European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

The children needed someone to present them with at least the basics of the language and a little math and reading.

They couldn’t just go through the war without any schooling … The official schooling system had disintegrated.

So it was necessary to establish a Slovenian school.

Things were easiest for me while I worked in the schooling system.

Although for a long time I felt like an informer.

Being 18, I strained to be a great informer, like all those characters I’d read about, Sherlock Holmes for instance,

and I dreamed of all the miracles I would do. I did do a few bold things, even stupid, but at least they worked.

For instance, if I could, I slept in a bed. I’d arrive in a village and they would offer me a bed. I would risk it.

The Germans would come at night and that was a problem: how and where to hide.

I always had a mini-bunker somewhere to hide in. I acted completely against all rules, rather according to my instincts.

Once I was in my home village and Germans came suddenly at night.

Luckily it was very dark and they were roaming about with torches.

I was on the verge of coming home to my house and what was I to do?

They were going to inspect the houses. I got an idea.

I thought it wisest to follow the patrol to see where they were going. So I followed them, only meters behind, through the entire village.

I was careful of how I walked as not to be too loud. It was utterly dark but I didn’t need a torch.

I could move around independently or in small units, arranging ahead what we would do. I was also a courier.

We would always travel in pairs.

I wasn’t entirely aware of how dangerous it was. That was a great advantage to me.

To the same time it increased the danger factor, but things worked out. Many men, who were just as foolish as I, fell.