Kočevski Rog, Slovenia: A Site of Mass Killings, Commemoration, Polarization and Revisionism

<jats:p>The end of the Second World War in Slovenia was marked by massacres of the collaborating armed units, the Home Guard, by the Communist Partisans. Kočevski Rog, one of the largest atrocity sites, has been the focus of controversies related to reconciliation, silencing and polarization. Decades of silence ensued. The site's symbolism evolved over time, first associated with massacres and silencing and then with reconciliation following the 1990 Reconciliation Ceremony. Finally, it became a symbol of a controversial debate in which the Home Guard were depicted as victims while the Partisans were perpetrators. Kočevski Rog is representative of the revisionist narrative that rehabilitated the Home Guard and omitted their role as Nazi collaborators. Yet when the postwar killings or violence are discussed, Kočevski Rog is often forgotten or clustered with other locations under the umbrella term ‘communist violence’. This clustering significantly undermines the understanding of mass atrocities committed because they occurred under different conditions and supports the revisionist narrative of the Second World War and the postwar massacres. This paper examines the site of Kočevski Rog, its tailored image within selective narratives and its significance in Slovenia's memory, political polarization and manipulation of the past for contentious contemporary political agendas.</jats:p>