and 17th SS Police Regiments detached a company to join each SD battalion except the 2nd Battalion, and German officers took command of each battalion. The final re-organisation occurred on 28 March 1945, when

16482-490: Was invaded by the Axis powers , quickly overrun and carved up. Those areas of Yugoslavia that now form the country of Slovenia were annexed by Germany , Italy and Hungary . The Italians annexed southern Slovene territories with a population of 336,279, as the Province of Ljubljana . Italian annexation troops, the XI Army Corps , secured the new province, introduced fascist laws, and an Italian civilian high commissioner

16616-416: Was applied in many spheres of public life in Slovenia. For example, at the post offices, railways and in administrative offices, Serbo-Croatian was used alongside Slovene. However, state employees were expected to be able to speak Slovene in Slovenia. During the same time, western Slovenia (the Slovenian Littoral and the western districts of Inner Carniola ) was under Italian administration and subjected to

16750-550: Was appointed. The influential Roman Catholic Bishop of Ljubljana, Gregorij Rožman , and in-country prewar politicians, led by Marko Natlačen , immediately expressed their willingness to collaborate with the fascist authorities, writing public letters of support for the annexation of Ljubljana Province to Italy. On 8 June 1941, Natlačen led Slovene politicians and industrialists to meet with Mussolini in Rome , after which they reiterated their loyalty, and started officially collaborating with

16884-516: Was commonly used in almost all areas of public life. One important exception was the Yugoslav army , where Serbo-Croatian was used exclusively, even in Slovenia. National independence has further fortified the language: since 1991, when Slovenia gained independence, Slovene has been used as an official language in all areas of public life. In 2004 it became one of the official languages of the European Union upon Slovenia's admission. Nonetheless,

17018-461: Was in strong contrast to the OF, which took its first armed actions against the Italians following the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union in late June. Its armed wing was the Slovene Partisans . The OF developed an underground organisation in Ljubljana and in the countryside, and the Partisans conducted attacks on Italian forces and sabotaged important targets from July. The Italians retaliated against

17152-493: Was initially grouped into companies and battalions, but the Germans re-organised it several times. Towards the end of the war, German officers commanded several battalions, and some units had a mix of Slovene and German soldiers. According to sources close to the SD, by September 1944 the numbers enlisted reached 13,000. The SD were armed, supplied and paid by the Germans, and when deployed in the field, were always under German command. The SD used Italian equipment (confiscated after

17286-497: Was less deadly in these other provinces than in Ljubljana Province, with also many fewer post-war reprisals. The philosophy of the SD and its overarching political leadership remained the same as under the Italians – to wait for an Allied landing in the Slovene Littoral, then transfer allegiance to them and attack the Germans. The Slovene People's Party leadership in the province repeatedly tried to explain their collaboration to

17420-657: Was sent to Western Europe in November, the zone came under the command of General der Gebirgstruppe Ludwig Kübler as part of Army Group C of Generalfeldmarschall Albert Kesselring . From September 1944, the forces in the zone were organised as LXXXXVII Army Corps under Kübler, and remained under Kesselring's overall command until April 1945, when the corps was transferred to the Commander-in-chief in Southeast Europe, Generaloberst Alexander Löhr . Rainer divided

17554-557: Was the Higher SS and Police Leader for SS-Oberabschnitt Alpenland , SS- Obergruppenführer Erwin Rösener , who was directly responsible to Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler . As well as supervising Rupnik and his administration, Rösener had responsibility for combating the Partisans in the province, as well as in the Slovene lands that had been annexed by Germany in April 1941. Rösener controlled

17688-614: Was the Slovenian branch of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia , the sole legal party of Yugoslavia from 1945 to 1990. It was established in April 1937 as the Communist Party of Slovenia and was the first autonomous sub-national branch of the federal party. Its initial autonomy was further amplified with the Yugoslav constitution of 1974 , which devolved greater power to the various republic level branches. In 1989, Slovenia passed amendments to its constitution that asserted its sovereignty over

17822-434: Was the dialect used in the 16th century by Primož Trubar for his writings, while he also used Slovene as spoken in Ljubljana, since he lived in the city for more than 20 years. It was the speech of Ljubljana that Trubar took as a foundation of what later became standard Slovene, with small addition of his native speech, that is Lower Carniolan dialect . Trubar's choice was later adopted also by other Protestant writers in

17956-399: Was the language of the elite, and Slovene was the language of the common people. During this period, German had a strong influence on Slovene, and many Germanisms are preserved in contemporary colloquial Slovene. Many Slovene scientists before the 1920s also wrote in foreign languages, mostly German, which was the lingua franca of science throughout Central Europe at the time. During

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