17 Facts About Leon Rupnik

Leon Rupnik, known as Lav Rupnik or Lev Rupnik was a Slovene general in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia who collaborated with the Fascist Italian and Nazi German occupation forces during World War II.

Leon Rupnik was born in Lokve near Gorizia, a village in what was then the Austrian county of Gorizia and Gradisca.

Leon Rupnik's schooling continued in Vienna from 1905 to 1907.

Leon Rupnik thereafter climbed the ranks, becoming a lieutenant-colonel, colonel, brigadier general and major general.

Bishop Rozman praised Leon Rupnik highly, stating he was "the most capable man for this administrative position".

Together with Anton Kokalj, Ernest Peterlin and Janko Kregar, Leon Rupnik was one of the founders of the Slovene Home Guard, an auxiliary military unit of the SS, formed as a voluntary militia to fight the partisan resistance movement.

Leon Rupnik was dismissed by Rainer on November 4,1943.

Leon Rupnik succeeded in keeping almost all Slovene cultural and educational institutions functioning under Nazi occupation.

In 1944, while Leon Rupnik served as president of the Ljubljana provincial administration, the Slovene Home Guard Police arrested the remaining Jews, who until then had managed to hide in the city, and turned them over to the Nazi authorities, who sent them to Auschwitz and other concentration camps.

Leon Rupnik organized several "anti-Communist rallies", in which he delivered violent speeches against the Liberation Front of the Slovenian People, the Western Allies and the "World Jewish Conspiracy".

Leon Rupnik maintained friendly contacts with the SS general Erwin Rosener, who was later convicted of war crimes.

Leon Rupnik disagreed with all attempts by members of the Slovenian Covenant and some military leaders of the Slovene Home Guard to rise against the Nazis, nor did he intervene when several of his former collaborators were arrested by the Nazis and sent to Dachau concentration camp.

On May 5,1945, Leon Rupnik fled to Austria with a small group of 20 collaborators.

Leon Rupnik was arrested by the British on July 23 and returned to Yugoslavia in January 1946.

Leon Rupnik was put on trial alongside Rosener and others, and was sentenced to death for treason on August 30,1946.

Leon Rupnik was executed by firing squad on September 4,1946 at Ljubljana's Zale cemetery, and was buried the same day in an unmarked grave.

Leon Rupnik's son, Vuk, was an active officer of the Slovene Home Guard and commander of one of the most belligerent units in the militia.