Reichenburg Castle, located in the south-eastern town of Brestanica, now serves as a museum and hosts a permanent exhibition on Slovenian deportees. Around 45,000 Slovenians were deported from there.

The latest exhibition, launched a day before International Holocaust Remembrance Day, was organised by the Society of Slovenian Deportees 1941-1945.

They hope it will become permanent and serve as a step towards establishing a European museum on the victims of Fascism and Nazism, its president Ivica Žnidaršič, told reporters.

The exhibition features documentary material showing the atrocities faced by Russians, Poles, Czechs, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Serbs, Croatians, and Slovenians.

Members of the International Deportee and Refugee Association and victims of Fascism and Nazism during 1920 and 1945 had contributed photos and documents for the exhibition, Žnidaršič added.

In order for the exhibition to become permanent and part of the European museum, the matter should be discussed with relevant authorities and partners in other Slavic nations, Irena Fürst, curator at the National Museum of Contemporary History, said.

But she added that the idea for the European museum was already bringing together several European organisations and societies.