The Sterntal Camp ( sl, Taborišče Šterntal, german: Lager Sterntal) was a concentration camp located in

Kidričevo Kidričevo () is a town near Ptuj in northeastern Slovenia. It is the seat of the Municipality of Kidričevo. The area is part of the traditional region of Styria. The municipality is now included in the Drava Statistical Region. The town is indus ...

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

. It was a central collection point for the expulsion of

ethnic Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

from Slovenia after the Second World War. The roots of the camp go back to a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...

camp from the First World War, later used as a refugee camp for people displaced by the

Battles of the Isonzo The Battles of the Isonzo (known as the Isonzo Front by historians, sl, soška fronta) were a series of 12 battles between the Austro-Hungarian and Italian armies in World War I mostly on the territory of present-day Slovenia, and the remaind ...

. In 1941,Savnik, Roman, ed. 1980. ''Krajevni leksikon Slovenije'', vol. 4. Ljubljana: Državna založba Slovenije. p. 401. the German occupation authorities (german: CdZ-Gebiet Untersteiermark) established a prisoner of war camp at the site to provide labor to build an aluminum smelter (the plant was not completed until 1947–1954). At the beginning of 1942, the camp contained 1,076 workers, 185 criminal internees, and 89 prisoners of war. In 1944, family members of deserters were also forced to work at the camp. In May 1945, under the direction of Aleksandar Ranković, the Yugoslav secret police (

OZNA The Department for People's Protection or OZNA ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, Одељење за заштиту нaрода, Odjeljenje za zaštitu naroda, Odeljenje za zaštitu naroda; mk, Одделение за заштита на народот; sl, Oddele ...

) established a concentration camp at the site to collect ethnic Germans from across Slovenia, especially from

Lower Styria Styria ( sl, Štajerska), also Slovenian Styria (''Slovenska Štajerska'') or Lower Styria (''Spodnja Štajerska''; german: Untersteiermark), is a traditional region in northeastern Slovenia, comprising the southern third of the former Duchy o ...

and

Gottschee Gottschee (, sl, Kočevsko) refers to a former German-speaking region in Carniola, a crownland of the Habsburg monarchy, Habsburg Empire, part of the historical and traditional region of Lower Carniola, now in Slovenia. The region has been a coun ...

. Ethnic Hungarians from Prekmurje were also sent to the camp. Overcrowding and poor hygiene at the camp caused many of the inmates to die from amoebiasis and

typhoid fever Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several ...

. The inmates were also physically and mentally tortured, and many were shot. Tortures included forcing the prisoners to lie on the ground while their captors rode motorcycles over them. The deaths included large numbers of the elderly and young children; some accounts state that no children under the age of two survived. The camp, which was designed to accommodate 2,000 people, contained between 8,000 and 12,000 prisoners. Up to 5,000 people died at the camp. The Sterntal Concentration Camp was closed down in October 1945 through the efforts of the Red Cross, and most of the survivors were sent to Austria.Krainer, Hans. Die Partisanen in Krain, das Ende des Krainer Deutschtums, 1941-1945

References

{{Reflist Mass graves in Slovenia 1945 in Slovenia Aftermath of World War II in Slovenia World War II prisoner of war massacres Yugoslavia in World War II Yugoslav war crimes World War II sites in Slovenia Political repression in Communist Yugoslavia Mass murder in 1945