This paper tackles the hitherto overlooked topic in Slovenian historiography of the attitude of the priests and parish administrators of the Kočevska region towards the resettlement of the Germans from Kočevska in 1941. In their ranks, groups of opponents and supporters of resettlement formed. As a result, three parish priests remained and shared with their flock the trials of the interwar and postwar period, while the other three moved with their parishioners to the surroundings of Krško and Brežice, and emigrated to Austria in May 1945. Together with their relocated and emigrated parishioners they experienced the loss of “homeland” twice in three and a half years. After the resettlement of the Germans from Kočevska, the region became and remained more or less empty. During and after the war, their sacral and cultural heritage was systematically destroyed, which the remaining inhabitants and their priests tried to preserve in indescribably modest circumstances.
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