Istrian–Dalmatian exodus

TheIstrian–Dalmatian exodus(Italian:esodo giuliano dalmata;Slovene:istrsko-dalmatinski eksodus;Croatian:istarsko-dalmatinski egzodus) was the post-World War IIexodus and departure of local ethnicItalians(Istrian ItaliansandDalmatian Italians) as well as ethnicSlovenesandCroatsfromYugoslavia. The emigrants, who had lived in the now Yugoslav territories of theJulian March(Karst RegionandIstria),KvarnerandDalmatia, largely went toItaly, but some joined theItalian diasporain theAmericas,AustraliaandSouth Africa.These regions were ethnically mixed, with long-established historic Croatian, Italian, and Slovene communities. After World War I, theKingdom of Italyannexed Istria, Kvarner, the Julian March and parts of Dalmatia including the city ofZadar. At the end of World War II, under the Allies'Treaty of Peace with Italy, the former Italian territories in Istria, Kvarner, the Julian March and Dalmatia were assigned to now Communist-helmedFederal Yugoslavia, except for theProvince of Trieste. The former territories absorbed into Yugoslavia are part of present-dayCroatiaandSlovenia.
According to various sources, the exodus is estimated to have amounted to between 230,000 and 350,000 Italians (the others being ethnic Slovenes and Croats who chose to maintainItalian citizenship)leaving the areas in the aftermath of the conflict.The exodus started in 1943 and ended completely only in 1960. According to the census organized inCroatiain 2001 and that organized inSloveniain 2002, the Italians who remained in the formerYugoslaviaamounted to 21,894 people (2,258 in Slovenia and 19,636 in Croatia).
Hundreds up to tens of thousands of local ethnic Italians (Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians) were killed or summarily executed duringWorld War IIbyYugoslav PartisansandOZNAduring the first years of the exodus, in what became known as thefoibemassacres.From 1947, after the war, Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians were subject by Yugoslav authorities to less violent forms of intimidation, such as nationalization, expropriation, and discriminatory taxation,which gave them little option other than emigration.
ARomance-speakingpopulation has existed in Istria since around the fall of theWestern Roman Empire, when Istria was fullyLatinised. The coastal cities especially had Italian populations, connected to other areas through trade, but the interior was mostly Slavic, especially Croatian.
Istrian Italianswere more than 50% of the total population for centuries,while making up about a third of the population in 1900.According to the 1910 Austrian census, out of 404,309 inhabitants in Istria, 168,116 (41.6%) spoke Croatian, 147,416 (36.5%) spoke Italian, 55,365 (13.7%) spoke Slovene, 13,279 (3.3%) spoke German, 882 (0.2%) spoke Romanian (actuallyIstro-Romanian), 2,116 (0.5%) spoke other languages and 17,135 (4.2%) were non-citizens, who had not been asked for their language of communication. (Istria at the time included parts of theKarstandLiburnia). So, in the peninsula of Istria beforeWorld War I, local ethnic Italians accounted for about a third (36.5%) of the local inhabitants.Furthermore, the nearly complete disappearance of theDalmatian Italians(there were 92,500	or nearly 33% of the total Dalmatian population in 1803,while now there are only 300) has been related todemocideandethnic cleansingby scholars likeR. J. Rummel.
A new wave of Italians, who were not part of the indigenousVenetian-speaking Istrians, arrived between 1918 and 1943. At the time,Primorskaand Istria, Rijeka, part of Dalmatia, and the islands ofCres,Lastovo, andPalagruža(and, from 1941 to 1943, Krk) were considered part of Italy. TheKingdom of Italy's 1936 censusindicated approximately 230,000 people who listed Italian as their language of communication in what is now the territory of Slovenia and Croatia, then part of the Italian state (ca. 194,000 in today's Croatia and ca. 36,000 in today's Slovenia).
From the end of World War II until 1953, according to various data, between 250,000 and 350,000 people emigrated from these regions. Since the Italian population before World War II numbered 225,000 (150,000 in Istria and the rest in Fiume/Rijeka and Dalmatia), the remainder must have been Slovenes and Croats, if the total was 350,000. According to Matjaž Klemenčič, one-third were Slovenes and Croats who opposed the Communist government in Yugoslavia,but this is disputed. Two-thirds were local ethnic Italians, emigrants who were living permanently in this region on 10 June 1940 and who expressed their wish to obtain Italian citizenship and emigrate to Italy. In Yugoslavia they were calledoptanti(opting ones) and in Italy were known asesuli(exiles). The emigration of Italians reduced the total population of the region and altered its historical ethnic structure.
