South Tyrol Option Agreement

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 the Austrian Empire until 1919, were given the right of 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.

Source: Wikipedia — South Tyrol Option Agreement (CC BY-SA 4.0)