 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (April 2012) |
| Slovene Home Guard | |
|---|---|
| Slovensko domobranstvo | |
 The symbol of the Slovene Home Guard | |
| Active | 1943–1945 |
| Size | about 18,000 at its height (autumn 1944)[1] |
| Motto(s) | Za Boga, narod in domovino "For God, Nation and Homeland" |
| Commanders | |
| Notable commanders | Vuk Rupnik Ernest Peterlin Franc Krener |
| Insignia | |
| Flag |  |
The Slovene Home Guard (Slovene: Slovensko domobranstvo, SD; German: Slowenische Landeswehr) was a Slovene anti-Partisan[2] collaborationist militia that operated during the 1943–1945 German occupation of the formerly Italian-annexed Slovene Province of Ljubljana.[3] The Guard consisted of former Village Sentries (Slovene: Vaške straže; Italian: Guardia Civica),[4] part of Italian-sponsored Anti-Communist Volunteer Militia, re-organized under Nazi command after the Italian Armistice of September 1943.
The Guard had close links with Slovenian right-wing anti-Communist political parties and organizations, which provided most of the membership, receiving assistance from the Germans rather than providing assistance to them.[5] In the Slovenian Littoral, a similar but much smaller unit, called the Slovenian National Defense Corps (Slovene: Slovensko narodno varnostni zbor, German: Slowenisches Nationales Schutzkorps), more commonly known as the Littoral Home Guard (Slovene: Primorsko domobranstvo) was ideologically and organizationally linked to the SD. An even smaller Upper Carniolan Self-Defense (Slovene: Gorenjska samozaščita, German: Oberkrainer Landschutz), also known as the Upper Carniolan Home Guard (Slovene: Gorenjsko domobranstvo) operated in Upper Carniola between 1944 and 1945. All three "home guard" units comprised almost exclusively ethnic Slovenes. The officers and the language of command were Slovene.[6]
Some of the resistance groups outside of the communist-led Liberation Front of the Slovene Nation (OF) were collectively known by the OF as White Guards (Slovene: Bela garda). The British liaison-officers with the Slovene Partisans saw the White Guards as another name for the Home Guards, and declared them enemies of the Allies.
- ^ Pirjevec 2018, p. 174.
- ^ "Historijska čitanka, Drugi svjetski rat" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 January 2014. Retrieved 28 November 2012.
- ^ Klemenčič & Žagar 2004, p. 168.
- ^ Kranjc 2010, p. 34.
- ^ Kranjc 2010, p. 57.
- ^ Kranjc 2010, p. 101.