“The blame for the crimes cannot be entirely attributed to the resistance movement as a whole, the responsibility for it lies with the Communist Party, which had a decisive influence on the military and other armed groups, and which already began to pave its way to power during the war,” said Mirjam Dujo Jurjevčič, author of the book Revolutionary Violence in Southern Notranjska, 1941–1945, in her online presentation.
This time, we are presenting a book by Mirjam Dujo Jurjevčič, an associate of the Study Centre for National Reconciliation, entitled Revolutionary Violence in Southern Notranjska, 1941–1945 (in Slovenian – Revolucionarno nasilje na južnem Notranjskem, 1941–1945). The book was published at the end of 2020, as part of the Revolutionary violence collection. The study deals with revolutionary violence in the area of southern Notranjska, so today’s municipalities of Bloke, Cerknica and Loška Dolina. The term revolutionary violence refers to violence perpetrated in the area during World War II by the military and other armed units, under the decisive influence of the Communist Party, for political and ideological reasons.
Revolutionary violence is presented chronologically; the author describes various forms of violence and gives concrete examples of it. The study was based on literature, archival and documentary materials and testimonies. Graphic representations of the number of deaths by individual municipalities in the years from 1941 to 1945 are also added, as well as a list of victims from the aforementioned area, which includes 353 names of men and women who were the victims of revolutionary violence between 1941 and 1945. The aforementioned book is the sixth book from the collection Revolutionary violence, and the second book that deals with the area of Notranjska.
“The book covers the area of six interwar municipalities: Bloke, Begunje, Cerknica, Stari trg, Sveti Vid in Rakek. Today, this is the area of three municipalities: Cerknica, Loška dolina and Bloke,” said the author of the book, who focused on concrete examples in her presentation of revolutionary violence in southern Notranjska. When we talk about revolutionary violence, we are referring, above all, to the violence caused by the individual partisan units and other armed groups that were under the decisive influence of the Communist Party. But of course, it was not just the liquidations, but also other forms of violence, including the following: confiscation of property, arson, requisitions, threats, torture, forced labour and expulsions of citizens.
The testimonies of those who felt and experienced the Second World War, some of whom were also the victims of the revolution themselves
“In describing the individual forms of violence, I included testimonies my co-workers from the Study Centre for National Reconciliation and I recorded, and the testimonies collected by the Commission for the Implementation of Redressing of Injustices Act. These are people from the area in question, who felt and experienced the Second World War, and some of them were also victims of revolutionary violence,” Jurjevčič added in the presentation of her book. And the documents that were used for the book belong to the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia. They are the reports of Zidanšek’s battalion and the battalion of Ljubo Šercer, which included reports of liquidations of certain individuals in 1942. A large number of records of interrogations of village guards has also been preserved at the Kočevje Regional Military Court and the Ribnica Regional Military Court.
“These records give us some very good insight into what was going on, from the beginning of the war, until the autumn of 1943, including the capitulation of Italy and the destruction of the village guards.” And for the period from the end of 1943 to the end of the war, there are documents on forced labour, penalties, confiscations of property and expulsion of citizens. Material belonging to the local People’s Committees of the Rakek District was also found in the Ljubljana historical archives. This includes the minutes, which refer to the confiscation of property of persons who were anti-partisan. There are also records of their liquidations and of who carried out the said liquidations. This is another additional source that confirms that these executions were, in fact, carried out.
A variety of literature was used in the creation of the book, including materials from partisan fighters
The author also states that she used a variety of literature in writing the book, including the literature of the partisan fighters, the memoirs of the partisan fighters, literature dealing with local history and the book Victims of the Second World War in Notranjska (Žrtve druge svetovne vojne na ožjem Notranjskem). The names of the victims are collected in this book – both the victims of the occupier, as well as those of the partisan and anti-partisan units. The introduction to the monography presents the geographical location, followed by a brief outline of the political and economic situation in the period between the two world wars, and then a general description of events that happened during the Second World War. The central theme is the depiction of revolutionary violence in southern Notranjska, which is presented chronologically, from the beginning to the end of the Second World War.
“This is then followed by a graphical representation of deaths for each year, followed by a list of deaths for the entire period of the war, from 1941 to 1945. At the end of the book, the testimonies of the individuals who experienced World War II in the area and were also the victims of the revolutionary violence, are presented.” From the collected material, the author found that from the spring of 1942 until the end of July 1942, the worst revolutionary violence took place, which, however, decreased slightly when village guards started to appear. Thus, in 1942, there were a total of 197 deaths, including as many as 72 civilians. In 1943, however, the highest number of deaths among the village guards was recorded in the fall, in September and October of 1943. The total number of deaths for that year was 183.
“The blame for the crimes cannot be entirely attributed to the resistance movement as a whole, the responsibility for it lies with the Communist Party”
The number of deaths then decreased in the years 1944 and 1945 and amounted to a total of 61 people, with most of the victims being the home guards – 31 people, who fell in their battles with the partisans. “For the period of the worst revolutionary violence, that is, for the years 1942 and 1943, I found that there is a lot of literature describing what happened.” However, from 1943 and until the end of the war in 1945, not many records of what was going on in the area were made, regarding the victims of revolutionary violence. This, of course, does not mean that the revolutionary violence has ended, but only that it was expressed in other forms, which include penalties, such as forced labour, the expulsion of citizens and confiscations of property. To describe this period, the author used a large number of documents which she found in the archives, as well as testimonies collected by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia for the Redressing of Injustices Act.
“The blame for the crimes cannot be entirely attributed to the resistance movement as a whole, the responsibility for it lies with the Communist Party, which had a decisive influence on the military and other armed groups, and which already began to pave its way to power during the war.” The author also expressed her desire to carry out a study that would also address the occupier’s, so the Italian and German violence, and the violence perpetrated by the counter-revolutionary units. You can get the book from the Study Centre for National Reconciliation. Place your order here: https://www.scnr.si/revolucionarno-nasilje-na-juznem-notranjskem-19411945.html
Domen Mezeg
