Memorial Plaque in Memory of the Deportation of the Carinthian Slovenes from Ferlach/Borovlje

Already during the interwar period, there were efforts from the German-nationalist side to "Germanize" the bilingual Carinthia, for which comprehensive considerations regarding resettlement and relocation were made. After the so-called "Anschluss", these ideas could be concretized by local actors such as Major Alois Maier-Kaibitsch within the framework of the Nazi plan for the "ethnic reordering" of Europe. Following the Hitler-Mussolini Agreement of 1939, German-speaking Kanaltaler settlers were to be settled in Carinthia, for which Carinthian Slovene families were to be forcibly resettled to the eastern border of the Reich. The course of the war delayed this plan, yet in April 1942, 227 Carinthian Slovene families were taken from their homes, deported to special camps, and dispossessed. In the winter of 1944/45, there were further forced resettlements of Carinthian Slovene families. In September 2023, the town community of Ferlach/Borovlje unveiled a memorial plaque at the old station in Ferlach/Borovlje in memory of the deportation of the Carinthian Slovenes. This plaque remembers 11 families from the community who were taken from their homes and deported in an action of the National Socialists on April 14th and 15th, 1942.