In 1953, there were 36,000 declared Italians in Yugoslavia, just 16% of the 225,000 Italians before World War II.
Roman Dalmatia was fully Latinized by 476 AD when theWestern Roman Empiredisappeared.In theEarly Middle Ages, the territory of the Byzantine province of Dalmatia reached in the North up to the riverSava, and was part of thePraetorian prefecture of Illyricum. In the middle of the 6th and the beginning of the 7th century began theSlavic migration, which caused the Romance-speaking population, descendants of Romans and Illyrians (speakingDalmatian), to flee to the coast and islands.The hinterland, semi-depopulated by theBarbarian Invasions,Slavic tribessettled. The Dalmatian cities retained their Romanic culture andlanguagein cities such asZadar,SplitandDubrovnik. Their ownVulgar Latin, developed intoDalmatian, a now extinctRomance language. These coastal cities (politically part of theByzantine Empire) maintained political, cultural and economic links with Italy, through theAdriatic Sea. On the other side communications with the mainland were difficult because of theDinaric Alps. Due to the sharporographyof Dalmatia, even communications between the different Dalmatian cities, occurred mainly through the sea. This helped Dalmatian cities to develop a unique Romance culture, despite the mostly Slavicized mainland.
HistorianTheodor Mommsenwrote that Istria (included in the Regio XVenetia et HistriaofRoman ItalysinceAugustus) was fully romanized in the 5th century AD.Between 500 and 700 AD, Slavs settled in Southeastern Europe (Eastern Adriatic), and their number ever increased, and with theOttoman invasionSlavs were pushed from the south and east.This led to Italic people becoming ever more confined to urban areas, while some areas of the countryside were populated by Slavs, with exceptions in western and southern Istria which remained fully Romance-speaking.
By the 11th century, most of the interior mountainous areas of northern and eastern Istria (Liburnia) were inhabited bySouth Slavs, while the Romance population continued to prevail in the south and west of the peninsula. Linguistically, the Romance inhabitants of Istria were most probably divided into two main linguistic groups: in the north-west, the speakers of aRhaeto-Romance languagesimilar toLadinandFriulianprevailed, while in the south, the natives most probably spoke a variant of theDalmatian language. One modern claim suggests the original language of the romanized Istrians survived the invasions, this being theIstriot languagewhich was spoken by some nearPula.
Via conquests, theRepublic of Venice, between the9th centuryand 1797, extended its dominion to coastal parts ofIstriaandDalmatia.Thus Venice invaded and attackedZadarmultiple times, especially devastating the city in 1202 when Venice used thecrusaders, on theirFourth Crusade, to lay siege, then ransack, demolish and rob the city,the population fleeing into countryside.Pope Innocent IIIexcommunicated the Venetians and crusaders for attacking a Catholic city.The Venetians used the same Crusadeto attack the Dubrovnik Republic, and force it to pay tribute, then continued tosack Christian Orthodox Constantinoplewhere theylooted, terrorized, and vandalized the city, killing 2.000 civilians, raping nuns and destroying Christian Churches, with Venice receiving a big portion of the plundered treasures.
The coastal areas and cities of Istria came under Venetian Influence in the 9th century. In 1145, the cities ofPula,KoperandIzolarose against the Republic of Venice but were defeated, and were since further controlled by Venice.On 15 February 1267,Porečwas formally incorporated with the Venetian state.Other coastal towns followed shortly thereafter. The Republic of Venice gradually dominated the whole coastal area of western Istria and the area toPlominon the eastern part of the peninsula.Dalmatia was first and finally sold to the Republic of Venice in 1409 butVenetian Dalmatiawas not fully consolidated from 1420.
From theMiddle Agesonwards, numbers of Slavic people near and on the Adriatic coast were ever increasing, due to their expanding population and due to pressure from theOttomanspushing them from the south and east.This led to Italic people becoming ever more confined to urban areas, while the countryside was populated by Slavs, with certain isolated exceptions.In particular, the population was divided into urban-coastal communities (mainlyRomance-speakers) and rural communities (mainlySlavic-speakers), with small minorities ofMorlachsandIstro-Romanians.
