HUDA JAMA (GRAVE PIT): COAL MINE MASS MASSACRE

€ 20.00

40C 40C 40C 40C40M 40M 40M 40M40Y 40Y 40Y 40Y40K 40K 40K 40K100C 100C 100C100M 100M 100M 100M100Y 100Y 100Y 100Y100K 100K 100K 100K80C 80C 80C 80C80M 80M 80M 80M80Y 80Y 80Y 80Y80K 80K 80K 80K

Requiem

Let me not celebrate today

The victory, the end of war,

In silence of my home I'll stay

And for my dear Slovenes implore.

I'll pray for those who used to be

»Reds«, »Whites« or »Blacks« not long ago,

And, vying for their liberty,

Were one and all overrun by woe.

Let now gleam

In abyses and mounds to those

Whose bones should get a requiem

Wherever they may decompose.

Translated by:

Lux perpetua

dr. Tone Ferenc

Branko Gradišnik

Mitja Ferenc

Mitja F

erenc:

HUDA JAMA

COAL MINE MASS MASSACRE

ISBN 978-961-237-574-4

9 789612 375744

HU

DA

JAM

A C

OA

L M

INE

MA

SS

MA

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He is the Doctor of Historic Sciences and the Associate Professor of Contemporary Hi-story at the Faculty of Arts of Ljubljana. Singly or in co-authorship, he has published 19 monographs and around 150 discussions and papers, mostly in the fi eld of cultural heritage, the Kočevje / Gottscheer Germans and the Concealed Burial Sites. He was awarded the Stele Award for the book, Kočevska (Th e Gottscheer Region), and exhibition, Th e Lost Cultural Heri-tage of the Gottscheer Germans, which were assessed as the most prominent contributions of the conservation profession to the promotion of cultural heritage. In 2005, after the book with the same title, he prepared a notable exhibition, Prikrito in očem zakrito (Concealed and Veiled from the Eyes), where he familiarized the public with the magnitude of the Concealed Burial Sites in Slovenia, and with the situation in the fi eld. He has been active in the Government Commission of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia for the Issues of Concealed Bu-rial Sites since its establishment in 1990. As from 2002, he has been leading also the project, Evidentiranje prikritih grobišč v Republiki Sloveniji (Registering the Concealed Burial Sites in the Republic of Slovenia). To date, more than 600 Concealed Burial Sites have been registe-red, which had been perpetrated through the mass massacres in the aftermath of the War. As from 2006, he has been leading the so-called probing of Concealed Burial Sites, whereby their existence in nature is actually confi rmed. Of our most mysterious and most Concealed Burial Site in the Barbara shaft of Huda jama, he in 2011 edited and published in co-authorship a comprehensive documentary book, Huda Jama. Skrito za enajstimi pregradami (Huda Jama. Concealed Behind Eleven Partitions). He is the author of the monograph, Prekopi žrtev iz prikri-tih grobišč (Transfering the Victims from the Concealed Burial Sites). In the period between 2004 and 2006 he was the President of the Federation of Historic Societies, and between 2009 and 2011, he was the Head of the History Department of the Faculty of Arts. He is the Honorary Member of the Gottscheer Heritage and Genealogy Association of the USA.

Mitja Ferenc Ph.D.Associate Professor

University of LjubljanaFaculty of Arts

Department of HistoryAškerčeva 2

1000 Ljubljana, SloveniaE-mail: [email protected]

huda jama_notranje platnice.indd 1huda jama_notranje platnice.indd 1 2.4.2013 12:34:392.4.2013 12:34:39

Ljubljana 2013

Dr. Mitja Ferenc

HUDA JAMA (GRAVE PIT)

COAL MINE MASS MASSACRE(May, June 1945)

ZNANSTVENA ZBIRKA ODDELKA ZA ZGODOVINO FILOZOFSKE FAKULTETE UNIVERZE V LJUBLJANI /SCIENTIFIC SERIES OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY OF THE FACULTY OF ARTS

24

huda jama_ang.indd 1huda jama_ang.indd 1 2.4.2013 12:32:432.4.2013 12:32:43

Dr. Mitja FerencHUDA JAMA (GRAVE PIT) COAL MINE MASS MASSACRE(May, June 1945)

© University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts, Mitja Ferenc 2013

Published by: Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete Univerze v Ljubljani / Ljubljana University Press, Faculty of ArtsIssued by: Oddelek za zgodovino Filozofske fakultete / Department of History of the Faculty of ArtsFor the publisher: Andrej Černe, Dean of the Faculty of ArtsEdited by: Mitja FerencEnglish translation: Tatjana ŠterkPhotography by: Mitja Ferenc, Pavel Jamnik, Mehmedalija Alić et al.

