Ladislav Bevc:
MY JOURNEY TO FREEDOM
In Encounter of May 1983, Nikolai Tolstoy published a documentary
paper
The Klagenfurt Conspiracy1 in which he describes the actions
of British diplomats and military authorities in 1945 when thousands of Cossacks,
Byelorussians, and Yugoslavs were shipped from refugee camps in Austria to
their death at the hands of Stalin and Tito.2 The following concerns primarily
the fate of the Slovenians who took refuge under the British flag at the
camps near Lienz and Vetrinj which very nearly became my own.
When it became apparent that the communist takeover of Slovenia was
imminent most of the members of the Slovenian National Committee decided to
leave Ljubljana and try to reach the Allies in Austria. Early in the afternoon
on May 5, 1945 I left Ljubljana by car and headed toward Ljubelj. There were
five of us in the car. We were on our own and, contrary to the communist insinuations,
had no connection whatever with the retreating Germans. Late in the afternoon
we reached Ljubelj and pulled into the entrance of the railway tunnel connecting
Carniola and Carinthia under the Karavanke Alps. We slept in the car which,
incidentally, became inoperative because a saboteur put sugar into the gasoline.
We managed to correct this during the evening and next morning we drove via
Borovlje, Celovec, Beljak, Spittal and Gomji Dravograd to Lienz where we
took up quarters in Hotel Sonne. The late Miroslav Urbas and I shared a room.
On May 8, 1945, the next day, the British arrived in Lienz and decreed that
no one may remove himself beyond ten kilometers from Lienz. Food ration cards
were being issued by the Nazi committee which the British left in charge
of these affairs. We received the lowest class of ration cards. A weekly
ration that these brought might be enough for one meal. Urbas and I had to
comb the countryside around Lienz for food and we were able to come by some
bread and milk at reasonable prices from the farmers.
The number of Slovenian refuges was gradually increasing. One of them
had a radio over which we could hear, in addition to news from home, transmissions
of triumphal rejoicing of the communists. A woman greeted Dr Pestotnik with:
"Doctor, have you heard that you have been sentenced to death?" In fact, according
to the news, Dr Pestotnik, Dr Pirkmajer, and Dr Vindišer were all sentenced
to death because the Credit and Loan Company (
Kreditni Zavod) of which
they were directors was transacting business with Italian clients during
the war.
In the midst of such excitement that punctuated the daily tedium arrived
a message from Celovec-Vetrinj where part of the National Committee with its
President, Dr Basaj, was located. The National Committee sent word by a special
emissary, Pater Odilo, that the British had decided to transport all Slovenian
refugees to a better camp in Palmanova, Italy. Pater Odilo had been to America
and thus spoke English. He came in a small truck which he drove himself.
The refugees were to be transported in four groups on 27th through 31st of
May 1945. The National Committee suggested that two of its members staying
at Lienz come to Vetrinj so that arrangements could be made for them to accompany
the refugees to Italy and act as their spokesmen.
It was decided that Dr Zajc and I should go to Vetrinj. I was to accompany
the last group of the refugees to Italy and remain with it as a representative
of the National Committee. On May 28, 1945 we drove through Spital, Beljak
and Celovec to Vetrinj; Pater Odilo informing the British sentries on the
way that he was taking two convalescents to Vetrinj.
In Vetrinj the National Committee was in permanent session. I had
to sleep in the open but the food there was ample, the refugees were preparing
it themselves. I wondered where all the meat that was served with cabbage
had come from. Later I found out that the refugees were slaughtering horses
and the cattle they brought along because they had no fodder for them. Before
I left Lienz Urbas gave me 1,000 Lire for his son whom he asked me to find
in Vetrinj among the
Domobranci (National Guard). I found his son and
was able to give him the money and his fathers regards. He was with the group
that left on May 29, 1945.
On May 29, however, the second day of those shipments, an officer
managed to return from Podrožica with the news that the British were handing
refugees over to the communists who were waiting for them concealed in railroad
cars in Podrožica. Dr Basaj immediately went to see the British commander
Lieutenant General Keightley in Celovec to find out what was going on. After
considerable waiting he was eventually admitted to Keightley's presence where
Keightley indignantly denied that anything like the handing over of refugees
occurred and threatened with severe punishment all who might spread such
rumors. Tolstoy's paper, however, reveals that Keightley, the British officer
who most likely by direction of Harold Macmillan, then the British resident
minister for the Mediterranean at the Allied Supreme Command Headquarters
at Caserta, arranged for the treachery, was lying.
