South Tyrol Option Agreement
1939 German-Italian agreement / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The South Tyrol Option Agreement (German: Option in Südtirol; Italian: Opzioni in Alto Adige) was an agreement in effect between 1939 and 1943, when the native German and Ladin-speaking people in South Tyrol and several other municipalities of northern Italy, which had belonged to Austria before WWI, were given the option of either emigrating to neighboring Nazi Germany (of which Austria was a part after the 1938 Anschluss) or remaining in Fascist Italy, where the German minority was subjected to repressive Italianization efforts.
The upcoming decision led to tumultuous upheavals in the local society. A decisive role was played by the Völkischer Kampfring, a local Nazi group, with its successful propagandistic appeals to the German "nationality" and "ethnicity" of South Tyroleans, and its terror acts against dissenters. Another key aspect was the spreading of fake rumors about an allegedly planned deportation of the "remainers" by the Italian government. Roughly 70% opted to move to Germany.