Province of Ljubljana
The Province of Ljubljana (Italian: Provincia di Lubiana, Slovene: Ljubljanska pokrajina, German: Provinz Laibach) was the central-southern area of Slovenia.
Whereas Greece was trisected, this territory (roughly present-day Slovenia) experienced a further step—absorption and annexation into neighboring Nazi Germany, the Kingdom of Italy, Hungary, and the Independent State of Croatia.
[1][2] After Yugoslavia was invaded by Axis Powers on 6 April 1941, Germany and Hungary occupied and annexed the northern part of the region.
[3] The bulk of its territory was: The Kingdom of Italy occupied Marindol and other villages that had previously belonged to the Banovina of Croatia, Milić-Selo, Paunović-Selo, Žunić-Selo, Vukobrati, Vidnjevići, and Vrhovci.
After the war the inhabitants of those areas demanded to be returned to the People’s Republic of Croatia as part of the county of Karlovac[citation needed].
By the administrative organization of 1947, Marindol and the surrounding villages on the left bank of Kolpa constituted a local community in the composition of the county of Karlovac.
It was subjected to military occupation but in May 1941, after the debellatio of the Yugoslav State by the Axis Powers, it was formally annexed by the Kingdom of Italy under the name of Provincia di Lubiana.
It was composed by members of local economic and professional associations, as well as of those political party leaders that were willing to collaborate with Italian authorities.
After the establishment of the Liberation Front and the emergence of the partisan resistance, the Italian army's opinion has been in accord with the 1920s speech by Benito Mussolini: When dealing with such a race as Slavic—inferior and barbarian—we must not pursue the carrot, but the stick policy.... We should not be afraid of new victims....
The operation, one of the most drastic in Europe, filled up Italian concentration camps on the island Rab, in Gonars, Monigo (Treviso), Renicci d'Anghiari, Chiesanuova and elsewhere.
[8] The Italians put a barbed wire fence—which is now the route of the Trail of Remembrance and Comradeship—around Ljubljana in order to prevent communication between the Liberation Front in the city and the Partisan resistance in the surrounding countryside.
[10] For every major military operation, General M. Roatta issued additional special instructions, including one that the orders must be "carried out most energetically and without any false compassion".
"[12] The idea that Italian excesses in violence was due to anger or grief at the loss of comrades is false, since the process of killing and mass execution was a consequence of Fascist propaganda, de-humanizing the Slovenes as racially inferior.
In the first months after the province was officially annexed to Italy (May 1941), a so-called Consultation Council (consulta) was set up from high-ranking members of local economic, professional and political elites.
After the capitulation of Italy, most of the Slovene Chetniks were destroyed in the Battle of Grčarice (quietly helped by the Partisans, who then became the only resistance group in Slovenia) and members of the "White Guard" were killed, captured, dispersed, or fled to the Germans, where they formed the core of the newly established Slovenian Home Guard corps led by a former general of the Royal Yugoslav Army, Leon Rupnik.
Originally, organizations from the entire political spectrum participated; however, as the influence of the Communist Party within the Liberation Front started to grow, some of them turned against it.
