according to Jozo Tomašević: In spring 1943, the Slovene Legion (Slovenska legija) appointed Peterlin the secret commander of all its men in the MVAC in the Province of Ljubljana. After the September 1943 capitulation of Italy, the Province of Ljubljana was occupied by the Germans in its entirety. SS General Erwin Rösener, the commander of German forces in the province, sought to continue the use of the anti-Communist forces, and to this end ordered the formation of the Domobranci, the Slovenian Home Guard forces on 24 September 1943. Although they were "fully armed, supplied, and paid by the German occupation authorities," the Domobranci "were not united in their aims. A faction around General Rupnik sincerely believed in the Germans and what they stood for. Another group around Lieutenant-Colonel Ernest Peterlin wanted eventually to link up with the Western Allies". From its inception until the end of 1944, Peterlin was chief of staff of organizational headquarters of the Slovenian Home Guard and from February 1944 was also commander of its training group. Meanwhile, the group of officers around Peterlin "was making clandestine plans in case of an invasion by the Western Allies, and was in touch with them by radio. German commanders were aware of the pro-Western attitude of this faction of the Domobranci, and anxious that in the event of an Allied landing in Istria they might change sides, in December 1944, Peterlin and other pro-Western Domobranci officers were arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Dachau concentration camp, possibly after betrayal by a Partisan infiltrator. Peterlin was in Dachau until the end of the war, whereupon he was forcibly repatriated to Yugoslavia. He was put on show trial for collaboration with the enemy, convicted and sentenced to death in the so-called Christmas trials () at the District Court in Ljubljana. He was executed by hanging on 20 March 1946. References 1903 births 1946 deaths Military personnel from Ljubljana Slovenian Roman Catholics Slovenian collaborators with Fascist Italy Dachau concentration camp survivors Executed Yugoslav collaborators with Nazi Germany Executed Slovenian people Slovenian anti-communists Slovenian soldiers People executed by Yugoslavia by hanging