Bleiburg repatriations (see terminology) is a term encompassing events that took place after the end of World War II in Europe, when thousands of soldiers and civilians fleeing Yugoslavia were repatriated to that country. Some of the soldiers and civilians were then murdered, and most were subjected to abuse and long marches to forced labor camps. The events are named after the Carinthian border town of Bleiburg from which the main repatriation was conducted.
On 3 May 1945, the government of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), a fascist puppet state established in the Croatian and Bosnian parts of occupied Yugoslavia, decided to flee to Austria and have the remnants of the Croatian Armed Forces (HOS) move there as soon as possible in order to surrender to the British Army. Subsequently the Poglavnik (leader) of the NDH ordered the armed forces not to surrender to the Partisans but retreat to Austria over the former border of the Third Reich. The day after this order was issued, Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Allied powers, marking the formal end of World War II in Europe. In the week after the surrender, Axis forces in Yugoslavia repeatedly refused to surrender and even attacked Partisan positions in order to avoid encirclement and keep escape routes open. When one of the columns of fleeing HOS troops intermingled with civilians approached near the town of Bleiburg, the British refused to accept the surrender of the HOS troops and directed them to surrender to the Partisans.
The various columns were, for the most part, made up of remnants of the military of the NDH, but also some remnants of the Chetnik movement and the Slovene Home Guard. The columns also included civilians. The number of casualties that occurred at the time of the repatriations and in the weeks that followed has proven difficult to ascertain, with exact numbers being a subject of much debate, however, it is clear that Yugoslav Partisan troops killed most of the collaborationist troops they captured at the end of the war in an "act of mass terror and brutal political surgery" comparable to that carried out by the UstaĊĦe and Chetniks earlier in the war. The aftermath of the Bleiburg repatriations was a taboo topic in Yugoslavia, and the public and official commemoration of the victims would only begin several decades after the events.
Read more about Bleiburg Repatriations: Terminology, Background, Axis Retreat, Surrender At Bleiburg, Related Repatriations, The March Back, Coverage and Aftermath in Yugoslavia, Number of Victims, Commemoration Since The End of Yugoslavia, Memorial Sites, In Popular Culture