As Yugoslav Partisan and subsequently Yugoslav communist authorities took control of Istria, the city of Rijeka (Fiume), and parts of Dalmatia—territory ceded by Italy chiefly under the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty—the great majority of the region's ethnic Italian population, along with some Slovenes and Croats opposed to the new communist government, departed for Italy over the following years. Estimates of the total number who left range from about 200,000 to 350,000. The exodus is closely linked in public memory to the 'foibe' killings, in which Yugoslav Partisans executed thousands of Italians (and some Slovenes/Croats accused of collaboration) and disposed of bodies in karst pits, though the exodus itself unfolded over a longer period through both violence and political pressure. A joint Italian-Slovenian historical commission later found the evidence did not establish a deliberate, centrally organized expulsion policy.
Following Yugoslav Partisan and then communist control of Istria, Rijeka/Fiume, and Dalmatia—territory transferred from Italy chiefly under the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty—most of the local ethnic Italian population, along with some Slovenes and Croats, emigrated to Italy.
The ceded areas held on the order of half a million people, of whom the Italian census of 1936 counted roughly 230,000-250,000 as Italian, against a Slovene and Croat majority; the ethnic composition of both the territory and the departing population is contested between Italian and Croatian/Slovene historiography. Estimates of the exodus range from about 200,000 to 350,000, with the Italian-Slovene-Croatian historians' commission settling on roughly 250,000.
Italian historian Raoul Pupo estimates 3,000–4,000 victims of the foibe killings and related deaths, revising his own earlier higher figure; Guido Rumici estimates 6,000–11,000 executed or dead in Yugoslav camps; Mario Pacor counts only 400–500 thrown into the foibe with about 4,000 deported. Claims of up to 20,000 circulate in Italian exile and nationalist accounts. The joint Italian–Slovene historical commission acknowledged 'hundreds of summary executions' without endorsing a total. Italian and Slovene/Croatian historians disagree over whether the victims were principally fascist officials and collaborators or largely civilians, and over whether the killings were spontaneous revenge or deliberate Titoist policy.
The joint Slovene–Italian historical commission recorded hundreds of summary executions with bodies disposed of in karst chasms and the deportation of large numbers of soldiers and civilians who died in Yugoslav captivity.
Croatia, Italy, San Marino