European Resistance Archive/European Resistance Archive (ERA)
-
I wanted to join the Partisans. My first contact was with the unit operating in the Karst and in the Vipava valley.
-
I presented myself at the end of 1942.
-
They advised me that winter was nearing and that it’s pointless because the leaves will be falling and camouflage will be more difficult.
-
They told me to come back in the spring and that they’ll be delighted to have me then. So I returned home.
-
Who knows if it was just a call of fate, but in February 1943 the Italian army found this group and slaughtered them all. Each and every young Partisan.
-
Then they brought the corpses to the cemetery in Stanjel and forced the locals to come and look at the dead Partisans.
-
They wanted us to get the impression that the resistance movement was over. They crammed us into that cemetery.
-
Just to make a stronger impression they partially stripped the dead bodies and turned them over in various ways, displaying even their genitals.
-
This dishonor to the deceased was an outrage to me, considering my classical upbringing straight from the theological seminary -
-
that one must respect the dead akin to how they are respected in literary sources such as Homer etc.
-
It only reinforced my attitude: I would go to all ends, upon first opportunity, to find the next group that forms, which surely would, and I would join the Partisans.
-
Only a month later I was confined. They threw me out of bed in the middle of the night.
-
They packed me into a truck and carted me away, along with all the other youths born in 1924, 1925 and 1926.
-
They drove us to various regions throughout Italy. I was sent to the Abruzzi
-
and I had to spend all my time there until the capitulation of Italy.
-
I was surrounded by farmer boys, all relatively awkward in the Italian language,
-
even for simple communicative purposes, and it was I who accompanied and brought the entire unit back to the Primorje region and directly to the Partisans.
-
Three hundred young men.
-
First contacts with fascism
-
The first time I ever entered a school building presented me with my first personal contact with fascism.
No more segments to load.
Loading more segments…
© 2009-2024 WebTranslateIt Software S.L. All rights reserved.
Terms of Service
·
Privacy Policy
·
Security Policy