Memorial for the Deportation of Carinthian Slovenians at Klagenfurt Ebenthal/Žrelec Station

From the Klagenfurt Ebenthal/Žrelec train station, the National Socialists deported nearly 1,000 Slovenians from Carinthia to various camps of the Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle, where they were forced to perform labor. The families had previously been picked up unexpectedly at home and were detained in the nearby collection camp on Ebentaler Straße. The National Socialists had planned their forced resettlement to the East, and for this purpose, German-speaking canal dwellers were to be settled on their farms in southern Carinthia. Far from all the deported Carinthian Slovenians survived and returned to Carinthia after the liberation in May 1945. The city of Klagenfurt long resisted remembering this deportation, so that in 1996 a memorial was erected in Radsberg/Radiše. Only in 2012 could a memorial be unveiled at the Klagenfurt Ebenthal/Žrelec train station. This consists of three bronze stelae by the Carinthian Slovenian artist Valentin Oman. A few meters away, opposite the stelae, there is a trilingual information panel.