During the 1941 Balkan Campaign of World War II, the area was annexed by Nazi Germany and put under the administration of the "Reichsgau" of Carinthia, led by Friedrich Rainer. Upon the German Instrument of Surrender in May 1945, Yugoslav Partisans entered the region, killing numerous alleged collaborators in what became known in the context of the Bleiburg repatriations. The area around Dravograd (Otiški Vrh, Selovec, Bukovska Vas, Šentjanž) and Prevalje (Leše, Poljana) is the site of several mass graves. After the war, the region formed part of the Yugoslav Socialist Republic of Slovenia, it became part of independent Slovenia after the Breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991.