Review
"very valuable..extremely interesting..the material is absolutley fascinating and historically very important." --Barbara Harrell-Bond, Founder-Director, University of Oxford Refugee Studies Centre.
"extraordinarily interesting..heart-rending..particularly moving..it shows the resilience of the human spirit in a finer light than I can remember reading elsewhere."--Nigel Nicholson.
"an intensely moving and compelling narrative..I am thankful that these courageous people have at last found so able and fluent a chronicler."--Nikolai Tolstoy, author of The Minister and the Massacre
Book Description
In 1945 Slovenia, 6,000 civilians and 12,000 members of the anti-Communist Home Guard, the "domobranci", fearing punishment for their wartime resistance to their Partisan enemies, fled to southern Austria. But there, the British 8th Army loaded them into trucks, purportedly to take them to Italy, only to deliver them straight back to Tito's Partisans. The Partisans tortured and then executed them. The remaining civilians were spared due to the brave revolt of the British Red Cross and Quaker aid workers. John Corsellis witnessed and took part in these protests and in this book reconstructs the survivors' stories. These are vivid tales of wartime cruelty, of the revival of battered communities in refugee camps, and of emigration to Argentina, the U.S., Canada and Britain. In this unique volume, the authors call on more than half a century of research and an unsurpassed knowledge of the Slovene migrant communities around the world to tell their stories.
About the Author
John Corsellis has written widely on Slovene refugees, having experienced at first hand their camps at the end of WWI.
Marcus Ferrar is a writer and independent communications consultant and teaches at business schools in Switzerland and Slovenia.
Slovenia, 1945: Death and Survival after World War Two FROM THE PUBLISHER
In 1945 Slovenia, 6,000 civilians and 12,000 members of the anti-Communist Home Guard, the "domobranci", fearing punishment for their wartime resistance to their Partisan enemies, fled to southern Austria. But there, the British 8th Army loaded them into trucks, purportedly to take them to Italy, only to deliver them straight back to Tito's Partisans. The Partisans tortured and then executed them. The remaining civilians were spared due to the brave revolt of the British Red Cross and Quaker aid workers. John Corsellis witnessed and took part in these protests and in this book reconstructs the survivors' stories. These are vivid tales of wartime cruelty, of the revival of battered communities in refugee camps, and of emigration to Argentina, the U.S., Canada and Britain. In this unique volume, the authors call on more than half a century of research and an unsurpassed knowledge of the Slovene migrant communities around the world to tell their stories.