The Slovenia Times

Slovenia celebrating Resistance Day

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The Anti-Imperialist Front, as initially known, was set up in Ljubljana on 26 April 1941, two weeks after Slovenia, then a part of Yugoslavia, was occupied by Nazi Germany and ten days after the Yugoslav authorities in Belgrade surrendered.

The founding meeting at the home of literary critic Josip Vidmar (1895-1992) was attended by representatives of the Communist Party of Slovenia, the Sokoli gymnastic society, the Christian Socialists and a group of intellectuals.

At the end of 1941 when the front declared its programme, it was comprised of around 20 groups, but it was dominated by the Communists, who saw the war as a conflict between imperialist countries.

The armed segment of the organisation was its key part and was known as the Partisan movement. The first units of the guerilla army were formed in the summer of 1941.

The front faced ideological opposition from those who disagreed with its communist nature and segments also engaged in active armed conflict against it in collaboration with the occupying forces of Germany and Italy.

Slovenia experienced the horror of war in all its dimensions. More than 97,000 people were killed and a tenth of the population displaced. Thousands were also killed in post-war summary executions by the Communists.

The national ceremony was addressed on Tuesday evening in Ljubljana by Milan Brglez who called on Slovenians to stay true to the WWII values of resistance, comradeship and freedom and not to resign to accepting the conditions set by the wealthy and powerful.

President Borut Pahor, who received members of the WWII Veterans' Association, asked Slovenians, regardless of their views on the time during WWII and after it, to keep the fight against the occupying forces in memory as something that liberated Slovenians.

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