The Italian period Pre-resistance Compared to the German policies in the northern Nazi-occupied area of Slovenia and the forced
Fascist italianization in the former
Austrian Littoral that was annexed after the First World War, the initial Italian policy in the central Slovenia was not as violent. Tens of thousands of
Slovenes from German-occupied
Lower Styria and
Upper Carniola escaped to the Province of Ljubljana until June 1941. The central area of Slovenia was first occupied by the
Kingdom of Italy in April 1941. 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. The province was created as a specific administration unit within Italy. Although considered as an integral part of Italy, it was treated as a
corpus separatum. Unlike other provinces, it was administered by a High Commissioner, appointed by the Italian Government. The High Commissioner had a similar position as
prefects in other Italian provinces, but was given wider competences. The first High Commissioner was
Emilio Grazioli. The province did enjoy some political or administrative autonomy and several concessions were given to the local
Slovene population. In the countryside, most of the municipal administrations, elected in general elections during the
Kingdom of Yugoslavia, could continue to function. Judiciary and local administration personnel were also kept. Both
Italian and
Slovene were given the status of
official languages and also the status of an administrative language. Most Slovenian cultural and educational institutions of national importance, such as the
University of Ljubljana and the
Academy of Sciences and Arts, were kept. Education in Slovene was kept, although Italian was introduced as an obligatory second language. The population of the province was exempted from military service in the Italian Army. Also, the Consult was created as an advisory council of the High Commissioner's office. 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.
Post-resistance and war crimes against the Slovene civil population The initial tolerant policies of the Italian administration did not last long. 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: As noted by Minister of Foreign Affairs in Mussolini government,
Galeazzo Ciano, when describing a meeting with secretary general of the
National Fascist Party Aldo Vidussoni who wanted Italian army to kill all the Slovenes: General
Mario Robotti, Commander of the Italian
XI Corps (Italy) in Slovenia and Croatia, issued an order in line with a directive received from Mussolini in June 1942: "I would not be opposed to all (
sic) Slovenes being imprisoned and replaced by Italians. In other words, we should take steps to ensure that political and ethnic frontiers coincide", which qualifies as
ethnic cleansing policy. The Province of Ljubljana saw the deportation of 25,000 people, which equaled 7.5% of the total population. 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.
Mario Roatta's "Circular 3C" (Circolare 3C), tantamount to a declaration of war on the
Slovene civil population, involved him in
war crimes while he was the commander of the 2nd Italian Army in the Province of Ljubljana. 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. On February 25, 1942, only two days after the
Italian Fascist regime established
Gonars concentration camp the first transport of 5,343 internees (1,643 of whom were children) arrived from the already overpopulated
Rab concentration camp, from the Province of Ljubljana itself, and from another
Italian concentration camp in Monigo (near
Treviso). The survivors received no compensation from Italy after the war. The violence against the Slovene civil population easily matched the German. 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". One of Roatta's soldiers wrote home on July 1, 1942: "We have destroyed everything from top to bottom without sparing the innocent. We kill entire families every night, beating them to death or shooting them." 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. After the war, Roatta was on the list of the most sought after
Italian war criminals indicted by Yugoslavia and other countries, but never saw anything like the
Nuremberg Trials because the British government saw in
Pietro Badoglio, also on the list, a guarantee of an
anti-communist post-war
Italy within the context of the
Cold War. Some of the most notorious were put on trial however, including Roatta. But he escaped just before being jailed, and fled to Spain.
Structure The province was divided into five districts () based around the pre-existing Yugoslav district boundaries, plus the city of Lubiana. Each district was further sub-divided into municipalities (). The five districts were: •
Lubiana (28 municipalities) •
Longatico (11 municipalities) •
Novo Mesto (31 municipalities) •
Cernomegli (11 municipalities) •
Cocevie (13 municipalities)
The German period (1943–1945) After the
Italian armistice in September 1943, the province was occupied by Nazi Germany. The province was kept in the same borders that were set by Italian occupation forces. The province was included in the
Adriatic Littoral. It was finally abolished on May 9, 1945.
Administration During the Italian period (1941–1943), the province was ruled by a high commissioner; for most of its history this post was held by
Emilio Grazioli, replaced in early 1943 by
Giuseppe Lombrassa who after the
fall of Fascism was in turn replaced by General
Riccardo Moizo, who only held the post for a month before the
Armistice of Cassibile. 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. The first chairman of the council was
Marko Natlačen, former Yugoslav governor of the
Drava Banovina. Already in 1942, he stepped down in opposition to Italian occupation policies, and the Council itself ceased to be summoned. After the German occupation in September 1943,
Leon Rupnik was named president of the province. He managed to establish a fairly autonomous provincial administration with the help of a small circle of collaborators. ==Armed formations==