While Dr Basaj and his deputation were cooling their heels in Keightley's
antechamber a certain "Major Jones" was bustling in and out of the general's
office arranging, no doubt the details of what the general would shortly vigorously
deny on his honor as a British officer. Apparently he was the same Jones
whom the Partisans used to show off at their meetings during the war as evidence
that their cause enjoyed full support of the Allies. From such observations
one can draw inferences on the sinister forces that played the decisive role
in the betrayal of the refugees.
At the same time another terrified fugitive from a "shipment to Italy
" showed up with an identical report to that given earlier by the escaped
officer. The National Committee still was not able to make up its mind what
to do and continued its session through May 30, 1945. At around noontime,
on that date, however, Dr Janez Janež, a young military surgeon, who had been
sent with the first transport on May 29, appeared, still in full uniform.
He was exhausted because he had come to Vetrinj from Pliberk walking day and
night without rest, evading the British sentries who, naturally, also guarded
the bridges on the Drava river. He reported that he was assigned to go with
the group to be transported as a medical officer in an ambulance. When they
arrived at the railway station at Pliberk the refugees were mustered out
of the train by the British. In front of the railway station Tito's partisans
were already waiting for them. The British soldiers, who knew what would happen
to the refugees, robbed them systematically of their meager personal belongings
such as watches, shaving kits, and the like, before they handed them over
to the communists. The communists, in turn, made the refugees undress so
that they could take their uniforms leaving them, for the time being, their
own rags. The military surgeon managed to avoid the muster by heading toward
the nearby inn, ostensibly looking for a restroom. A British guard followed
closely behind him but under his charge's reproachful look he eventually stepped
aside when the surgeon entered the facility. As soon as the latter was sure
he was no longer being followed he threw himself into a wheat field and lay
still and unobserved. Then he heard the frightful cries of the refugees whom
the partisans were loading into boxcars which were then locked. The night
fell but he still heard the plaintive cries from the sealed cars. From the
position of the stars he estimated that it was midnight when the train with
its wretched cargo departed and silence fell on the station and the inn.
He rose from the field and began to walk away from that place. It was still
dark when he reached a farm and raised the farmer. Fortunately the farmer
was not a communist sympathizer and advised Janež how to get further on his
way to reach the Drava river. The farmer also warned him about the British
sentries on the bridges and told him where he could find a ferryman who would
take him across. The surgeon found the ferry, crossed the Drava river, and
without rest or sleep continued on to Vetrinj.
Now the National Committee had an authentic report on the infamous
treachery by which the British were delivering the refugees to the Partisans.
It was decided, at once to warn the refugees advising them to disperse immediately
and save themselves as best they could; it was every man for himself from
then on.
Later we learned that some refugees, notwithstanding the clear warning
they received, boarded the last transport train on May 31, 1945, and went
to their deaths. It was that last group with which I was to go as a representative
of the National Committee to the "new and better refugee camp in Palmanova,
Italy."
Pater Odilo was ready to take both Dr Zajc and myself, as well as
Dr Celestin Jelenc, - if I remember correctly - back to Lienz at once. We
left on May 30, 1945 and arrived at Lienz on the same day, Pater Odilo again
informing the British sentries on the way he was transporting sick men. The
dreadful news spread instantly and it was universally agreed that we must
disappear as soon as possible into the American sector. Urbas wept all night
over the loss of his only son.
Later, in a refugee camp, I read a sworn statement by a refugee who
succeeded in escaping after he was handed over to the partisans at Pliberk.
He gave the statement to the American Military Government in Trieste after
he escaped from Yugoslavia. The victim reported that on arrival at the territory
under communist control the Partisans would stop the train at larger stations
and drive the captives from boxcars through the gauntlets of crowds that spat
on them and abused them in any way they could. When they reached the concentration
camp at Teharje women and children were separated from men who were sent
to a separate concentration camp. Guards were coming throughout the night
taking the victims to large natural underground caves and gullies. There
the victims were lined up with their hands bound along the edges of the pits
and shot in the neck. The young man in Trieste who bore witness to these
massacres, however, had not been mortally wounded - after some time he regained
consciousness and began feeling around. Finding the bloodied corpses all
around him he tried to undo the wire with which his hands were bound. Suddenly
he noticed another man rising and sinking again between the dead walking
over them toward him. When the man reached him, he untied his hands. Both
men waited inside below the rim of the pit until the executioners finished
off another group, then they climbed out and ran in different directions.
