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Concept
Bleiburg repatriations
Summary
The Bleiburg repatriations (see terminology) occurred in May 1945, after the end of World War II in Europe, during which Yugoslav territory had been annexed or occupied by the Axis powers, when tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians associated with the Axis powers fled Yugoslavia to Austria as the Yugoslav Partisans took control. When they reached Allied-occupied Austria, the British Army refused to accept their surrender and directed them to the Partisans instead. The prisoners of war were subjected to forced marches, together with columns captured by other Partisans in Yugoslavia. Tens of thousands were executed; others were taken to forced labor camps, where more died from harsh conditions. The events are named for the Carinthian border town of Bleiburg, where the initial repatriation was carried out.
On 3 May 1945, the government of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), a fascist puppet state established in parts of German-occupied Yugoslavia, that had undertaken a brutal campaign of genocide against a number of its minority populations, reducing their numbers by the hundreds of thousands, decided to flee to Austria. They initiated the evacuation by ordering the remnants of the Croatian Armed Forces (HOS) to move there as soon as possible, in order to surrender to the British Army. The Axis-aligned Slovene leadership issued a retreat order for the Slovene Home Guard on the same day. These forces, accompanied by civilians, joined the German Army Group E and other Axis units in withdrawal; the latter included the XV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps and the remnants of the Montenegrin Chetniks organized in the HOS-commanded Montenegrin National Army.
In the week after the German Instrument of Surrender, which marked the formal end of World War II in Europe, collaborationist forces in Yugoslavia continued to battle the Partisans to avoid encirclement and keep escape routes open. The Slovene-led columns fought their way to the Austrian border near Klagenfurt on 14 May.
Official source
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