Republic of Veniceinfluenced the neolatins ofIstriaandDalmatiauntil 1797, when itwas conqueredbyNapoleon:CapodistriaandPolawere important centers of art and culture during theItalian Renaissance.Istria and Dalmatia were then aggregated to theNapoleonic Kingdom of Italyin 1805, and annexed to theIllyrian Provincesin 1809 (for some years also theRepublic of Ragusawas included, since 1808). From the Middle Ages to the 19th century, Italian and Slavic communities inIstriaandDalmatiahad lived peacefully side by side because they did not know the national identification, given that they generically defined themselves as "Istrians" and "Dalmatians", of "Romance" or "Slavic" culture.
After the fall ofNapoleon(1814), Istria, Kvarner and Dalmatia were annexed to theAustrian Empire.ManyIstrian ItaliansandDalmatian Italianslooked with sympathy towards theRisorgimentomovement that fought for the unification of Italy.However, after theThird Italian War of Independence(1866), when theVenetoandFriuliregions were ceded by theAustriansto the newly formedKingdom Italy, Istria and Dalmatia remained part of theAustro-Hungarian Empire, together with other Italian-speaking areas on the eastern Adriatic. This triggered the gradual rise ofItalian irredentismamong many Italians in Istria, Kvarner and Dalmatia, who demanded the unification of theJulian March,KvarnerandDalmatiawith Italy. The Italians in Istria, Kvarner and Dalmatia supported the ItalianRisorgimento: as a consequence, the Austrians saw the Italians as enemies and favored the Slav communities of Istria, Kvarner and Dalmatia.
During the meeting of the Council of Ministers of 12 November 1866, EmperorFranz Joseph I of Austriaoutlined a wide-ranging project aimed at theGermanizationorSlavizationof the areas of the empire with an Italian presence:
Istrian Italianscomprised about a third of the population in 1900.Dalmatia, especially its maritime cities, once had a substantial local Italian-speaking population (Dalmatian Italians), making up 33% of the total population of Dalmatia in 1803,but this was reduced to 20% in 1816.Bartoli's evaluation was followed by other claims thatAuguste de Marmont, the French Governor General of the NapoleonicIllyrian Provincescommissioned a census in 1809 which found thatDalmatian Italianscomprised 29% of the total population of Dalmatia. In Dalmatia, there was a constant decline in the Italian population, in a context of repression that also took on violent connotations.According to Austrian census, the Dalmatian Italians formed 12.5% of the population in 1865.In the 1910 Austro-Hungarian census, Istria had a population of 57.8% Slavic-speakers (Croat and Slovene), and 38.1% Italian speakers.For the AustrianKingdom of Dalmatia, (i.e.Dalmatia), the 1910 numbers were 96.2% Slavic speakers and 2.8% Italian speakers.InRijekathe Italians were the relative majority in the municipality (48.61% in 1910), and in addition to the large Croatian community (25.95% in the same year), there was also a fair Hungarian minority (13.03%). According to the official Croatian census of 2011, there are 2,445 Italians in Rijeka (equal to 1.9% of the total population).
The Italian-speaking population in Dalmatia was concentrated in the major coastal cities. In the city ofSplitin 1890 there were 1,969 Dalmatian Italian-speakers (12.5% of the population), inZadar7,423 (64.6%), inŠibenik1,018 (14.5%), inKotor623 (18.7%) and inDubrovnik331 (4.6%).In other Dalmatian localities, according to Austrian censuses, Dalmatian Italian-speakers experienced a sudden decrease: in the twenty years 1890-1910, inRabthey went from 225 to 151, inVisfrom 352 to 92, inPagfrom 787 to 23, completely disappearing in almost all the inland locations.
In 1909, theItalian languagelost itsstatusas the official language of Dalmatia in favor of Croatian only; previously, both languages were recognized. Thus, Italian could no longer be used in the public and administrative sphere.
In 1915,Italy abrogated its alliance and declared war on the Austro-Hungarian Empire,leading to bloody conflict mainly on theIsonzoandPiavefronts. Britain, France and Russia had been "keen to bring neutral Italy into World War I on their side. However, Italy drove a hard bargain, demanding extensive territorial concessions once the war had been won".In a deal to bring Italy into the war, under theLondon Pact, Italy would be allowed to annex not only Italian-speakingTrentinoand Trieste, but also German-speakingSouth Tyrol, Istria (which included large non-Italian communities), and the northern part of Dalmatia including the areas ofZadar(Zara) andŠibenik(Sebenico). Mainly Italian Fiume (present-day Rijeka) was excluded.