Although it was dark the sentries around the pit noticed their escape and
began firing at them. A year or two after these events a boy was recounting
to my son how he, as a young partisan camp follower, participated at such
murderous orgies. The Partisans on purpose did not tie-up all their victims
and let some escape from the pits so that other communists, including the
boy who was telling about this, hidden some distance away in the forest, could
amuse themselves by shooting down those trying to run away. The boy was not
much older than my son who was fourteen when these heroic deeds were narrated
to him. The communists did not try to conceal what they did at all in these
days, on the contrary -- they used to describe these executions in morbid
detail while they watched the listener to see how he would react. Fortunately,
our fugitive was not gunned down. He got away and managed to reach, still
at night, a farm where the people dressed the wound in his neck. He moved
on, mostly at night, and eventually reached his home somewhere in Dolenjsko.
There he remained until his wound healed and he recovered from his ordeal.
When he got well his relatives advised him to leave the country lest the
communists find out about him.
Another staging camp for mass executions, described by Tolstoy, was
St Vid near Ljubljana. Some victims at that camp were summarily executed there
but the majority were taken to Kočevje, the Slovenian Katyn. There a large
clearing was prepared in the systematic way of the communist executioners.
The victims were bound in pairs, tied to a line and taken to a common grave
where they were mowed down with machine guns. Then the communists finished
off those that were still showing signs of life. Those mass graves were only
superficially covered and local communist authorities, later complained about
the earth heaving up and uncovering the partially decomposed dead. Thus Anton
Gliha, a friend of ours in Krško, noticed that a foul smell of decay filled
the air as soon as he began excavating on his property where he wanted to
build a fence. As soon as he started the work a person came from the Local
People's Committee forbidding him to dig further and ordering him to fill
in the excavation. Spelunkers, exploring the various subterranean caves in
Charso also often came across skeletons of people who were executed and thrown
into the pits.
Some 13,000 Slovenians were brutally murdered in this way. Tolstoy
says indications point to Lieutenant General Keightley and Harold Macmillan
as persons most likely responsible for these crimes and conjectures that the
payoff for sending the Slovenian refugees back to Tito and their death may
have been the withdrawal of communist troops from portions of Carinthia they
occupied. Thus the communists sold the Slovenian soil to the British and
eventually to Austria in order to gain revenge over their political opponents.3
Soon after these events both the British armed forces as well as Whitehall
disclaimed any intentional complicity in the handing over of the Slovenian
refugees to the Partisans. I observe, however, that while diplomats of most
countries as a rule receive precise instructions for action from their governments
Whitehall does not issue specific instructions to its senior diplomats, it
only provides them with all the information that is deemed necessary for them
to act. Thus, actions of the resident minister for the Mediterranean were
for all practical purposes actions for which the British government must
assume full responsibility and any disclaimers appear disingenuous. In response
to recriminations for those heinous acts the British were quick to point
out that it was not they who pulled the triggers. True enough, this is how
the British fight the wars of their Empire: by letting others do the shooting.
We may justly ask whether crimes of such proportions perpetuated by
an Allied government are not equally or even more deserving of prosecution
such as that of the defendants at Nüremberg or those Nazis that were
apprehended more recently? In the case of the latter, the intervening time
appears to be no bar to prosecution. Indeed, while one could argue that the
trials at Nüremberg had their legal foundation only in the generally
perceived limits on the conduct of governments and the conscience of mankind,
the action of the British officers and diplomats were clearly illegal under
the laws of their own country and the covenants to which it was a party, namely
the Geneva Convention and the Atlantic Charter.
I was thus left to my own devices in trying to reach the American
zone of occupation. Despite the British roadblocks around Lienz, the refugees
generally could find a way to circumvent them and filter into Anras, a mountain
village to which Bishop Rožman had removed himself. The bishop still had his
car which was driven by his chaplain. The car belonging to my friend Rudolf
Žitnik in which we travelled was seized by the British who did not even bother
to give Žitnik a receipt. Members of the National Committee decided to follow
the refugees to Anras where we would find out how to get around the checkpoint
on the border of the American zone at Silian. The chaplain-driver agreed
to load our knapsacks in his car and wait for us some distance away from
the roadblock at Lienz. We were to get around it on foot and rejoin the waiting
car. On June 2, 1945 this plan was carried out without difficulty. There
were five of us in the group: Bogumil Remec, director of a college preparatory
school (gymnasium), writer Dr Tine Debeljak, his son-in-law, Josip Porenta,
civil engineer, Miroslav Urbas, and I.
