Mass graves in Slovenia

Many of the mass graves were created during the war, but the larger sites date from after the war. The wartime graves vary from those of soldiers killed in battle to groups that were targeted by the Partisans due to their ethnicity (e.g., Romani)^{[11][12][13][14]} or other civilians murdered for political reasons.^[15][16]

The postwar graves from the Bleiburg repatriations contain the remains of suspected collaborators, soldiers, and civilians that fled towards Austria in May and June 1945,^[8][17] as well as groups targeted because of their ethnicity (e.g., Gottschee Germans, Hungarians, and Italians).^{[18][19][20][21]} and civilians that were the victims of political purges^[22] or marked as "class enemies"^[23] to eliminate potential opponents to the new regime.^{[1]: 17 [10][23][24]}

After the war, the communist authorities denied that the executions had taken place. Attempts to reveal the events were suppressed, evidence was destroyed, and no exhumations took place.^[8][10][25] People were forbidden from visiting the graves, and many were hidden under waste.^[26]

After the collapse of Yugoslavia, researchers in Slovenia started writing about the executions and exhumations were undertaken.^[8] However, some left-wing parties, in particular the Social Democrats, have been accused of stalling such investigations.^[17][23]