In November 1918, after the surrender of Austria-Hungary, Italy occupied militarilyTrentino Alto-Adige, theJulian March,Istria, theKvarner GulfandDalmatia, all Austro-Hungarian territories. On the Dalmatian coast, Italy established the firstGovernorate of Dalmatia, which had the provisional aim of ferrying the territory towards full integration into the Kingdom of Italy, progressively importing national legislation in place of the previous one. The administrative capital wasZara. The Governorate of Dalmatia was evacuated following the Italo-Yugoslav agreements which resulted in theTreaty of Rapallo(1920). After the war, theTreaty of Rapallobetween theKingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes(later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) and the Kingdom of Italy (12 November 1920), Italy annexedZadarin Dalmatia and some minor islands, almost all of Istria along with Trieste, excluding the island ofKrk, and part ofKastavcommune, which mostly went to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. By theTreaty of Rome(27 January 1924), theFree State of Fiume(Rijeka) was divided between Italy and Yugoslavia.
Between 31 December 1910 and 1 December 1921, Istria lost 15.1% of its population. The last survey under the Austrian empire recorded 404,309 inhabitants, which dropped to 343,401 by the first Italian census after the war.While the decrease was certainly related to World War I and the changes in political administration, emigration also was a major factor. In the immediate post-World War I period, Istria saw an intense migration outflow.Pula, for example, was badly affected by the drastic dismantling of its massive Austrian military and bureaucratic apparatus of more than 20,000 soldiers and security forces, as well as the dismissal of the employees from its naval shipyard. A serious economic crisis in the rest of Italy forced thousands of Croat peasants to move to Yugoslavia, which became the main destination of the Istrian exodus.
Due to a lack of reliable statistics, the true magnitude of Istrian emigration during that period cannot be assessed accurately. Estimates provided by varying sources with different research methods show that about 30,000 Istrians migrated between 1918 and 1921.Most of them were Austrians, Hungarians and Slavic citizens who used to work for the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
After World War I, under theTreaty of Rapallobetween theKingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes(later Kingdom of Yugoslavia) and the Kingdom of Italy (12 November 1920), Italy obtained almost all of Istria with Trieste, the exception being the island ofKrkand part ofKastavcommune, which went to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. By theTreaty of Rome(27 January 1924) Italy took Rijeka as well, which had been planned to become an independent state.
In these areas, there was a forced policy ofItalianizationof the population in the 1920s and 1930s.In addition, there were acts of fascist violence not hampered by the authorities, such as the torching of theNarodni dom(National House) in Pula andTriestecarried out at night by Fascists with the connivance of the police (13 July 1920). The situation deteriorated further after the annexation of theJulian March, especially afterBenito Mussolinicame to power (1922). In March 1923 the prefect of the Julian March prohibited the use of Croatian and Slovene in the administration, whilst their use in law courts was forbidden by Royal decree on 15 October 1925.
The activities of Croatian and Slovenian societies and associations (Sokol, reading rooms, etc.) had already been forbidden during the occupation, but specifically so later with the Law on Associations (1925), the Law on Public Demonstrations (1926) and the Law on Public Order (1926). All Slovenian and Croatian societies and sporting and cultural associations had to cease every activity in line with a decision of provincial fascist secretaries dated 12 June 1927. On a specific order from the prefect of Trieste on 19 November 1928 the Edinost political society was also dissolved. Croatian and Slovenian co-operatives in Istria, which at first were absorbed by the Pula or Trieste Savings Banks, were gradually liquidated.
At the same time, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia attempted a policy of forcedCroatisationagainst theItalian minority in Dalmatia.The majority of the Italian Dalmatian minority decided to transfer in the Kingdom of Italy.
DuringWorld War II, in 1941,Nazi Germany,Fascist Italy,Hungary, andBulgariaoccupied Yugoslavia, redrawing their borders to include former parts of the Yugoslavian state. A newNazipuppet state, theIndependent State of Croatia(NDH), was created. With theTreaties of Rome, the NDH agreed to cede to Italy Dalmatian territory, creating the secondGovernorate of Dalmatia, from north of Zadar to south of Split, with inland areas, plus nearly all the Adriatic islands andGorski Kotar. Italy then annexed these territories, while all the remainder of southern Croatia, including the entire coast, were placed under Italian occupation. Italy also appointed an Italian,Prince Aimone, Duke of Aosta, as king of Croatia.
