Preliminary communication
The Refugee Camp for Repatriates in Dubrovnik (July-September 1945)
Blanka Matković
orcid.org/0000-0003-0319-4907
Abstract
Following the end of World War II, the German-allied troops captured on the territory of Yugoslavia were transported to refugee camps in Austria and Italy under the command of the British and American Army. Besides them, a large number of displaced persons and prisoners from the concentration camps were also abroad. By order of the General Staff of the Yugoslav Army of 9 April 1945, a special Belgrade-based staff was to be organised as an executive organ of the state commission for repatriation within the Ministry of Social Policy, with an aim to “directly supervise all the activities concerning the organisation and work on providing refuge for war prisoners, internees, forcefully displaced persons and those forced to labour.” In charge of the transport, accommodation and provision of the repatriates as well as the establishment of these military-organised camps were the territorial military commands, place commands and town commands. A refugee camp for repatriates in Dubrovnik was organised on 14 July 1945, probably due to the overcapacity of the camp in Trogir and Dubrovnik's geographical position. It operated only two months during which it provided refuge for 1.546 adults, mostly men and four children, born mainly in the surroundings of Varaždin, Maribor and Celje (70%). Most of them were the members of Wehrmacht, 392nd (Blue) Division and the NDH Navy. The repatriates generally arrived from the Grum camp near Bari (Italy), and fewer of them from other camps (Bergamo, Naples, Bari, Cairo). Half of the arrived repatriates were Slovenes, 41% were Croats, and the rest Serbs, Muslims, Montenegrins, Slovacs, Italians, Germans and volksdeutschers.
Keywords
Dubrovnik; Italy 1945; repatriates; refugee camp for repatriates; Wehrmacht
Hrčak ID:
104688
URI
Publication date:
24.5.2013.
Visits: 2.213 *