The Erasure took place in 1992, the first organization of the Erased was founded in 2002, and victory was secured in 2012.
Restoring Slovenia’s Erased
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the erased
Yugoslavia: When a Country Actually Is Wiped Off the Map
When Yugoslavia fell apart in the early 1990s, most people simply became citizens of what had once been its constituent republics: Croatia, Bosnia, etc. But for some, it was not a simple process.
Review: The Scars of the Erasure
On June 25, 1991, Slovenia achieved its independence. As the new state took form, citizens of the former Socialist Republic of Slovenia gained immediate citizenship, retaining their economic and social rights in a fresh homeland. But all citizens of other republics of the former Yugoslavia, with permanent addresses in Slovenia, were granted only six months to file for citizenship. If they failed to act within this timeframe, their permanent resident status was revoked immediately. This arbitrary act of abjuration resulted in the “erasure” of 25,671 people from the registry of permanent residents in Slovenia.
Postcard from…Ljubljana
The huge yellow banners on the façade of the building under renovation contain short statements that could be part of an advertising campaign or perhaps a conceptual art project. But the stories that are now appearing on this building (pictured) and bus shelters throughout downtown Ljubljana, the capital of the former Yugoslav republic of Slovenia, are far more subversive than that.
Postcard from…Ljubljana
It’s been 16 years since the newly independent Slovenian government stripped more than 18,000 Slovene residents of their civic identity. Known as the Erased, these 18,000 people largely came from the other parts of former Yugoslavia. Many had lived in Slovenia all their lives, spoke fluent Slovenian. Many thought of themselves as Slovenes. But because they had been born elsewhere or couldn’t meet the new citizenship requirements, they were suddenly non-persons. They lost jobs, apartments, health benefits, pensions. Many went underground. Others were unceremoniously deported.