The Bleiburg repatriations (see terminology) were a series of forced repatriations from Allied-occupied Austria of Axis prisoners of war and Axis troops whose surrender had not been accepted by the British Army, conducted by the Yugoslav Army (JA) and the British Army, in May 1945, after the end of World War II in Europe. During the war, Yugoslav territory had been annexed or occupied by the Axis powers. As the war ended, tens of thousands of Axis troops and collaborationist soldiers and associated civilians fled Yugoslavia to Austria as the JA took control. When they reached Allied-occupied Austria, in accordance with Allied policy, the British Army refused to accept their surrender and directed them to surrender to the Allied-aligned JA instead. They were then subjected to forced marches, together with columns captured on Yugoslav territory by the JA. Tens of thousands were executed; others were taken to forced labor camps, where more died from harsh conditions. The events are named for the Carinthian border town of Bleiburg, where the initial British refusal to accept the surrender of the leading elements of the fleeing troops occurred, and from which some repatriations were carried out.
On 3 May 1945, the government of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), a fascist puppet state established in parts of German-occupied Yugoslavia, that had undertaken a brutal campaign of genocide against a number of its minority populations, reducing their numbers by the hundreds of thousands, decided to flee to Austria. They initiated the evacuation by ordering the remnants of the Croatian Armed Forces (HOS) to move there as soon as possible, in order to surrender to the British Army. The Axis-aligned Slovene leadership issued a retreat order for the Slovene Home Guard on the same day. These forces, accompanied by civilians, joined the German Army Group E and other Axis units in withdrawal; the latter included the XV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps and the remnants of the Montenegrin Chetniks organized in the HOS-commanded Montenegrin National Army.
In the week after the German Instrument of Surrender, which marked the formal end of World War II in Europe, collaborationist forces in Yugoslavia continued to battle the Partisans to avoid encirclement and keep escape routes open. The Slovene-led columns fought their way to the Austrian border near Klagenfurt on 14 May. Their surrender was accepted by the British and they were interned in the nearby Viktring camp. When one of the columns of fleeing HOS troops, who were intermingled with civilians, approached the town of Bleiburg on 15 May, the British refused to accept their surrender. They directed them to surrender to the Partisans, which the HOS leadership did after short negotiations. Other Axis prisoners in British captivity were repatriated to Yugoslavia in the following weeks. The repatriations were canceled by the British on 31 May, following reports of massacres in Yugoslavia.
The Yugoslav authorities moved the prisoners on forced marches throughout the country to internment and labor camps. Mass executions were carried out, the largest of which were in Tezno (estimated at 15,000 Croatian prisoners of war), Kočevski Rog, and Huda Jama. In the ensuing Communist rule in Yugoslavia, these massacres and other abuses after the repatriations were a taboo topic and information about the events was suppressed. Public and official commemoration of the victims, which included civilians, did not begin until several decades later.
Historians have been unable to accurately ascertain the number of casualties during and after the repatriations; exact numbers have been the subject of much debate, and assessments are typically in the ranges of tens of thousands. Historians and investigations in Slovenia and Croatia indicate that most of the victims were members of Croatian, Slovene, Montenegrin and Serb collaborationist armed forces.
Following the breakup of Yugoslavia, an annual commemoration for the victims has been held in Bleiburg, but has drawn considerable controversy due to Ustaše symbols at the event. Croatian authorities have variously either endorsed that commemoration or initiated other commemorations in Slovenia, while the Austrian authorities have increasingly made moves to prevent it from further happening.