The Relocation of the Civilian Population in the Kamnik District by the Occupiers During World War II

Abstract

Based on archival sources, the author presents the various forms and scope of the forced relocation of the local Slovenian population from the Kamnik district, carried out by the occupiers during World War II. The contribution complements some of the existing research on this issue and presents new facts that have not yet been researched. During the German occupation of the Kamnik district, various forms of forced relocation of the population were carried out (expulsions, evictions, deportations), resulting from the military-political actions of both the German occupiers and the Partisan side. In total, these relocations affected around 4 % of the population living in the area at the time. During the first weeks of the occupation, the German occupiers deported the Slovenian intelligentsia and the proponents of Slovenian national consciousness from this area to the Independent State of Croatia and Serbia. From the beginning of 1942 until the end of 1944, the relatives and alleged or actual collaborators of the Partisans were deported to the Old Reich (Germany) in several waves. Some of them were also interned in concentration camps. Furthermore, in the spring of 1942, the German authorities also relocated many inhabitants from the extreme southeast of the Kamnik district by the immediate border zone along the newly drawn border with the Italian Province of Ljubljana. On the other hand, the German authorities also organised transports of the inhabitants threatened by the Partisans, who had applied for relocation from the Kamnik district to the interior of the Reich.