Design and layout: Uroš Čuden, Medit d.o.o.Printed by: Birografi ka Bori, d. o. o.Print run: 300Ljubljana, 2013First Edition Price: EUR 20.00

Th e publication was supported by the Scientifi c Publishing Department of the Facultyof Arts, Department of History of the Faculty of Arts of the Ljubljana University andby Mitja Ferenc.

Information on concealed mass burial sites may be communicated to the following electronic address: [email protected], or to the author, phone number: +386(0)41-729-380.

Front Cover photo: Huda Jama, Barbara shaft, fi rst confrontation with mass crime,3rd of March 2009 (Photo M. Ferenc)

Back Cover photo: Braids of the women killed in the mining shaft (Photo M. Alić)

CIP - Kataložni zapis o publikaciji Narodna in univerzitetna knjižnica, Ljubljana

94(497.4)”1941/1946” 726.84:94(497.4)”1941/1946”

FERENC, Mitja Huda Jama (grave pit) : coal mine mass massacre (May, June 1945) / Mitja Ferenc ;

[English translation Tatjan Šterk ; photography by Mitja Ferenc ... et al.]. - 1st ed. -Ljubljana : Znanstvena založba Filozofske fakultete, 2013. - (Historia : znanstvena zbirka Oddelka za zgodovino Filozofske fakultete v Ljubljani ; 24)

ISBN 978-961-237-574-4

266337024


Mitja Ferenc: HUDA JAMA (GRAVE PIT) COAL MINE MASS MASSACRE

3

Contents

Historic Background .......................................................................................................... 5

Description ...................................................................................................................... 11

First records ...................................................................................................................... 11

Tribuna Magazine, Prosecution Service and the Police ...................................................... 14

Commission adopts the decision. First steps in Barbara shaft............................................ 16

First barrier falls ............................................................................................................... 17

First victim found and then another ................................................................................. 22

Confrontation with crime ................................................................................................ 27

Days following ................................................................................................................. 30

Politicization begins.......................................................................................................... 33

Systematic forensic operations commence ........................................................................ 34

Experts fi nd… ................................................................................................................. 38

Victims in the fi rst vertical shaft ....................................................................................... 40

Analysis of objects, clothing and footwear ........................................................................ 46

Detection of perpetrators.................................................................................................. 49

Commission proposes to the Government ........................................................................ 53

Are victims in the second and third vertical shafts? ........................................................... 55

New dilemmas ................................................................................................................. 56

Attempt to bias the decision ............................................................................................. 60

Selected literature ............................................................................................................. 66

Name index ...................................................................................................................... 68


Huda Jam

a(M

arch 2011)

ENTRANCE

100 m cleared,

400 m3 of pit gangue,

11 partitions demolished

Provisional storage of mortal remainsfrom vertical shaft 1 by March 2011

Engine-room of Barbara shaft,provisional storage of mortal remains from hotizontal shaft by March 2011

Filled up partof rail tracks

First twoskeletons found

470 Beginning of remnantsof clothing, footwear

544,5 Skeletons found on tracks (piled up by height of 6-8 persons)

578 Concrete plug

Stationing platform 600 mSHAFT

3,shaft

bottom

SHAFT

2,h= 45 m

, A= 7,4 m

2, 20,5 m

cleared

SHAFT

1,H

= 45 m,

A= 6,6, m2

cleared 13,8 m

505 Old ventilation gate 2

488 Old ventilation gate 1

Barbara vertical shaft

360 1st partition, brick (d=0,3m)

OSSUARY,38 shelves,

1368 containers

Partition

Stream

Stationing platform 500 m



Barbara shaft



5

Historic Background

Under the post-war mass massacres we designate the non-judicial killings of Prisoners of War and civilians immediately after the end of the Second World War. Th ese are the post-war revolutionary cleansing campaigns, referred to as cleansings which, following the model of the Soviet revolution, were commanded by the then Yugoslav national, the Party, and milita-ry Authority under the leadership of Josip Broz Tito.

