At the end of May 1945, 12,000 Slovenian soldiers boarded trains in Austria. They thought they were on their way to freedom in Italy. Their true destination was Slovenia, and death. One of the most moving and tragic stories of World War II, 'Slovenia 1945' follows the fate of Slovenes caught up in the maelstrom of war and politics in the Balkans in World War II and the problems of post-war settlement. Thousands were returned by British troops to face death at the hands of their war-time enemies - Tito's Partisans - who had triumphed by the war's end. Yet many survived and the story of their exile is also one of triumph as the surviving refugees built new lives in Argentina, the USA, Canada and Britain. In this unique account, the authors draw on more than half a century of research, personal accounts and an unsurpassed knowledge of the Slovene migrant communities around the world to tell the story of the Slovene refugees.