Italy proceeded to Italianize the annexed areas of Dalmatia.Place names were Italianized, and Italian was made the official language in all schools, churches and government administration.All Croatian cultural societies were banned, while Italians took control of all key mineral, industrial and business establishments.Italian policies prompted resistance by Dalmatians, many joined the Partisans.This led to further Italian repressive measures - shooting of civilian hostages, burning of villages, confiscation of properties. Italians took many civilians to concentration camps- altogether, some 80,000 Dalmatians, 12% of the population, passed through Italian concentration camps.
Many Croats moved from the Italian-occupied area and took refuge in the satellite state of Croatia, which became the battleground for a guerrilla war between theAxisand theYugoslav Partisans. Following thesurrender of Italyin 1943, much of Italian-controlled Dalmatia was liberated by the Partisans, thentaken over by German forcesin a brutal campaign, who then returned control to the puppet Independent State of Croatia.Vis Islandremained in Partisan hands, while Zadar, Rijeka, Istria, Cres, Lošinj, Lastovo and Palagruža became part of the GermanOperationszone Adriatisches Küstenland.The Partisans took Dalmatia in 1944, and with that Zadar, Rijeka, Istria, Cres, Lošinj, Lastovo and Palagruža became reunited with Croatia. After 1945, most of the remainingDalmatian Italiansfled the region (350,000 Italians escaped fromIstriaand Dalmatia in theIstrian-Dalmatian exodus). Currently there are only 300 Dalmatian Italians in theCroatianDalmatia and 500 Dalmatian Italians in coastalMontenegro. After World War II, Dalmatia became part of thePeople's Republic of Croatia, part of theFederative People's Republic of Yugoslavia.
The territory of the former Kingdom of Dalmatia was divided between twofederal republicsof Yugoslavia and most of the territory went to Croatia, leaving only the Bay of Kotor toMontenegro. WhenYugoslavia dissolvedin 1991, those borders were retained and remain in force. During theCroatian War of Independence, most of Dalmatia was a battleground between theGovernment of Croatiaand theYugoslav People's Army(JNA), which aided theproto-stateofSerbian Krajina, with much of thenorthern part of the region around Kninand the far south around, but not including,Dubrovnik being placed under the control of Serb forces. Croatia did regain the southern territories in 1992 but did not regain the north untilOperation Stormin 1995. After the war, a number of towns and municipalities in the region were designatedAreas of Special State Concern.
When the fascist regime collapsed in 1943, reprisals against Italian fascists took place. Several hundred Italians were killed byJosip Broz Tito'sresistance movementin September 1943; some had been connected to the fascist regime, while others were victims of personal hatred or the attempt of the Partisan resistance to get rid of its real or supposed enemies.
Between 1943 and 1947, the exodus was bolstered by a wave of violence, known as the "Foibe massacres", mainly committed byOZNAandYugoslav PartisansinJulian March(Karst RegionandIstria),KvarnerandDalmatia, against the local ethnic Italian population (Istrian ItaliansandDalmatian Italians), as well againstanti-communistsin general (evenCroatsandSlovenes), usually associated withFascism,Nazismand collaboration withAxis,and against real, potential or presumed opponents ofTito communism.The type of attack wasstate terrorism,reprisal killings,andethnic cleansingagainstItalians.
The mixed Italian-Slovenian Historical Commission, established in 1995 by the two governments to investigate these matters, described the circumstances of the 1945 killings:
The Yugoslav partisans intended to kill whoever could oppose or compromise the future annexation of Italian territories: as a preventive purge of real, potential or presumed opponents ofTito communism(Italian, Slovenian and Croatiananti-communists, collaborators andradical nationalists), the Yugoslav partisans also exterminated the native anti-fascist autonomists — including the leadership of Italian anti-fascist partisan organizations and the leaders of Fiume's Autonomist Party, likeMario BlasichandNevio Skull, who supported local independence from both Italy and Yugoslavia —for example in the city of Fiume, where at least 650 were killed after the entry of the Yugoslav units, without any due trial.