In Abfaltersbach Urbas got out and headed for Ziljska Dolina where
he had relatives; finding his kin inhospitable, however, he soon moved on
to Celovec where he remained until his death. We remained in touch so long
as he lived.
The rest of us in the car continued uphill to Anras. On the recommendation
of the rector who was an old schoolmate of Bishop Rožman the farmers in Anras
were very hospitable towards the refugees and willingly provided us with food
and shelter. I was pleasantly surprised to find there Andrej Uršič, an acquaintance
of mine, and his friends. We slept in a larger room, each on his own bed.
The hostess fed us well as a matter of course. On Sunday, June 3, 1945, Bishop
Rožman, officiating at the mass in the local church, confirmed the refugee
children. The following day we started on our way to Silian to carry out
our plan for reaching the American zone of occupation. The people in Anras
told us where along our way we should stop to get detailed information for
this purpose. The bishop gave me a letter of recommendation to all ecclesiastics
requesting that they give me help in case of need. This is what he wrote:
"
Litterae comendatitis
Episcopus Labacensis omnibus Rev. is
Sacerdotibus et ordinibus eclesiasticis virum
eggregium
Ladislavum Bevc quam optime
comendat et rogat ut eum opportunis
consiliis et informationibus adjuvent
In itinere datum 1. Junii 1945.
Gregorius Rožman, eppus Labacen."
SEAL: F. B. Pfaramt in Anras, Ost Tirol
The chaplain again drove Remec, and myself from Anras. On our way
we picked up Debeljak and Porenta. In Absfaltersbach we got out and continued
on foot through the villages of Stressen, Tassenbach, and Panzendorf to Silian.
The trip took two days, the best we could do for the night was to stay in
a shelter.
Outside Silian we received precise information on the movements of
the patrols near the roadblock and instructions how to avoid them. We arrived
safely at Silian where we called on the dean who received us well and invited
us to dinner. We could only offer him the few ration cards we had left from
Lienz as a recompense. The dean promised us to get a guide for each of us
next morning who would take us to the Austro-Italian border in the part of
Tyrol occupied by the Italians. The border was being patrolled by Italian
guards but the locals knew at what time the guards returned to their barrack.
The guides showed up the next morning as promised. They were four youths aged
15 to 18 years. Because my knapsack was the lightest the youngest guide was
assigned to me. The guides were thoroughly familiar with the route and the
timetables of the border patrols. When we reached the place of crossing we
paid each guide his fee. They pointed out the direction of mountain pass Windbach
at 1,900 meters where we would find a large farm. We set out on our way across
the snowfields and slush. Remec, who was the oldest among us and who had
the most luggage was moving up the trail with a considerable difficulty.
From time to time we had to decide which turn to take, and we decided for
the steepest path every time.
It was already getting dark when we sighted the farm. We were received
without objections and given rooms, two persons to a room. Our host was the
only man on the farm but there were several women who, in the absence of men
who had gone to war, had to do all the work on the farm. We were invited to
an opulent dinner after which we turned in to rest after the exhausting trip.
In the morning Remec, arranged for a porter to carry his luggage on our descent
toward Dobbiaco. We were surprised to be treated to a glass of cognac at
breakfast, our host explained that the military in the valley had abandoned
their supply stores which the local population was quick to empty out.
Back in Lienz we had already decided that each group of the National
Committee would independently try, to find a suitable route to Rome. We had
lost at least two days at Anras. The first group, however, did not wait around
and so it was able to get on its way in the desired direction without impediment.
The descent into the valley was considerably less demanding than the
previous day's climb. Soon we reached a tourist inn at the outskirts of Dobbiaco,
where the porter left. Continuing on toward Dobbiaco we stopped on a meadow
and agreed that I should go to the municipal offices and seek information
about transportation to Rome; my companions would wait there until I returned.
I readily found the mayor's office. The mayor, a German appointed
by the Italian Government, was in and he carefully listened to my request.
