Slovene Refugee Press in Camps in Austria and Italy

The paper reviews the publicist activity of Slovene refugees in the camps in Austria and Italy in the 1945-1948 period. The author presents individual publications and their contents, with stronger emphasis on periodicals which she beleives more vividly portray the political disposition of the refugees and the way they experienced their fate. The study draws on the material kept in the National and University Library.

In the period from May 1945 to the end of the forties a rich collection of "refugee printings" was produced in the refugee camps in Austria and Italy which have the following characteristics in common:

1. They were printed and copied on cheap bad quality paper in small editions (some in six examples only - as many as one ordinary typewriter could multiply)

2. The prevailing subject is the destiny of refugees, mixed on the one hand with memories about homes and the people left behind and on the other every day beginning with how and Where in the future. Above all, the refugees feel they are also "the subject of trade" between the great powers.

Through all these writings "fear and hatred towards communism which is the greatest evil" is noticable. Because of communism they left their homeland and will go back when it is gone. (As that did not happen until the end of the forties they have decided for the only possibility - emigration and continuation of their struggle for reaching their goals.)