In her bachelor’s thesis, the author presents various collective memories of the Home Guard victims between two opposing parties in the war through analyses of media discourse and of writings and sources. She examines in more detail the case of the poet France Balantič (1921 ̶ 1943), to whom the homeland and the Slovene post-war emigration in Argentina had a different attitude after the war. Together with his comrades-in-arms, Balantič was killed in action a few days before his 22nd birthday, on November 24th, 1943, as a member of the Home Guard in the battle with partisans in Grahovo near Cerknica. Due to his military role in the Home Guard in the World War II, he was considered a »hero«, a »martyr« for post-war emigrants in Argentina while in his homeland he was considered a »silent« author, a »collaborator«. The memory of his fight in the Home Guard often prevails over the memory of Balantič's poetic talent. The author notes that the Home Guard victims are the cause of many frictions among Slovenes due to different collective memories, which is shown in the example of the naming of Kamnik's library after the poet Balantič in 2015 and the erection of the Home Guard monument in Grahovo in 2014. After the independence of Slovenia, there are more and more attempts to portray fallen members of the Home Guard as real victims while the blame is shifted to the partisans whom the opponents equate with »communists«. The author then offers her view on the understanding of the discourse on the Home Guard victims.
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