Ernest Peterlin

Ernest Peterlin (11 January 190320 March 1946) was a Slovene military officer who rose to a senior position in the Royal Yugoslav Army prior to the Second World War. Married to Anja Roman Rezelj. A decided anti-Communist, during the war he became a prominent anti-Partisan military leader and one of the main exponents of the pro-Western faction of the Slovene Home Guard, an anti-Communist collaborationist militia active in parts of German-occupied Slovenia between 1943 and 1945. In 1945, he was tried and sentenced to death by the new Yugoslav Communist authorities and executed in 1946.

Early life and pre-war career

Born in Ljubljana on 11 January 1903, Peterlin became a career soldier in the Royal Yugoslav Army. At the time of the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, he was chief of staff of the Yugoslav 3rd Army Group's 15th 'Zetska' Infantry Division, commanded by Brigadier General Milenko Varjačić. Following the swift Axis victory and occupation of Yugoslavia, Peterlin was involved in and worked to promote pro-royalist militia. However, in March 1942 most royal army officers who were in the Italian-annexed parts of Slovenia, including Peterlin, were arrested and sent to Italian prisoner-of-war camps "as a precautionary measure".

Second World War leadership

The foremost resistance to the occupation was Josip Broz Tito's Partisan movement. In Slovenia, this resistance was led by the Liberation Front of the Slovenian People, in which the Communist influence soon prevailed. The pro-royalist militia took on a fundamentally anti-Communist stand. The Italian occupation forces under General Mario Roatta "were eager to use the anti-Communist forces as auxiliary troops" Rožman responded favourably, sending Roatta a memorandum in September 1942 containing detailed advice on how to fight the Partisans, which included the suggestion that named anti-Communist internees should be released to lead the Anti-Communist Volunteer Militia (Milizia volontaria anticomunista – MVAC).

From its inception until the end of 1944, Peterlin was chief of staff of organizational headquarters of the Slovenian Home Guard and from February 1944 was also commander of its training group. Meanwhile, the group of officers around Peterlin "was making clandestine plans in case of an invasion by the Western Allies, and was in touch with them by radio". for collaboration with the enemy, convicted and sentenced to death in the so-called Christmas trials at the District Court in Ljubljana. He was executed by hanging on 20 March 1946.