European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

up in Leningrad, and we were sent to the eastern front.

Introduction, family, youth

Well, I come from a tradesman’s family.

My father was a tradesman, a woodworker.

My mother was a cook.

My mother came from Styria and my father from Carniola. They both met in Ljubljana.

I was born 19 April 1924 in Recica near Savinja.

Then we moved. As far as our residence is concerned, we moved from

Sentjanz, Radmirje, Menges, Luc and we ended up here in Kropa.

On 10 July 1942, I was mobilized to the German Arbeitsdienst, the German labor service.

I was mobilized into this service, which was a sort of  paramilitary type.

I was in the Arbeitsdienst for six months.

Then I returned in December 1942. By the time I got home, the call-up for the German army was already waiting for me.

„The women gave so much“

Maybe my sister had a harder time than I did, as she was always in the mountains with all the boys, but they all truly loved her.

I know that when she came back to Maro during the summer they would all come to visit her.

She got married with the commander of her unit and they moved to Genoa, but they still had a house in Maro,

and when they came back a lot of people would go and see them.

Women were so respected at that time.

When I went to the mountains, all the boys from Reggio would come and ask me if I had seen their parents.