Most mass massacres in the Slovenian territory were committed between May and June 1945 (in other parts of Yugoslavia from October 1944 onwards). Among victims were most Slovenian Home Guards (rejected by the Allies or taken captive on home land), captives from other Yugoslav regions, German Prisoners of War, and also civilians.

Th e Second World War in Europe ended on the night of 9 May 1945, when the German Army in its steady retreat from Yugoslavia was leaving towns of western Croatia and starting its retreat through Slovenia. To avoid Yugoslav capture, the German Army and especially the multitude of anti-Partisan units of diff erent nationalities moved through the Slovenian territory towards Austria. Th ey were joined by many civilians. Th eir leaders used propaganda to infl ame fear and cause them to fl ee from the Partisans.

Out of fear of the Yugoslav army and the new regime they intended to surrender to the English and Americans. A huge multitude of refugees, leaving their homes, believed to be treated by them in accordance with the International Conventions on Prisoners of War.

Until 14 May 1945, British troops received into captivity thousands of Ustashe, the Cro-atian Home Guards, Serbian, Slovenian and other soldiers and civilians. At the time, they were given an order from the Allies Headquarters for the Mediterranean located in Caserta to hand over to Tito’s Authority all the Yugoslavs that cooperated with the German Armed Forces and not to receive any more units from the Yugoslav territories. Th e main body of retreating soldiers of the Independent State of Croatia and of the retreating Croatian civilians were aff ected by the decision still on the Slovenian territory. Due to British pressure, a mul-tiple thousand strong throng of people surrendered to the Yugoslav army on 15 May 1945 near Pliberk/Bleiburg in Austria. Th e return of those refugees, captured at Pliberk, via the Drava Valley towards Croatia was accompanied by mass executions primarily of Ustashes and Home Guard offi cers – still known in Croatia’s collective memory as “Th e Bleiburg Tragedy” and “Križni put” or “Marševi smrti”1. Th e majority of those that already managed to cross the Austrian border were returned to Yugoslavia by British Authorities between 18 and 24 May 1945, where all the traces of many of them were lost. Th e Croatians were followed by members of the Serbian Volunteers Corps and the Montenegrin Chetniks. Last in line were the Slovenes. Between 28 and 31 May, around 10,000 Slovenian Home Guards and a few hundred civilians returned.2

Captives were driven to camps in Slovenia, the largest thereof in Šentvid near Ljubljana and at Teharje near Celje. After short hearings, captives of Slovenian nationality were divided into groups A, B, and C. Th e ones in group C – constituting the majority – were soon put to death. Most captives from the Šentvid camp were transported by train to Kočevje, there put on trucks and dumped into the abysses of Kočevski Rog; the Teharje captives were mostly transported to the Stari Hrastnik mine pits. Captives of other nationalities were mostly se-parated according to the districts of their residence, so that the knowledgeable people siding with the Partisans were better able to identify them and seal their fate. Th e ones that served



6

in the German Army, or Armed Forces under their command, or cooperated with them, and remained in Slovenia, were towards mid-May summoned to report to the new Authorities. Th ey were confi ned in camps and in the nearest municipal or local OZNA prisons. OZNA (Division for the Protection of the People) was the Yugoslav service fi ghting the so-called Internal Enemy of the new Yugoslavia, established in 1944 and reporting to the Supreme Commander of the Partisan Army, Josip Broz Tito, or his Deputy, Aleksander Ranković, and to the Leaderships of the relevant Federal Units. Th e executive armed body of OZNA were the National Security Army Forces (VDV), and later, the Yugoslav National Defense Corpora Units (KNOJ). At the end of the War, OZNA and KNOJ, by order of the Yugoslav Centre, carried out the so-called cleansings (non-judicial killings of members of anti-Partisan forma-tions that had been arrested or returned by the English Authorities from Austria, and other adversaries of the new Yugoslav Authorities).

Th ey were subjected to the same procedure under a somewhat more lenient regime. OZNA incarcerated the most German minority, Slovenes suspected of collaborationism with the occupying forces, relatives of Home Guard members, Slovenian civilians who voluntarily accepted the German citizenship during the German occupation, and others. From camps and regional prisons, captives were taken to the nearby execution squad site.