The term refers to the victims who were often thrown alive intofoibas(deep naturalsinkholes; by extension, it also was applied to the use of mine shafts, etc., to hide the bodies). In a wider or symbolic sense, some authors used the term to apply to all disappearances or killings of Italian people in the territories occupied by Yugoslav forces. They excluded possible 'foibe' killings by other parties or forces. Others included deaths resulting from the forced deportation of Italians, or those who died while trying to flee from these contested lands.
The estimated number of people killed in the foibe is disputed, varying from hundreds to thousands,according to some sources 11,000or 20,000.The Italian historian, Raoul Pupo estimates 3,000 to 4,000 total victims, across all areas of former Yugoslavia and Italy from 1943 to 1945,with the primary target being military and repressive forces of the Fascist regime, and civilians associated with the regime, including Slavic collaborators.He places the events in the broader context of "the collapse of a structure of power and oppression: that of the fascist state in 1943, that of the Nazi-fascist state of the Adriatic coast in 1945".The foibe massacres were followed by the Istrian–Dalmatian exodus.
Economic insecurity, ethnic hatred and the international political context that eventually led to theIron Curtainresulted in up to 350,000 people, mostly Italians, choosing to leave Istria (and even Dalmatia and northernJulian March).
The exiles were to be given compensation for their loss of property and other indemnity by the Italian state under the terms of the peace treaties, but in the end did not receive anything. The exiles having fled intolerable conditions in their homeland on the promise of aid in the Italian homeland, were herded together in former concentration camps and prisons. Exiles also encountered hostility from those Italians who viewed them as taking away scarce food and jobs.Following the exodus, the areas were settled with Yugoslav people.
In a 1991 interview with the Italian magazine Panorama, prominent Yugoslav political dissidentMilovan Đilasclaimed to have been dispatched to Istria alongside Edvard Kardelj in 1946, to organize anti-Italian propaganda. He stated it was seen as "necessary to employ all kinds of pressure to persuade Italians to leave", due to their constituting a majority in urban areas.Although he was stripped of his offices in 1954, in 1946 Đilas was a high-ranking Yugoslav politician: a member of the Yugoslav Communist Party's Central Committee, in charge of its department of propaganda.
During the years 1946 and 1947, there was also a counter-exodus. In a gesture of comradeship, hundreds of Italians Communists workers from the city ofMonfalconeand Trieste, moved to Yugoslavia and more precisely to the shipyards of Rijeka taking the place of the departed Italians. They viewed the new Yugoslavia of Tito as the only place where the building of socialism was possible. After 1948, they fell suspect to accusations of stalinism by the Yugoslav government after theTito-Stalin splitand some were deported to concentration camps.
The Italian bishop of theCatholic diocese of Poreč and PulaRaffaele Radossi was replaced by Slovene Mihovil Toroš on 2 July 1947.When Bishop Radossi was inŽbandajofficiating a confirmation in September 1946, local activists surrounded him in a Partisankolodance.
Bishop Radossi subsequently moved from the bishop's residence in Poreč to Pula, which was under a joint United Kingdom-United States Allied Administration at the time. He officiated his last confirmation in October 1946 in Filipana where he narrowly avoided an attack by a group of thugs.The Bishop of Rijeka, Ugo Camozzo, also left for Italy on 3 August 1947.
The exodus took place between 1943 and 1960, with the main movements of population having place in the following years:
The first period took place after the surrender of the Italian army and the beginning of the first wave of anti-fascist violence.
TheWehrmachtwas engaged in a front-wide retreat from theYugoslav Partisans, along with the local collaborationist forces (theUstaše, theDomobranci, theChetniks, and units of Mussolini'sItalian Social Republic).
The first city to see a massive departure of local ethnic Italians was Zadar. In November 1943, Zadar wasbombedby the Allies, with serious civilian casualties (fatalities recorded range from under 1,000 to as many as 4,000 of over 20,000 city's inhabitants). Many died in carpet bombings. Many landmarks and centuries old works of art were destroyed. A significant number of civilians fled the city.
In late October 1944, the German army and most of the Italian civilian administration abandoned the city.On 31 October 1944, thePartisansseized the city, until then a part of Mussolini'sItalian Social Republic. At the start ofWorld War II, Zadar had a population of 24,000 and, by the end of 1944, this had decreased to 6,000.Formally, the city remained under Italian sovereignty until 15 September 1947 but by that date the exodus from the city had been already almost total (Paris Peace Treaties).
