dLib.si - collections

Catholic Institute, Studia Slovenica

Studia Slovenica (SSL) is the archive with a special library operating within the Catholic Institute that has been founded by the Archdiocese of Ljubljana. SSL keeps a unique and invaluable archival material about the most prominent Slovenian diaspora in Europe, North America, Latin America and Australia and members of the Slovenian national community living beyond the state border. The entire archival collection includes 180 personal and thematic collections of 260 meters length. SSL library material comprises more than 50,000 units (monographs in various languages and periodicals). In 2002, the Ministry of Culture declared the SSL archive collection as cultural monument; In 2005 the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia published a guide to SSL.

Between 2021 and 2027, the Catholic Institute will perform digitization of the written heritage of the SSL archive. Financial support for the project is provided by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia. Selected digitized documents from the Studia Slovenica archival collection will be published during the implementation of the project and supplemented.

SLOVENIAN PRINTINGS IN REFUGEE CAMPS IN ITALY AND AUSTRIA 1945-1949

From May 1945 to 1949, an overwhelming number of printed publications were created in the post-war refugee camps in Austria and Italy. It would be expected that in difficult and uncertain conditions in exile, with the loss of the homeland and, in many cases of relatives, apathy, and resignation, the fate would prevail among Slovenes trapped in a camp life. However, it was far from that. We are amazed by the outbreak of their extraordinary vitality and creativity that reflected also in publishing of original literature, by reprints of the Slovenian classics, historical studies, memories…In addition to literature, we find booklets with practical content, like a driving test manual and school textbooks. Two editions of the Slovenian-Spanish dictionary were published in the exile. In the Spittal an der Drau camp, the first Slovenian historical atlas has been printed, several periodicals were published, as well as newspapers with refugee and camp topics, which give us an insight into the situation of the time and the everyday life of refugees.

The post-war refugees created almost five hundred monographic editions and more than eighty periodicals. A part of the rich legacy can be browsed at the dLib.si.

Cultural Society Slovenski dom Zagreb

Slovenes living in Zagreb are assembling in Slovenski dom, a Cultural and Educational Society, the oldest association of Slovenes in Europe that has been operating interruptedly since 1929. It has survived four state formations, from the Kingdom of Yugoslavia to the Republic of Croatia. Various political situations dictated the ways and limitations of its functioning. The founder of the society, which was then named the National Library and Reading Room, was Dr Fran Zavrnik. Between the two World Wars, the activities of the association were very creative, it connected almost all Slovenes from Zagreb and their friends. During the Second World War, the authorities of the Independent State of Croatia banned its activities, nevertheless the spirit of friendship never died out, as the Slovenes in Zagreb helped their exiled compatriots. Due to occasional internal disagreements in the years after World War II, the Society experienced many ups and downs. After the disintegration of the of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY), the association has focused its activities on realizing the idea of making Slovenski dom the home of all Slovenes in Zagreb. Today, the Society has about eight hundred members and in addition to its many activities, it is also engaged in publishing.

Ivan's Letters to Micka – an emigrant’s story

Marija Krek was born in 1906 near Škofja Loka, in today's Slovenia; at that time, it was a part of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. With her mother, brother and sister she left for America in 1921, to join their father who had gone there a few years before; he had settled in Yankee, a small mining town in New Mexico. When Marija (Micka, Mici) came into the Promised Land, she became Mary. Soon after her arrival, she began working at the hotel and restaurant owned by her uncle. At an entertaining Sunday event, she was noticed by Ivan Bizjak, a Slovene from Dawson. He was born in 1894 in Osp, a village in the Coastal–Karst region, situated on the Slovenian ethnic territory, which at that time belonged to the Kingdom of Italy. Ivan also came to America in 1921 from Trieste.

Ivan and Mary married on 7 June 1924, after the bride had attained the age of 18 years. In the meantime, wonderful love letters were travelling between Yankee and Dawson - now abandoned "ghost towns”; they were written in Slovenian, their mother tongue. Unfortunately, only Ivan’s letters are preserved.

Slovenian diaspora publications

As many as one-fifth of people of the Slovenian nationality, members of the national minorities in the neighbouring countries and expatriates, is living outside the borders of the Republic of Slovenia. Slovenes living in the border areas of the neighbouring countries are the Slovenian indigenous population. From a historical and cultural point of view, the areas where they live are also Slovenian.

A large number of Slovenes began to emigrate to overseas countries in the first half of the 18th century. Most of them emigrated between the mid-19th century and the First World War. The period after the Second World War is characterized by three major emigration waves: the first (1945) refers to political emigrants that lived in Europe during the first years after the war, then they mainly emigrated to overseas countries; in the 1960s, a second wave followed when many workers emigrated to the Western European countries due to more favourable economic conditions; the third wave represents the so-called "brain drain" or experts going abroad. In their new homelands, Slovenes gathered in communities according to religious, political and cultural principles. They cultivated their culture, language, customs and preserved the written word.