Most mass executions were carried out between May and July 1945; victims were mostly the returned or home-captured Home Guards and prisoners from other Yugoslav regions. In the months up to January 1946, when the Constitution of the Federative People’s Republic of Yugoslavia was passed and OZNA was required to transfer camps to the Authority of the Ministry of the Interior, they were followed by Germans, Italians and Slovenes suspected of collaborationism and anti-communism. Isolated clandestine killings were committed even later.

Th e decision of “annihilating” the adversaries had to be reached in the inner circles of the Yugoslav State Leadership, and the order was naturally given by the Supreme Commander of the Yugoslav Army, Josip Broz Tito, though it is not known, when and in what form. Executions of Slovenes were mostly carried out by the selected units and individuals of the Slovenian OZNA and KNOJ, whilst the executions of Croats, Serbs and Montenegrins were mostly carried out by members of the Yugoslav Army from other parts of Yugoslavia, involved also in killings of Slovenes. Killings of several (ten) thousands of persons within few days only would then have been impossible to organize without the aid of top politicians and military commanders. Th e rough and rigorous treatment of Prisoners of War was undoubtedly due to the events evolving through the War: occupation, collaboration, resistance and civil war, including the tendency of the winners to settle accounts with the adversaries during and after the War, escalating into radical cleansing of actual and potential adversaries.3

According to data known so far, more than 14,700 Slovenes4 and several ten thousands of other Yugoslav nationals who had by the end of the War been trapped on the Slovenian ground, were killed in Slovenia in the aftermath of the Second World War from May 1945 until January 1946 and the sites of their mortal remains have not been revealed due to the erasure of traces.

Squaring of accounts by winners and new Authorities against the defeated – and later with real and fi ctitious adversaries by class or political ideology – was particularly cruel as the liquidations were performed without the court proceedings and as the victims were thereafter erased from the public memory. Crime was upgraded by the commanded secrecy and de-



7

privation of the right to a grave. For decades, their burial sites had deliberately and carefully been concealed. On account of concealment, as Concealed Burial Sites are regarded also the war time burial sites containing the mortal remains of members of armed formations of the anti-Partisan or anti-communist side, and of civilians who could not or were not allowed to obtain a proper grave. Persons and groups were deprived of the fundamental human right – to a grave. Diff erent terms were used for such sites, as the Concealed Burial Sites, post-war burial sites or foibas. In professional and publicist literature, the term of Concealed Burial Sites has become a most established one. To date, 600 Concealed Burial Sites have been loca-lised, and most thereof have still not been investigated, identifi ed or regulated.5

Concealed burial sites may be divided into four groups. A largest group constitutes the dug-out pits, which had to be dug out for the specifi c purpose of execution and concealment of crime. Around 480 of the recorded mass graves belong to this group. Th ey are located all around Slovenia, in most unfi t spots. Th ey are mostly located in light forests, forest clearings, forest edge meadows, or on locations that were later used as ponds, dumping grounds, par-king lots, orchards, or on the outside of cemeteries, riverbanks, streams, steep slopes, or close to small chapels etc. Certain sites were revealed by nature, others were uncovered during con-struction work or by relatives and associations searching for them, but only very few of them where opened under planned operations, with the exception of mass graves of German and Italian soldiers that are being recurrently relocated under agreements with the two countries.6

A second group of concealed mass burial sites constitutes of mine shafts and shelters, and 15 such sites have to date been located. A most known and horrifying site is the Barbara shaft near Laško, while most victims lie in mining crevices of Stari Hrastnik, constituting the Bosnian and Montenegrin Chetniks and Slovenian Home Guards.

Th e third group consists of anti-tank and other previously dug up trenches. Sixteen the-reof have been located and recorded and, though they are frequently mentioned, only two have partially been investigated – the site at Tezno near Maribor and a site near Celje. Other known trenches include those between Brežice and Dobova, near Mislinja and Slovenj Gra-dec, and in Bistrica ob Sotli etc.

