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The Bleiburg massacre was a war-related incident that happened near the end of World War II, during May 1945. It is named after near the village of Bleiburg on the Austrian-Slovenian border where it began. It involved retribution against Croatian Nazi soldiers and civilians who were fleeing from the defeated fascist Nazi puppet state of Croatia, whose poglavnik (Fuhrer) was Ante Pavelic. The atrocities were a reprisal against members or collaborators of the fascist regime, by the Yugoslav partisan army, presumably with full knowledge of their commander Josip Broz Tito, himself half-Croatian, but an atheist undefiled by Catholic genocidal urges.

Although a still undefined number of Croatian soldiers died during a series of battles and skirmishes, it is generally accepted that the vast portion of violent deaths were the result of executions that lasted at least two weeks after the cessation of hostilities. The victims were Croatian soldiers and civilians, executed without trial as an act of vengeance for the crimes committed by the Ustaše regime in Croatian-controlled territories during World War II — frequently in overtly gruesome manner (mass rape and subsequent killing by stoning of women; beheading of Croatian disarmed soldiers). Avenging the Serbian, Gypsy and Jewish dead continued in nearby Slovenia (which had strong pro-Nazi sympathies during the War), and it is hard to estimate the number of victims in Bleiburg field, compared to those later found in the trenches in the Maribor area and other numerous pits in Slovenia. Many captives were sent on a death march further into Yugoslav territory.

IN ANY EVENT THE NUMBER OF CROATS WHO DIED IS WELL BELOW THE POSSIBLY 750,000 to 1,000,000 SERBS, GYPSIES AND JEWS WHO WERE SLAUGHTERED BY THE CROATS WITH THE FULL ENCOURAGEMENT OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE VATICAN WHO HELPED LEADING USTASE MEMBERS ESCAPE RETRIBUTION (GOOGLE SAN GIROLAMO CHURCH IN VATICAN CITY FOR MORE INFO)

Croatian political emigration -- sadly soiling the United States, Canada, Australia, and unsurprisingly, Germany -- had published numerous testimonies on the incidents.

Number of victims

The number of those who met their death at Bleiburg is almost impossible to ascertain.

Generally, there are two schools that have tried to do this:

1. The school based mainly on historiographic and demographic investigations of scientists:

• The Croatian statistician Vladimir Žerjavić has estimated based on demographic records that ca. 55,000 people were killed in Bleiburg area and in Slovenia.
• British journalist Misha Glenny and other investigators or publicists have come up with the figure of 50,000 executed disarmed soldiers and 30,000 civilians.
• The Croatian-American historian Jozo Tomašević (from Stanford University) collected fairly exact records stating that 116,000 Croatian combatants (Ustaše and Domobrani, the homegrown Croatian Nazi movements) arrived at Bleiburg (in a group of around 200,000 people in total), and were subsequently barred entry. He stated this number with certainty as though he were capable of objectibity, and then proceeded to estimate that around one half of them were killed.

Which of these figures is closest to the reality is still hard to decide.

2. Another school operates with big numbers, and their contention is that over 250,000 Croats had been executed in Bleiburg, Slovenia and northern Croatia. This theory has gained some credibility in recent years, when Slovene authorities have estimated, in 1999 and 2000, that mass excavations in wider Maribor area have found cca. 180,000 human corpses, mostly Croats (judging from the remnants of military insignia). As reported elsewhere:

• In 1999 the resources from the Republic of Slovenia reported of as many as 110 mass graves of Croats discovered in this state, victims of the "Way of the Cross" in 1945 immediately after the end of World War II. Among them there were not only soldiers, but also a large number of civilians. The Slovenian public was shocked by the size and number of these graves.

• In 2001 Slovenian sources reported of as many as 296 mass graves on their territory, and an estimate of about 190,000 Croats killed immediately after the end of World War II (May 1945 and later), mostly Croats. Only in the region of Tezno woods Slovenian sources estimate about 60-80,000 killed. Many children bones have been found among the remains victims.

However, the investigation was stalled, so no definite conclusion can be drawn.

AGAIN, IN ANY EVENT THE NUMBER OF CROATS WHO DIED IS WELL BELOW THE POSSIBLY 750,000 to 1,000,000 SERBS, GYPSIES AND JEWS WHO WERE SLAUGHTERED BY THE CROATS WITH THE FULL ENCOURAGEMENT OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AND THE VATICAN WHO HELPED LEADING USTASE MEMBERS ESCAPE RETRIBUTION (GOOGLE SAN GIROLAMO CHURCH IN VATICAN CITY FOR MORE INFO)

External links

• Yalta and the Bleiburg tragedy
• The Bleiburg Massacres - by Count Nikolai Tolstoy
• Operation Slaughterhouse

• History of Croatia
• History of Slovenia
• World War II crimes
• Massacres
• 1945