European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

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.

Had there been no Partisan movement, the Primorje would not be a part of Slovenia now.

Being an individualist in war time

While we waited for the breakthrough, many of the boys under my leadership, cried from fear.

It was a horrific sight.

The same boys, aged 17, 18 or 20 at the most, volunteered for dangerous actions, attacks, within half a year.

When a man has weapons, when he witnesses the deaths of his colleagues,

his friends, even his neighbors from the very same village, a murderous passion overwhelms him.

When in combat, sooner or later the logic prevails that death to the enemy is your life.

Perhaps now as I look back upon myself as a man who considered himself a poet,

I was a tremendous individualist.

Of course, in a war the units are under strict discipline,

all organized according to a military structure quite necessary for leading into any type of combat.

It wasn’t for me though; it didn’t suit my character. There was another aspect of human character.

Even out in the open, wherever we managed to get some sleep, I always liked to sleep in a bit, I’m a bit lazy in the morning.

When I was in the brigade, we’d usually march at night.

We walked all night long just to get a little bit further, for instance from the Karst to the Trnovski gozd via the Vipava valley,

where the ambushes and outposts were. I often thought these actions were dangerous or just too straining.