Th e last group of concealed mass burial sites constitute the Karst abysses. Speleologists have recorded human remains in diff erent conditions in nearly 80 abysses.7 Certain abysses are not covered at all and accessible to anyone descending into them, and literally walking over human bones, whilst others had been blasted by mines so as to conceal all the traces. Unfortunately, there are others, which had been fi lled up with waste materials on top of hu-man remains. Such remains had in part or wholly been removed from around 10 abysses. In 2007, systematic probing of the Karst abysses/mass burial sites commenced8. In September 2006, the fi rst systematic investigation of a mined Karst abyss (Brezno pri Konfi nu 1) with the extraction and analysis of 88 victim remains had been accomplished.9

Th e largest and most numerous mass grave in Slovenia is Tezno near Maribor with vic-tims of mostly Croatian nationality. A part of the shaft was systematically investigated during highway construction of 1999. Over a distance of only 70 metres, more than 1,100 corpses, or 18 corpses per 1metre were found. In August 2007, test-drilling of the shaft showed that over 900 additional metres of the shaft there extended corpses of around 15,000 victims.10

Th e concealed mass burial sites are now slowly and with great eff orts obtaining the fi rst modest designations. Sixty-eight (68) years post World War II, it is fi nally stipulated that all



8

the deceased during the War or in the aftermath of the War are entitled to obtaining a name and a grave, whilst the proper regulation and provision of mass burial sites constitutes the standards of civilization restored in the Slovenian society. Would we have it or not, the issue of locating, investigating and managing the concealed mass burial sites tends to be accompa-nied by the issues of guilt and sin; the issues of who committed these crimes, who will be held responsible for them, who is guilty of the killings etc. We can understand that even nowadays these issues cause political strife and diff ering views of the events; however, the issue of ma-naging the concealed mass burial sites should be kept fully separate from all other topics. Th e right to a decent grave is a matter of humankind and civilization and should not be linked to the issue of who won the War, and who was defeated. Th e issue of winners and the defeated can, when we deal with the disorder of secret mass graves and continuation of circumstances as until now, easily be overturned into judgement of our posterity that all of us were defea-ted. Th is happens because even 68 years after World War II, we are not able to join political will, the sensitivity of family members and scientifi c eff orts to change the circumstances and fi nally manage these mass graves.11

A fortnight after the last fi ghts around the towns of Celje and Laško, at the end of May and in the fi rst days of June 1945, in the abandoned gallery of the Huda Jama Coal Mine a mass massacre took place.

Th ere were no written records on the killings. However, people could tell that there were two galleries and that the number of victims was well over two thousand – Slovenians and Croatians, soldiers and civilians. According to the researchers the estimated, number of vic-tims was too high, but the access to the galleries was not possible and detailed investigators could not be performed. Th ree hundred metres away from the entrance into the gallery there was the fi rst brick barrier.

After the fi rst probings of the recorded caves, pits, trenches and Karst precipices in 2006, the situation was ripe for the research of the gallery in the Huda Jama Coal Mine.

We were preparing ourselves to undertake a substantial and challenging project which has no precedent in the world literature. We had to rely on our expertise, the mining professio-nals and to listen to the voice of the people. We knew that we were confronted with a major project, which would signifi cantly impact the Slovenian and European history. However, we could not know that the post-World War II victims would suff er over again. Th is time, on account of a democratic country that in words advocates the respectfulness of all the victims and that, within four years of revelation of this horrifi c mass massacre, has not been able to bestow formal recognition upon them.



9

Regi

stere

d Bu

rial S

ite

Mun

icip

ality

Dem

arca

tion

Line

s



10

Entrance into the Barbara shaft, 1. 6. 2000 (Photo M. Bavdaž)

A team of cave rescuers at the entrance into the Barbara shaft (Ilustrirani Slovenec /Th e Illustrated Slovenian, 1929)



11

Vita enim mortuorum in memoria vivorum est posita. [Lat., Th e life of the dead is placed in the memoryof the living.] (Cyceron)

Description

Huda Jama is a clustered mining settlement in the valley of the Rečica Stream, along the regional road from Laško towards Zgornja Rečica, approximately 16 km southward of Celje. It is characterized by several isolated agricultural holdings and by the deserted mine structures.