A second wave left at the end of the war with the beginning of killings, expropriation and other forms of pressure from the Yugoslavs authorities to establish control.
On 2–3 May 1945, Rijeka was occupied by vanguards of the Yugoslav Army. Here more than 500 collaborators, Italian military and public servants were summarily executed; the leaders of the local Autonomist Party, includingMario BlasichandNevio Skull, were also murdered. By January 1946, more than 20,000 people had left the province.
After 1945, the departure of the local ethnic Italians was bolstered by events of less violent nature. According to the American historian Pamela Ballinger:
The third part of the exodus took place after the Paris peace treaty, when Istria was assigned to theSocialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, except for a small area in the northwest part that formed the independentFree Territory of Trieste. The coastal city ofPulawas the site of the large-scale exodus of its Italian population. Between December 1946 and September 1947, Pula almost completely emptied as its residents left all their possessions and "opted" for Italian citizenship. 28,000 of the city's population of 32,000 left. The evacuation of the residents has been organized by Italian civil and Allied military authorities in March 1947, in anticipation of the city's passage from the control of theAllied Military Government for Occupied Territoriesto the Yugoslav rule, scheduled for September 1947.
The fourth period took place after theMemorandum of Understandingin London. It gave provisional civil administration of Zone A (with Trieste), to Italy, and Zone B to Yugoslavia. Finally, in 1975 theTreaty of Osimoofficially divided the former Free Territory of Trieste betweenSocialist Federal Republic of Yugoslaviaand theItalian Republic.
Several estimates of the exodus by historians:
The mixed Italian-Slovenian Historical Commission verified 27,000 Italian and 3,000 Slovene migrants from Slovenian territory. After decades of silence from the Yugoslav authorities (the history of the Istrian Exodus remained a tabooed topic in Yugoslav public discourse), Tito himself would declare in 1972 during a speech in Montenegro that three hundred thousands Istrians had left the peninsula after the war.
Those whose families left Istria or Dalmatia in the post-World War II period include:
On 18 February 1983, Yugoslavia and Italy signed a treaty in Rome where Yugoslavia agreed to pay US$110 million for the compensation of the exiles' property (which was confiscated after the war in the Zone B ofFree Territory of Trieste).
However, the issue of the property reparation is enormously complex and remains unresolved: as of 2022, the exiles have not yet received compensation. Indeed, there is very little probability that exiles out of the Zone B of the Free Territory of Trieste will ever be compensated. The matter of property compensation is included in the program of theIstrian Democratic Assembly, the regional party currently administrating the Istria County.
In connection with the exodus and during the period of communist Yugoslavia (1945–1991), the equality of ethno-nations and national minorities and how to handle inter-ethnic relations was one of the key questions of Yugoslav internal politics. In November 1943, the federation of Yugoslavia was proclaimed by the second assembly of the Anti-Fascist Council of the National Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ). The fourth paragraph of the proclamation stated that "Ethnic minorities in Yugoslavia shall be granted all national rights". These principles were codified in the 1946 and 1963 constitutions and reaffirmed again, in great detail, by the last federal constitution of 1974.
It declared that the nations and nationalities should have equal rights (Article 245). It further stated that "… each nationality has the sovereign right freely to use its own language and script, to foster its own culture, to set up organizations for this purpose, and to enjoy other constitutionally guaranteed rights…" (Article 274).
In Italy, Law 92 of 30 March 2004declared February 10 as aDay of Remembrancededicated to the memory of thevictims of Foibeand the Istrian–Dalmatian exodus. The same law created a special medal to be awarded to relatives of the victims:
There is not yet complete agreement amongst historians about the causes and the events triggering the Istrian exodus.
According to the historian Pertti Ahonen:
Slovenian historian Darko Darovecwrites:
For the mixed Italian-Slovenian Historical Commission:
According to the census organized inCroatiain 2001 and that organized inSloveniain 2002, the Italians who remained in the formerYugoslaviaamounted to 21,894 people (2,258in Sloveniaand 19,636in Croatia).The number of speakers of Italian is larger if taking into account non-Italians who speak it as a second language.
In addition, since the dissolution of Yugoslavia, a significant portion of the population of Istria opted for a regional declaration in the census instead of a national one. As such, more people have Italian as a first language than those having declared Italian.
