Nationalisation of Jewish Companies, Companies With Jewish Participation in Capital and Companies with Jewish Management Staff in Slovenia after World War II

Abstract

For the politics that took over the power in Slovenia in 1945 as well as for the majority of Slovenians, Jews were synonymous with wealthy bankers and factory owners who had been getting rich on account of the ruthless exploitation of workers and farmers. However, communists did not nationalise their property because of its origin, but due to the fact that they were the representatives of private capital and owners of industrial companies, envisioned as the foundation for the priority industrialisation of the state. One of the decisive reasons for the expropriation of these Jews after World War II was the fact that their companies had been involved in the Nazi wartime economy, that most of them had not actively participated in the resistance against the occupiers, and that their ancestors, nationality, as well as citizenship had been German. That was a terrible sin and aggravating circumstance, not only in Yugoslavia of that time but also in the other countries of the victorious coalition. The authorities did not resort to any special regulations, procedures or measures for the nationalisation of the Jewish property.