Articles

“Kobarid. I am for the fourth time in this small Slovenian borough, which our troops occupied immediately after crossing the border. I still find the same captain and non-commissioned officers at the rear area command as they were there in September. Nothing has changed. The town seems cleaner, I could say rejuvenated, but more silent and deserted. Few soldiers, few trucks. The dizzy motion of the first months of the war is still there, but it has been diverted to the outskirts where a military settlement has been built, with wide streets and wide squares. Even the locals have not changed. I go to some shops and I still find the enigmatic faces that I noticed the first time. No. These Slovenians continue to dislike us. They tolerate us with resignation and with ill-concealed hostility. They think we will not stay for long and do not want to compromise themselves if their yesterday’s masters come back tomorrow.”

Benito Mussolini: Il mio diario di guerra [My war diary]

After the Italian occupation the image of Kobarid began to change – it became Italian. Namely, old Slovenian inscriptions were whitewashed and the streets were given Italian names: “Via Vittorio Emanuele, Via Cividale, etc. The occupying forces strove to erase any trace of Slovenianhood.“ After the Twelfth Isonzo Battle the locals of Kobarid wiped out Italian inscriptions and renamed the streets: “Gregorčičeva, Cesarja Karla I., Erjavčeva, Volaričeva, Prešernova, Ozka ulica, Koroška, Goriška, Krilanova, Breg, Soška cesta, Humska pot, Sv. Antona pot, Dušca, Ježa.”

Newspaper Slovenec, 15 November 1917