European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

Relationships back then were much more humane.

He understood that I hadn’t really deserted, but rather that I’d gone to study.

And I could afford it too, because I truly felt that it was my right.

I always had advocated almost philosophically, that no society is well-suited if its individuals are not content with how they fit in.

Struggle to create an united Slovenian state

Speaking of the circumstances of WWII, we often forget that the Slovenian area

was the only area in occupied Europe where occupation was thought only a first act.

Slovenia was divided. Ljubljana was the hundredth Italian province.

The Italian right hand, with the bishop Rozman at its lead,

who sent a letter of thanks to Mussolini for accepting this ‘large family’ into fascist Italy.

All the other countries, in this region… The Croatians had some sort of country, fascist, satellite,

but their right to a form of their own was acknowledged nonetheless.

The Serbs had their own heir to the crown and thus the Kingdom of Serbia. Slovakia was a Protectorate.

And Slovenia was divided among the occupiers, which means the Italians…

Hitler came to Maribor and said: Make this land German again for me, the Hungarians took Prekmurje.

There were some villages in Bela krajina that even the Croatians usurped.

We were obliged to constitute ourselves as a nation and as a country; nobody acknowledged us.

Only by strongly determined fighting we forced our allies to understand a people lives here,

a nation with its own language and its own culture and tradition.

That’s why the significance of this fight was so essential and vital.