In 2001, about 500 Dalmatian Italians were counted in Dalmatia. In particular, according to the official Croatian census of 2011, there are 83 Dalmatian Italians inSplit(equal to 0.05% of the total population), 16 inŠibenik(0.03%) and 27 inDubrovnik(0.06%).According to the official Croatian census of 2021, there are 63 Dalmatian Italians inZadar(equal to 0.09% of the total population).According to the official Montenegrin census of 2011, there are 31 Dalmatian Italians inKotor(equal to 0.14% of the total population).
The number of people resident in Croatia declaring themselves Italian almost doubled between 1981 and 1991 censuses (i.e. before and after the dissolution of Yugoslavia).The daily newspaperLa Voce del Popolo, the main newspaper forItalians of Croatia, is published in Rijeka/Fiume.
Italian is co-official withSlovenein four municipalities in the Slovenian portion ofIstria:Piran(Italian:Pirano),Koper(Italian:Capodistria),Izola(Italian:Isola d'Istria) andAnkaran(Italian:Ancarano). In many municipalities in the Croatian portion ofIstriathere are bilingual statutes, and the Italian language is considered to be a co-official language. The proposal to raise Italian to a co-official language, as in the Croatian portion of Istria, has been under discussion for years.
In various municipalities of Croatian Istria, census data shows that significant numbers of Italians still live in Istria, such as 51% of the population ofGrožnjan/Grisignana, 37% atBrtonigla/Verteneglio, and nearly 30% inBuje/Buie.In the village there, it is an important section of the "Comunità degli Italiani" in Croatia.Italian is co-official withCroatianin nineteen municipalities in the Croatian portion of Istria:Buje(Italian:Buie),Novigrad(Italian:Cittanova),Izola(Italian:Isola d'Istria),Vodnjan(Italian:Dignano),Poreč(Italian:Parenzo),Pula(Italian:Pola),Rovinj(Italian:Rovigno),Umag(Italian:Umago),Bale(Italian:Valle d'Istria),Brtonigla(Italian:Verteneglio),Fažana(Italian:Fasana),Grožnjan(Italian:Grisignana),Kaštelir-Labinci(Italian:Castellier-Santa Domenica),Ližnjan(Italian:Lisignano),Motovun(Italian:Montona),Oprtalj(Italian:Portole),Višnjan(Italian:Visignano),Vižinada(Italian:Visinada) andVrsar(Italian:Orsera).
Beside Slovene language schools, there are also kindergartens, primary schools,lower secondary schoolsandupper secondary schoolswith Italian as the language of instruction inKoper/Capodistria,Izola/Isola andPiran/Pirano. At the state-ownedUniversity of Primorska, however, which is also established in the bilingual area, Slovene is the only language of instruction (although the official name of the university includes the Italian version, too).
Beside Croat language schools, inIstriathere are also kindergartens inBuje/Buie,Brtonigla/Verteneglio,Novigrad/Cittanova,Umag/Umago,Poreč/Parenzo,Vrsar/Orsera,Rovinj/Rovigno,Bale/Valle,Vodnjan/Dignano,Pula/Pola andLabin/Albona, as well as primary schools in Buje/Buie, Brtonigla/Verteneglio, Novigrad/Cittanova, Umag/Umago, Poreč/Parenzo, Vodnjan/Dignano, Rovinj/Rovigno, Bale/Valle and Pula/Pola, as well aslower secondary schoolsandupper secondary schoolsin Buje/Buie, Rovinj/Rovigno and Pula/Pola, all with Italian as the language of instruction.
The city ofRijeka/Fiume in theKvarner/Carnaro region has Italian kindergartens and elementary schools, and there is anItalian Secondary School in Rijeka.The town ofMali Lošinj/Lussinpiccolo in the Kvarner/Carnaro region has an Italian kindergarten.
In Zadar, inDalmatia/Dalmazia region, the local Community of Italians has requested the creation of an Italian kindergarten since 2009. After considerable government opposition,with the imposition of a national filter that imposed the obligation to possess Italian citizenship for registration, in the end in 2013, it was opened hosting the first 25 children.This kindergarten is the first Italian educational institution opened in Dalmatia after the closure of the last Italian school, which operated there until 1953.
Since 2017, a Croatian primary school has been offering the study of the Italian language as a foreign language. Italian courses have also been activated in a secondary school and at the faculty of literature and philosophy.