He told me that all civilian traffic was suspended and that all transportation
was reserved exclusively for the use of the military. The only suggestion
he could make was that I might be able to get further information at the Italian
military command post. I returned with this information to my companions and
we all went to the Italian military command where they were flattered that
anyone would come to them for advice but could only suggest that we go to
the carabiniers for further information.
The carabiniere was very reserved and questioned us closely. I was
the spokesman for the group because I was the only one who spoke Italian.
When the carabiniere ran out of questions he barked that we were under arrest
and, in keeping with the time honored Italian practice with which we became
acquainted back in Ljubljana, demanded that we hand over our pocket knives.
I was prepared for this and handed over a cheap small penknife which I had
bought for just such an eventuality as Italian military authorities in Ljubljana
used to be fond of staging raids in public places at which they would confiscate
pocket knives. Thus I managed to keep my better knife with scissors, a can
opener and the like of which was a gift brought to me from Paris by the father
of a boy whom I had been tutoring as a student. Naturally, I was running some
risk for the bully could decide to frisk us. Fortunately, however, the thoroughness
with which people are nowadays frisked and searched in America was not yet
the practice with the carabiniers at that time. After he took away our knives
the carabiniers shoved us into a cell ordering us to leave our luggage outside.
The cell was small, without windows or other sources of light; in place of
beds there were some kind of planks without bedding arranged along the walls
leaving hardly enough space for a person to get up and carefully move toward
the door when it was open.
Confined to such close quarters all we could do was lie closely together.
The door was locked upon us and we spent the following three days in that
cell. Every morning the carabiniere unlocked the door to let us out where
we could wash a little, drink some water and take a few crumbs out of our
packs. We would also be issued one American canned meat ration per person
whereupon the carabiniere would again lock us up in that windowless cell.
Our only fear was that we would be returned to the British in Lienz.
On June 7, 1945, the third day of our imprisonment, the carabiniere
opened the door of our cell and told us we would be taken to the American
command in Brunico for interrogation by the OSS. We were received by Captain
Carrigher4 who questioned us through an interpreter. Again, I was the spokesman
for the group. The interpreter was a Jew who had not yet become naturalized.
When I complained about the treatment accorded to us by the carabiniere the
captain said that the carabiniere had no right to detain us. He ordered that
we be put up in a hotel where we also were to have meals. Because civilian
transportation was still suspended he would at the first opportunity send
us to San Candido (Innichen, elevation 1,175 meters) to the depot of 22nd
American Military Government Evacuation Camp where we could stay and have
food and shelter until he could arrange for transportation to the interior
of Italy or wherever we might wish to go. He sympathized with our plight and
expressed hope that some day Tito might yet be put in his proper place by
the United States. The captain instructed his interpreter to give us at least
some food rations immediately but the latter could come up with nothing but
cigarettes.
During the interview Remec discovered the disappearance of his supply
of gold coins which he carried in his underwear tied at the ankles with a
ribbon that became loose during the ride to Brunico to the pleasant surprise
of the dishonest finder. Unfortunately, Remec did not confide this to the
American representative, he merely observed to us that he had enough hard
currency left for all four of us to live in comfort for several years.
The appointed Italian quartermaster of the American depot at San Candido
showed scant enthusiasm at our arrival but he had to comply with the orders
of the American commander. The morose quartermaster's face bore a resemblance
to the pompous features of Mussolini whose portraits used to hang at railway
stations. Paying little attention to him we found some living quarters and
although there were no beds available we managed to improvise quite acceptable
bunks with bedding. We took our meals with the employees of the depot. In
town, where we were allowed to go at will, we found a laundress and other
conveniences.
Within a week a few more refugees showed up, among them Prelog. They
asked us to pretend we did not know them. Beyond Sillian they had been intercepted
by the Italian police who were taking them to an interrogation. Thus we could
not associate with them.
On June 12, 1945, the American commander was able to carry out his
promise. He sent a truck with which we left Innichen through Dobbiaco, Brunico,
Muhlbach, Brixen and eventually arrived at Bolzano. The driver took us to
the 24th A.M.G. Evacuation Camp and went to report our arrival. We were still
on the truck when a Slovenian came to look us over. Still out of sight, we
heard him asking as he was coming around the comer "Where are those hooligans?"
On seeing us, however, he realized what the situation was and shut up. He
was one of the Slovenians who were returning to Yugoslavia from the various
internment camps. These returning Slovenians acted in a rowdy and boisterous
manner similar to that of the communists in Ljubljana whose carousing we could
hear over the radio. Naturally, we told the Americans that we had nothing
to do with those people.
