My Life under Totalitarianism

Staric describes his life from 1941 until 1991. First his country Slovenia—then the northwestern part of Yugoslavia—was occupied by the Italians, Germans and Hungarians. They divided the country among themselves and the Italians occupied the southern part of Slovenia along with the capital Ljubljana (where the author lived). The author vividly describes the circumstances in the Italian concentration camp where he was incarcerated, as well as life under German occupation after the Kingdom of Italy capitulated in 1943. At the end of war in 1945, the fascist and Nazi terror was replaced by communist totalitarianism in the style of the Soviet Union. During World War II the communists began killing not only the occupiers, but also their Slovenian political opponents. In the first months after the war, extensive mass killings took place throughout Yugoslavia, mostly in Slovenia. The graves of the victims were top secret until 1991, when Slovenia became an independent country and abandoned communist totalitarianism. Since then about 620 mass graves with at least 100,000 victims have been discovered, all cruelly murdered. However, in the 24 years since Slovene independence, not a single culprit has been sentenced or punished thus far for the mass killings and repression.