European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)

My brother was with the partisans, as well.

He came with a horse and took me home.

He came into the shack.

The horse came first and then the man. “Who is coming into the forest now?”

Then he said: “Lipej, come on. The war is over!”

We did not believe him that it was really true; that the war was over.

That was unbelievable – persecution,

respectively the hunt for the resistance fighters would be over one day.

In those days we sang, ate, were happy, and kissed –

nobody can imagine the way it was in those days.

We were all so happy.

That’s why for us the end of the war is still the most important day to be celebrated.

Back then it was the end of the Nazi fascism

and we cannot forget all the ones who were in the forest,

in a concentration camp or locked up by Nazi fascists.

For all those it is unforgettable.

We cannot understand that the people care so little about this day, 8th May – the end of the war.

We were happy, but it just looks as if it was the other way round.

They lost the war and that’s why they never celebrate.

Later on they made the 26th October a national hiking day or so.