Mass graves in Ljubljana

Mass graves in Ljubljana were created in Ljubljana, Slovenia during and after the Second World War. The Commission on Concealed Mass Graves in Slovenia has registered five known mass graves in the city itself and an additional 15 in the City Municipality of Ljubljana.

Background

Known repatriation locations in Austria

Except for the Orel Peak Mass Grave, which is a former wartime Home Guard cemetery, all of the concealed mass graves in Ljubljana were created in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, after British forces forcibly repatriated Home Guard soldiers that had fled to Austria to Yugoslavia from camps in Bleiburg,[1][2]:136[3]:400 Lavamund,[1][3]:400 Rosenbach,[3]:400 Viktring (a district of Klagenfurt),[3]:394 and elsewhere. Many of the returnees were held at the St. Stanislaus Institute in the former village of Šentvid, just outside Ljubljana, which was used as a prison by the Partisans.[4] Some died in Šentvid, but most were transported elsewhere and murdered.[4]

List of mass graves

Cross in former Home Guard cemetery
Orel Peak Mass Grave

Five mass graves registered by the Commission on Concealed Mass Graves in Slovenia are located inside the city limits:

Grave site behind cemetery
Plaques on cemetery wall
Šentvid Mass Graves

The Society for the Regulation of Concealed Graves (Slovene: Društvo za ureditev zamolčanih grobišč) installed a pair of plaques on the Šentvid cemetery wall facing the graves in 2002. They read: "The victims of violence from the Partisan collection center in Šentvid (May–September 1945) lie and await the resurrection behind this wall. In memory of the victims, a warning to the living," and quote the Book of Wisdom (3:4–5): "For though they be punished in the sight of men, yet is their hope full of immortality. And having been a little chastised, they shall be greatly rewarded: for God proved them, and found them worthy for himself."

Other victims from the prison in Šentvid were killed outside Ljubljana, in Glažuta, Golo, Onek, and Setnica.

An additional mass grave in the city is likely located in Dobrunje, but has not been registered by the commission. The memorial site at Saint Ulrich’s Church is believed to contain the remains of people liquidated by the Partisans during or after the war,[15][16] including the "Šentpavel victims" (šentpavelske žrtve)—eight men abducted by Yugoslav military police (KNOJ) from the village of Šentpavel on 4 July 1945 and murdered.[15][17][18][19]

Other mass graves

Fifteen additional mass graves are located in the City Municipality of Ljubljana outside the Ljubljana city limits. There are four graves in Pance and 11 graves in Selo pri Pancah.

Notes

  1. 1 2 Booker, Christopher. 1997. A Looking-Glass Tragedy. The Controversy over the Repatriations From Austria In 1945. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co Ltd., p. 214.
  2. Vuletić, Dominik. 2007. "Kaznenopravni i povijesni aspekti bleiburškog zločina." Pravnik 41(85): 125–150.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Grahek Ravančić, Martina. 2009. "Izručenja i sudbine zarobljenika smještenih u savezničkim logorima u svibnju 1945. Journal of Contemporary History 41(2): 391–416.
  4. 1 2 3 Ferenc, Tone. 1999. "Šentvid." Enciklopedija Slovenije, vol. 13 (Š–T). Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, p. 28.
  5. Podružnična kapela svetega Jurija na Ljubljanskem Gradu (Slovene)
  6. "Na Orlevem vrhu. Zadnjem počivališču slovenskih junakov." Slovensko domobranstvo 1(8) (16 Nov. 1944): 4–5. Photos of commemoration ceremony. (Slovene)
  7. Orel Peak Mass Grave on Geopedia (Slovene)
  8. 1 2 Ferenc, Mitja, & Ksenija Kovačec-Naglič. 2005. Prikrito in očem zakrito: prikrita grobišča 60 let po koncu druge svetovne vojne. Celje: Muzej novejše zgodovine Celje.
  9. Rant, Jože. 2008. Slovenski eksodus leta 1945. Ljubljana: Družina, p. 282.
  10. Big Brezar Shaft Mass Grave on Geopedia (Slovene)
  11. Matija Škerbec. 1957. Krivda rdeče fronte. Cleveland: Author, pp. 25, 128. (Slovene)
  12. Kucja Valley Mass Grave on Geopedia (Slovene)
  13. Šentvid 1 Mass Grave on Geopedia (Slovene)
  14. Šentvid 2 Mass Grave on Geopedia (Slovene)
  15. 1 2 Kržan, Vanja. 2010. "Mi pa oznanjamo Kristusa, križanega (1 Kor 1,23)." Zaveza 42 (25 February). (Slovene)
  16. Društvo za zamolčane grobove in stranke slovenske pomladi. 1994. Letter to the editor. In: Naša skupnost (Ljubljana) 35(8) (29 November): 4. (Slovene)
  17. Žajdela, Ivo. 1991. Komunistični zločini na Slovenskem, vol. 1. Ljubljana: ČZP Novo Jutro, pp. 136–137.
  18. "Pojdimo v Šentpavel" at druzina.si (Slovene)
  19. Žajdela, Ivo. 1990. "Komunistična grobišča na Slovenskem." Tribuna: študentski časopis 39(18):8–11, p. 9. (Slovene)

Coordinates: 46°03′20″N 14°30′30″E / 46.05556°N 14.50833°E / 46.05556; 14.50833

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