Gottschee (now known as Kočevje, Slovenia - see map below) covering an area of 330 square miles approximately 40 miles (65 km) south of Laibach (Ljubljana, Slovenia) and 60 miles (95 km) east of Trieste, Italy (as the crow flies) was part of Yugoslavia between World War 1 and the collapse of communism in the region. It is theorized and suggested that the source of the word Gottschee is Gottes Segen (God's blessing) or Gottes See (God's lake) or possibly from the Slovenian "Hočevje", meaning pine forest. It was a linguistic island since Slovenians were settled in the surrounding area. The official language became Slovenian after the Austrian Empire ceded the territory to Yugoslavia after Word War 1.

In the beginning Gottscheers spoke a Tyrolean/Bavarian dialect. As time passed and due to their isolation, a Gottscheer dialect evolved. Prior to the settlement of the region in the fourteenth century this area was an ancient forest covered with pine, elm, maple, spruce, oak, beech and birch trees.

Since it's founding in 1330 hardships prevailed in Gottschee, except for an abbreviated period in the late 1860's when the population reached it's peak of about 26,000 people. The soil was a chalky porous soil which was not fully usable and unproductive in spots. Taxes were excessive and the people lived under unrelentingly meager conditions throughout most of their history.

The area was subject to about a dozen barbarous and ruinous attacks by the Turks between the years of 1496 and 1620. The Turks killed, took hostages, scorched and pillaged Gottschee. In the nineteenth century Gottschee was conquered by Napoleon and was made part of the province of Illyria, although short lived. After World War 1, Gottschee became a part of Yugoslavia after being surrendered by the Austro/Hungarian empire.

In 1941 and at the time of Word War 2, German troops advanced into Yugoslavia and an ineffective Yugoslav military was unable to suppress the invasion. Yugoslavia was now occupied territory. This incursion resulted in Germany and Italy dividing the spoils, with the Italians controlling Gottschee (province of Kočevje) between 1941 and 1945. Gottscheers were then resettled by Germany to occupied Lower Styria to homes and land taken from their rightful Slovenian owners.

Most Gottscheers were committed to the German regime and accepted citizenship in the Third Reich. As many as 37,000 Slovenians were removed (ethnically cleansed?) from their homes and properties and were taken to German labor camps, many of whom perished in the ensuing conflict and never to return to their homes and lands.

After the Germans lost the war, Gottscheers were described as German sympathizers and occupiers and proceeded to leave the area in Lower Styria that they had occupied from 1941 to 1945 from fear of vengeance. Since Gottscheers rejected Yugoslav citizenship when they accepted citizenship in the Third Reich, they were not allowed to return to their homes and farms in Gottschee and they now found themselves homeless and penniless. Their original homes and farms in Gottschee were left behind forever. Several years after World War 2 Gottscheers were infinitesimally compensated for their properties by Germany.

Gottscheers left with only the possessions that they were able to either carry in wagons or carts or on their backs. As they were fleeing their resettlement homes/farms in Lower Styria, searches by authorities cost Gottscheers their personal effects including their money, jewelry, photographs and identification papers. They became refugees in relocation camps and in concentration camps such as Sterntal near Pettau, Slovenia (now Ptuj, Slovenia), where they encountered shortages of food, ill treatment, epidemics, torture, sadism and murder. Younger children under the age of two rarely survived under these conditions.

In 1853 the first Gottscheers arrived in America and in 1879 a Gottscheer exodus began to the United States and other countries due to poor living conditions in their homeland. The vast majority were not allowed to remain in Yugoslavia (now Slovenia) after World War 2 ended and today they have established their livelihood in the USA, Austria, Germany, Canada, Australia, South America and other countries.

It is estimated that approximately 150 Gottscheers remained in Yugoslavia after Word War 2.