The foibe massacres (Italian: massacri delle foibe; Slovene: poboji v fojbah; Croatian: masakri fojbe), or simply the foibe, refers to mass killings and deportations during and immediately after World War II, mainly committed by Yugoslav Partisans and OZNA in the then-Italian territories of Julian March (Karst Region and Istria), Kvarner and Dalmatia, against local Italians (Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians) and Slavs, primarily members of fascist and collaborationist forces, and civilians opposed to the new Yugoslav authorities, and Italian, German, Croat and Slovene anti-communists presumed to be associated with fascism, Nazism, collaboration with Axis and preventive purge of real, potential or presumed opponents of the communist regime of Josip Broz Tito.
The term refers to some victims who were thrown alive into the foibe (from Italian: pronounced [ˈfɔibe]), deep natural sinkholes characteristic of the Karst Region. In a wider or symbolic sense, some authors used the term to apply to all disappearances or killings of Italian and Slavic people in the territories occupied by Yugoslav forces.
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