Der „Exodus“ der Italiener aus Istrien: Kollektive Entscheidung oder Zwangsmigration?

The subject of the article is the mass exodus of the Italian speaking or Italian oriented population of Istria, a peninsula on the north-eastern Adria occupied by the Yugoslav Army of Marshall Tito at the end of WW2 and attributed to Yugoslavia with the peace treaty between Italy and the United Nations in 1947. The ‘exodus’ involved some 270.000-300.000 people, corresponding to 85-100% of those who understood themselves as ‘Italians’. Therefore, although no official measures were taken to carry out an ‘ethnic simplification’ of the territory, the result was the disappearance of a substantial ethnic component, leading to an unchallenged Croatian predominance in ‘socialist Istria’. The authors assert that a crucial factor for the ethnic-national struggle in Istria and the subsequent abandonment of the peninsula by the ‘Italians’ was the uncertain attribution of the territory after WW2. The area was deeply fragmented; some sectors were occupied by the Yugoslavs and others by British-American troops. Both Italy and Yugoslavia claimed the territory for themselves. People rallied to the Italian or the Yugoslav cause and waged relentless battles. Of course the Yugoslavs were in a stronger position thanks to the Army, the secret police, the Communist administration and Communist networks. Therefore, the struggle between Communists and anti-Communists which also affected the rest of Yugoslavia, did on the Italo-Yugoslav border take on the character of an ethnic–national clash between ‘Italians’ and ‘Slavs’.