Slovenia, the “National Day of Remembrance of Communist Violence” abolished on May 17: are some of the victims returning to oblivion?!

Among the first effects of this abolition we note a final proposal from the President of Slovenia Nataša Pirc Musar to President Mattarella, so that the "reconciliation process" now includes a visit to the Italian concentration camp on the Dalmatian island of Rab, but on the Italian side this proposal should be balanced with at least two official visits: the first to the Pasino foiba in Istria and the second to the former Yugoslavian concentration camp of Borovnica in Slovenia.

The recent visit of the new President of Slovenia to the Quirinale

The new President of the Republic of Slovenia Nataša Pirc Musar was received on May 19 at the Quirinale by the Italian President Sergio Mattarella with full friendship and a spirit of European cooperation. In essence, during the meeting between the two presidents, new and interesting initiatives to be undertaken were proposed, but the ongoing “reconciliation process” between the two countries was also discussed, which had reached solemn moments in Basovizza on July 13, 2020 with the meeting and the “hand in hand” gesture between President Mattarella and the now former Slovenian President Borut Pahor, at the two memorials in the area.

In addition to fully agreeing with the initiative to increasingly develop economic and cultural cooperation relations with Slovenia and to grant greater protection and recognition to mutual minorities, one fact, however, leaves one perplexed regarding the historical-cultural theme. In particular, I am referring to the most recent history of the 900th century and therefore to the cancellation in Slovenia of the "National Day of Remembrance of Communist Violence” which occurred every 17th May. This abolition declared on 18th May, according to the statements of the former Slovenian president Borut Pahor and some important Slovenian associations opposed to the measure, has certainly aggravated the internal political relations of Slovenia itself.

After the presidency of Borut Pahor, what place do the victims of the foibe and the terror of Tito's regime in general have in Slovenia today?

Certainly the associative world of Julian-Dalmatian exiles welcomed the news of the abolition of the “Day in remembrance of communist violence” with great dismay and not a few perplexities, as did some Italian politicians, among whom I remember the senator Robert Menia, the senator Maurizio Gasparri and the regional councillor of Friuli Venezia Giulia for Local Authorities Pierpaolo Roberti, who released a very clear and shareable comment on the matter "The Slovenian Government's decision to cancel the National Day of Remembrance for Victims of Communist Violence is a bad sign that turns back the hands of history, giving a moral clean slate to those who suffered the atrocities of the crimes of Tito's communists, both Italian, Slovenian and Croatian.". It should be noted that the decision of the new Slovenian government headed by Robert Golob preceded by one day the official visit of the President of Slovenia Pirc Musar to Italy, who during the various talks made a proposal to President Mattarella regarding the “conciliation between the two countries”, which I will discuss later and which needs to be considered not without compensation.

The new Slovenian government course on reconciliation seems to no longer take into account even the principle established on 19 September 2019 by the European Parliament Resolution on “The importance of European memory for the future of Europe”. One of the fundamental points of the aforementioned Resolution, to which the president of the Society of Fiuman Studies Giovanni Stelli dedicated a long and detailed article in issue 44 (2021) of the Adriatic Studies Journal “FIUME”, concerns precisely the recognition of the victims of those Eastern European countries that after the Second World War remained subject to the influence of the Soviet Union and communist regimes were established there. Yugoslavia, then led by the communist dictator Josip Broz called Tito, is one of those countries where the injustices committed by the Nazi and fascist regimes were followed by other forms of organized injustice after the war. In the Balkan country, after the defeat on the field of the Nazi-fascist forces by the Partisan People's Army, a communist revolution under the direction of the secret police Ozna (Section for the Defense of the People). This revolutionary process caused tens of thousands of victims through summary executions in sinkholes, bauxite quarries, mines, various concentration camps and even in the sea. Among these victims liquidated, between 1943 and 1947, summarily and without regular trials at least 8.000-10.000 were Italians, but over 100.000 were Slovenians and CroatiansThe summary liquidation work was carried out by special units of the Yugoslav People's Army called KNOJ (Yugoslav People's Defense Corps). It was a systematic mass purge sanctioned by a totalitarian state.. It was finally possible, after the long end of the former Yugoslavia between 1992 and 1999, to promote studies and research where it was ascertained that the majority of those killed had not committed war crimes nor had distinguished themselves in any particular way in the fascist or pro-fascist political systems. Moreover, the so-called popular courts, which in any case did not guarantee particular protection to the accused, began to function at least in Istria or Fiume only in January 1946, therefore long after the war had ended.

The Slovenian President's proposal for "reconciliation" goes through the former Italian concentration camp of Kampor (Dalmatian island of Arbe/Rab – Croatia). Is it enough? 

Now, we read in our press, that during the state visit to Rome, the Slovenian president, in order to strengthen the climate of "reconciliation", has brought forward a proposal, in my opinion partial, to which the Italian side must be adequately balanced in order to respect the historical truth. It is about organizing a visit during the period of Gorizia-Nova Gorica European Capital of Culture 2025, at the memorial in Kampor, a town on the Dalmatian island of Arbe (Rab-Croatia), where the former Italian concentration camp was located, which operated from 1942 to 1943. In this camp, organized and directed by the Italian military occupation authorities, approximately 1.200 Slovenians and Croatians from the war zones died from disease, mistreatment and hardship. The causes of the death of so many civilians are naturally unjustifiable and must be remembered with dignity. However, this Slovenian proposal without providing a fee could hardly be accepted by the Italian side; in fact the president Mattarella, we read in some newspapers, seems to have considered this Slovenian proposal premature at the moment and in any case to be carefully considered. I believe that our president, also considering his friendship with the former Slovenian president Pahor, is well aware and informed of the different positions recently taken by the new Slovenian leaders regarding the history of the eastern border in the Second World War and especially the position taken today by the Slovenian government regarding the Yugoslav communist totalitarianism. The Slovenian government of Golob abolishing the “Day of Remembrance of Communist Violence” It certainly went back well before 1989, the year in which the Fall of the Berlin Wall and consequently, the reunification of the two Germanys and the end of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe.

Commemorating the excesses of totalitarianism for a better Europe.

The totalitarian regimes of the past seem, when rereading historical facts, to resemble each other. Therefore, without equating dictatorial systems but by trying to restore a wise balance in evaluating the "ultra conflictual" past that occurred in the European continent, it will be possible to create the conditions so that even in Italian-Slovenian-Croatian side ethically restorative acts of commemoration should be organized. These are operations that can prepare the ground for a valid collaboration, capable of consolidating the values ​​on which to increasingly base future European cooperation at every level: political, economic, cultural and social. Therefore, if one day a visit by the Italian, Slovenian and Croatian presidents were organized to the memorial of the Kampor camp on the island of Rab, then similar events should follow. visits to the foiba of Pisino d'Istria and  infamous Borovnica camp in Slovenia, since both places duly symbolize the victims of both the foibe and the more than sixty Tito's concentration camps scattered throughout the Yugoslavia of the time, from where several thousand Italians and tens of thousands of Slovenians and Croatians never returned. Only under these conditions it is possible to honor in the name of the principles of humanity and Christian piety all the victims of ideological hatred without interested censorship and therefore strengthen the positive climate of reconciliation implemented at the Basovizza Foiba on 13 July 2020 by the two presidents Mattarella and Pahor. It should not be forgotten that such commemorations transmit strong signals especially to the younger generations, so that they can realize the limits and serious mistakes made in the past by various European states.

Marino Micich
Director of the Historical Archive Museum of Fiume (Rome)