The German Occupying Forces' Attitude Towards Slovenian Students from Gorenjska

This article examines the attitude of the German occupying forces, in particular the Bled branch of the Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Nationhood, towards Slovenian secondary school and university students from the Gorenjska region who were educated in grammar schools and higher education institutions or universities, both within the territory of the Third Reich and beyond its borders. Since the authorities feared the excessive development of the Slovenian intelligentsia (especially in the social sciences), only those who had received a suitable racial and political assessment and the permission of the head of the civil administration were allowed to enrol. This paper thus presents the plans of the German occupation authorities to establish racial and political criteria for the youth of Gorenjska to study at higher schools and universities, as well as their rationale for the eventual return of the young people studying in the area of the Italian province of Ljubljana to the Reich.