Th e place has obviously been named after the mine, in the vernacular referred to as the “pit”, and which eventually became the “Grave pit (“Huda Jama”), as it was normally associ-ated with mining accidents or evil developments underneath the surface. During the Second World War, this coal mine was in operation and was exploited by the German Invasion Authorities for their own economic needs. On account of the miners’ voluntary escapes into the National Liberation Army (NOV), to Partisan diversion attacks and to sabotages by the miners, the German Invasion Authorities closed the coal mine in May 1944. Immediately after liberation, the Communist Authorities abused the mine in May and June 1945 for the massive liquidations. In the months to follow, the coal mine was restored to normal operation under the management of the Director, Otmar Petrič. Th e coal mine was put into operation on 1 November 1945 and remained in operation until the end of 1992, when its exploitation was terminally discontinued on account of exhausted coal reserves. Th e preserved Laško Coal Mine archives do not contain any data of mass massacres of May and June 1945.12

First records

Records, which would make mention of any developments in the Barbara shaft still be-fore the democratic changes in Slovenia of 1990, are rare. All that we knew, were the records by journalists, Ivo Žajdela in particular, which were summarizing the testimonies of local population.

It seems that the oldest known and published records originate from the documentation of the Croatian clergyman, Krunoslav Draganović, who collected testimonials in post-War concentration camps. Inter alia, he recorded the testimony of Jože Frece on 11 September 1952 in Italy. Frece indicated that a larger group of people had been killed in the Laško Coal Mine. Th ey should have been transported there on trucks for a whole week, at night time. Th e victims should have been deposited in the Mine pit of 100 metres in depth. Th e pit sho-uld have been fi lled up to the top with the male, female and children’s corpses. He stated that there were allegedly 3,000 victims. Groups of 20 to 30 persons should have been discarded into the pits, followed by hand grenade blasts that fi nished off the victims. After a pit was fi lled to the top, it was sealed up by brick wall construction above and below (Author’s Note: meaning the partitions). He stated that he was an eyewitness of these developments, as he was later employed in the Mine.13 It is, however, not evident from his records, whether he was an eyewitness to the killings or the walling up of the shaft.

A more comprehensive record, summing up the testimonies of local inhabitants of Huda Jama and its surroundings, was in 1990 published by the publicist, Roman Leljak, in his



12

booklet, “Th e Teharje Open Wounds” (Teharske žive rane). As evident from the testimonies in the booklet, none of his interviewees neither witnessed the crime nor lived in Huda Jama at the time of the crime. Despite these objective defi ciencies, the testimonies collected by Roman Leljak, remained the only information on the developments in the year of 1945 in Huda Jama for a long period of time.14

In August 1990, the publicist, Ivo Žajdela, described in the Demokracija Newspaper the interior of the Barbara shaft. He was in the group with Roman Leljak and Filip Robar Dorin, when they inspected the interior of the shaft up to the partition, under the leadership of the mining engineer, Ivan Kenda.15 In November of the same year, Mr. Žajdela published in the Demokracija Newspaper a list of the concealed mass burial sites in Slovenia, indicating inter alia the Huda Jama shaft.16 Th e Slovenian public saw for the fi rst time the interior of the shaft that was accessible up to the fi rst partition in the fi lm tracks by Filip Robar Dorin, “For the Real End of the War” (Za resnični konec vojne).

In the years to follow, Huda Jama records were extremely rare. Mention needs to be made of the Society for the regulation of Concealed Burial Sites (Društvo za ureditev zamolčanih grobov), and their collection of papers with descriptions of Concealed Burial Sites.17 Th ese include inter alia a description of the execution grounds of the Barbara shaft. Huda Jama obtained its place in the report by the Investigation Commission of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia, on the investigation of the post-War mass massacres, legally du-bitable legal proceedings and other similar irregularities, which was called after its President, “Th e Pučnik Commission”. So as to illuminate the developments in the Barbara shaft, the testimony of a truck driver, Jakob Ugovšek, was of importance, as he was in May and in June 1945 mobilised into a KNOJ Unit and was involved in the transport of Home Guards from the Teharje concentration camp to the Laško Coal Mine. Liquidations in the abandoned shaft of the coal mine extended approximately over a week in June 1945. After the vertical shaft got fi lled up with victims, the last run by the truck was prolonged towards Laško in the direction of Zagorje where, in between, the victims were shot to death. He mentioned four or fi ve trucks, which conducted two to three runs in a day. Transports lasted between three and seven days. A truck contained around 30 persons – Home Guards. 18

