European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

and the resistance formed against fascism and Hitlerism.

The first deserters from the ‘Wehrmacht’ had already escaped to Yugoslavia in 1939.

After the occupation of Yugoslavia they were arrested or had gone into hiding under a false name;

as my colleague Karl Potoschki did.

He was working under false name at a hotel in Bosnia.

On the 20th October 1939, he was shot together with 20.000 ‘chosen ones’ and finished off.

Those coming back after the occupation of Yugoslavia were mostly locked up,

respectively were the cadres of the liberation front of the Slovenes of Carinthia.

Some joined the partisans straight away; others later on, but the beginning had been made.

From day to day the resistance grew stronger.

Today, when you realise how courageous the people were –

then again it involved the ‘head’ and the people didn’t have a clue.

The plain people were the ones that helped the rebellion.

Without the help of the rural population, resistance would have been impossible.

Only because of this it was possible that the number of partisans became bigger each day.

And the hope that one day things would change.

Life after war

My family was fortunate.

I made it back home, my father and Avvenire came back from Germany, Davide was in the mountains too:

he was one of the leaders and later became deputy police prefect here.