 On 31 October 1944, the Partisans seized the city, until then a part of Mussolini's Italian Social Republic.At the start of World War II, Zadar had a population of 24,000 and, by the end of 1944, this had decreased to 6,000.Formally, the city remained under Italian sovereignty until 15 September 1947 but by that date the exodus from the city had been already almost total (Paris Peace Treaties).