Another record of the Huda Jama Barbara shaft originates from the time of preparations for the visit of the Pope. Th e Ljubljana Archbishop and Metropolitan, Dr. Alojzij Šuštar, received on 4 February 1996 a delegation of civil society representatives, of the United under the Linden Tree of Reconciliation (Združeni ob lipi sprave), of the Society for the Democra-tization of the Public Media (Društvo za demokratizacijo javnih glasil), and of the World Slovenian Congress of the Conference for Slovenia (Svetovni slovenski kongres Konference za Slovenijo). Inter alia, they proposed that Slovenia would, pending the visit of the Holy Father, identify with the Christian Symbol the most extensive mass burial site of the Barbara shaft at Laško. 19 Several days later, on 21 February 1996, these civil societies addressed a question to the Minister of the Interior, Dr. Andrej Šter, on whether he believed the rumours of a mass burial site in the Barbara shaft, and what was the Ministry going to do so as to establish the truth.20 It is not evident from the sources accessible to the public, whether or not the Minister responded to the civil societies at all.

Huda Jama may again be traced in public in 1996, when Alojz Brečko in a television documentary fi lm described that in the beginning of June 1945, as a KNOJ member, he guarded the German Prisoners of War during the Laško–Huda Jama regional road repair works. Later in the afternoon, a bus full of soldiers drove by. He joined the prisoners in the



13

truck on the return voyage to the Teharje concentration camp, where he saw the guardsmen tying up the hands of the Slovenian Home Guards. Immediately thereafter, Brečko was due to depart to the Celje Railway Station to keep watch there, where in the twilight he could observe driving in a procession past him a convoy of trucks from Teharje towards Laško, full of tied up persons. He noted that such convoys ran for 14 days.21

In 1997, the Society for the Regulation of Concealed Burial Sites erected a Chapel some ten metres away from the entrance into the Barbara shaft. Blessing of the Chapel with the symbolic burial took place on 7 September 1997. Some days afterwards, in the night from 11 to 12 September, the Chapel was desecrated by the unknown perpetrators.

In 2000, the Government Commission of the Republic of Slovenia for the Issues of Con-cealed Burial Sites decided to draw up an inventory of the Concealed Burial Sites. One of the fi rst inventoried sites was the Barbara shaft. It was inspected on 1 June 2000, and later on 8 October 2002, when the technical engineer of the Trbovlje Hrastnik Coal Mine (RTH –Ru-dnik Trbovlje Hrastnik), Mr. Ivan Kenda, described to the Government Burial Site Inventory Team, and to the criminal investigators of the Celje Police Headquarters, certain characteri-stics of the coal mine and the possibilities of physical access to the shafts.

Chapels positioned at the entrance into the shaft were soon after construction desecratedby vandals. On the photo, the Head of the Government Commission of the Republic of Slovenia

for the Issues of Concealed Burial Sites, Viktor Blažič, and Valentin Velikonja, a memberof the Commission, and Janez Črnej, a member of the Teharje Commission, 1. 6. 2000

(Photo M. Bavdaž)


HUDA JAMA DVDFilm material was recorded by: Mitja Ferenc, Pavel JamnikPhotography: Mehmedalija Alić, Mateja Bavdaž, Mitja Ferenc,Pavel Jamnik, Želimir KužatkoRead by: Matjaž MerljakRequiem written by: Dr. Tone FerencRequiem translated by: Branko GradišnikEditor: Žarko NjanjaraAudio editing: Tadej SadarScript and directing: Dr. Rosvita PesekProduction: TV Kočevje.si

huda jama_notranje platnice.indd 2huda jama_notranje platnice.indd 2 2.4.2013 12:34:472.4.2013 12:34:47

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Requiem

Let me not celebrate today

The victory, the end of war,

In silence of my home I'll stay

And for my dear Slovenes implore.

I'll pray for those who used to be

»Reds«, »Whites« or »Blacks« not long ago,

And, vying for their liberty,

Were one and all overrun by woe.

Let now gleam

In abyses and mounds to those

Whose bones should get a requiem

Wherever they may decompose.

Translated by:

Lux perpetua

dr. Tone Ferenc

Branko Gradišnik

Mitja Ferenc

Mitja F

erenc:

HUDA JAMA

COAL MINE MASS MASSACRE

ISBN 978-961-237-574-4

9 789612 375744

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HUDA JAMA (GRAVE PIT): COAL MINE MASS MASSACRE