We then went to the barracks where we were stayed for two days without
anyone disturbing us. In town we looked for transportation further to the
south. We came across a deacon dressed in white with the yellow insignia of
the Vatican; he turned out to be an employee of the Vatican repatriation assistance.
I introduced myself showing him the letter of recommendation by Bishop Rožman
which the deacon attempted to read but, not having been conversant in Latin
as is the case for the lower clergy in Italy, he could not understand. Almost
immediately a small crowd of curious onlookers gathered around us peppering
the deacon with questions as to the contents of the letter I handed him to
which the deacon responded: "It says here that he is a good man. [
Un buon
uomo.] " I asked him to take my letter to the commission's office
which he did but he soon returned and told us that the commission was there
to help the natives only.
Eventually we found a truck that was going to Verona and thence to
Modena. We climbed on it along with a sizeable crowd of others and, standing
up all the way, arrived at Modena and the 24th A.M.G. Evacuation Camp5 where
we stored our belongings. The city was swarming with people returning to their
homes. We stayed overnight; Remec and his son-in-law found quarters with
a family that was renting rooms while Porenta and I spent the night in an
abandoned house. The next day, June 16th, we climbed on an already overloaded
truck full of people who had enormous amounts of luggage: bundles of bedding
and clothes, cages of geese and all kinds of things they were able to salvage
when the fascist regime shipped them off as laborers on loan to Germany.
Enroute to Rome, however, we learned that the road was closed because a bridge
had been destroyed. The truck then took the route through Bologna to Forli
where it stopped at the 23rd A.M.G. Evacuation Camp.
In Forli we found quarters in a vacant house where we could store
our packs and sleep on the floor. A Royalist Yugoslav and Chetnik camp was
nearby and the following day I visited it and called on General Andrej (Prezelj)
and Chief of Staff Skalar (Dr Benedik). My brother-in-law Franci Slapar also
was there as a staff officer. The Chetniks lived in tents which they had put
up: They invited me to stay with them but I declined because I wanted to
see my companions safely to their destination.
I remembered that the daughter of my good friend Etbin Bežek who had
married in Italy was living in Forli. At the city recorder's office where
I was inquiring about her address the clerks knew about her as her marriage
to Count Canestri-Trotti represented quite a social event in Forli. I found
the Canestri-Trottis without difficulty. Tatjana was with her infant son and
a Slovenian friend married to an Italian colonel from Forli who dropped by
for a visit. I told her that her father intended to leave Ljubljana the same
day as I but that he probably changed his mind. During the conversation Tatjana's
visitor was expressing sympathies for the communist regime in Yugoslavia;
apparently she had been spared the opportunity of experiencing its benefits
first hand without her Italian passport.
Tatjana asked her husband to arrange transportation for our group
to the nearby refugee camp in the vacation resort of Riccione on the Adriatic.
He readily found a driver with a car who for 500 lire took us to Riccione
where we arrived after dark on June 18, 1945. We were taken in among the Slovenian
refugees in that camp who were billeted in various hotels and summer homes
that were not in use. I was to spend two years there.
My flight from the murderous communists and their British accomplices
was over and the long wait for emigration to America began.
NOTES
1. Nikolai Tolstoy,
The Klagenfurt Conspiracy, War Crimes and Diplomatic
Secrets, " Encounter Vol. 40, No. 5., pp. 24-37 (1983).
2. Nicholas Bethell,
The Last Secret, Basic Books,Inc., New York
1974. Chapter 4 deals with the extradition of Cossacks and Croatians.
3. Charles Zalar,
Yugoslav Communism, a Critical Study, prepared
for the subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security
Act and other Internal Security Laws of the Committee on the Judiciary, United
States Senate, 87th Congress, 1st Session, October 18, 1961, U.S. Government
Printing Office, Washington, 1961. Contains a detailed index and comprehensive
bibliography. Vetrinj is mentioned on pages 114 and 115. The book is no longer
available from the Superintendent of Documents; the author gratefully acknowledges
the courtesy of the Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary for
providing him with a copy.
4. The author probably errs here as Carrigher was the name of the British
commander at the refugee camp at Riccione, it is unlikely that the American
captain had the same name.
5. The manuscript gives the same number as that for the camp in Bolzano.