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Ebenthal/Žrelec camp
Immediately after Austria's Anschluss to Nazi Germany, persecution of politically active Carinthian Slovenians, priests, and functionaries of Slovenian cultural institutions began in Carinthia. They were held in custody at the Gestapo prison and partly deported to concentration camps. From 1941 - when Yugoslavia entered the war, joining the allied forces - repression gained the upper hand, culminating in the forced deportation of more than 900 Carinthian Slovenians. Their deportation was aimed at extinguishing the Slovenian population on the one hand, and at creating space to facilitate the settlement of German-speaking people from the Val Canale on the other. The deported were shipped off to the Ebenthal/Žrelec camp of the Reichsarbeitsdienst (RAD, Reich Labour Service) and then on to work and concentration camps.
Upon their return in July 1945, those who survived were cooped up in the Jesuit barracks at Domplatz (see also Memorial for the victims of the Carinthian partisans), before they were allowed to return to their homes. To date, the historical fact of the deportation of Carinthian Slovenians has been given little attention if any at all. Among other things, memorials and commemorative signs pointing out the fact that almost 1,000 people were deported into forced labour or death from here are altogether missing at the location of the camp, Ebenthalerstraße. Nor is there any sign of these atrocities at Domplatz.
⇒ read on: Waidmannsdorf camp - forgotten forced labour