On Saturday, 11 November, a minute's silence was held for the deceased Professor Tatjana Feinig at the memorial on the road to the church above Bistrica v Rožu / Feistritz im Rosental. The occasion was the ceremonial installation of a memorial plaque with the names of the victims of National Socialism in the former municipality of Bistrica v Rožu / Feistritz im Rosental. The installation of the memorial plaque was preceded by a sculpture that was realised in 2010 by the blacksmiths of Sveče / Suetschach based on an idea by Walter Mischkulnig.
This sculpture and the inscription at its base commemorate Alexander Einspieler and Florijan Križnar, who were shot nearby in May 1944.
The memorial plaque, which was unveiled on Saturday, 11 November, lists not only the partisans who died and were liquidated and those who died in concentration camps, but also the completely forgotten victims of euthanasia from the present-day municipality of Bistrica v Rožu / Feistritz im Rosental. With the unveiling of the memorial plaque with the names of the victims of National Socialism, the "Let's give them back their names" initiative has achieved its goal.
Inscribed on the memorial plaque
Aleksander/Lekš Einspieler (Lekš, Aleš, Alexander)
* 17 July 1912, Sine / Sinach, Sveče / Suetschach, at the homestead locally known as Olipic
† 6 May 1944, Mače / Matschach, Bistrica v Rožu / Feistritz im Rosental
Aleš Einspieler was the son of Martin Einspieler and his wife Johanna Serajnik. The family lived on a farm known as Olipec. Aleš Einspieler married Katarina Potočnik in 1942. Their son Aleks was born after his father's death. He worked in the Jungfer factory in Bistrica v Rožu / Feistritz im Rosental. From the beginning of 1943, Aleš Einspieler was an active member of the Rož / Rosental Liberation Front Committee and secretary of the local group in Mače / Matschach. After his arrival in Bistrica v Rožu / Feistritz im Rosental, Gestapo officer Othmar Rath took him to Florijan Križnar's homestead. Aleš was shot nearby and died instantly. On the orders of the mayor and the headmaster, he was buried outside of the cemetery and without a coffin. He was 31 years old. On the same day, the Gestapo arrested Aleš's wife, Katarina. She was pregnant. She remained in the Gestapo prison until November 1944 when she was taken to a maternity hospital, but even there she was kept under surveillance. She was forced to work on a farm in Gospa Sveta / Maria Saal until the end of the war. Immediately after Aleš Einspieler's murder, his sister Maria Hafner was also arrested. Her husband had been in the German army since 1942 and they had six children. Like her brother, Marija was also active in the resistance group in Bistrica v Rožu / Feistritz im Rosental. She remained in the Gestapo prison until autumn 1944. Source: ADG; ASZI.
Florijan/Flora Križnar (Florian, Flori Krischnar, Krieschner)
* 4 May 1914
† 6 May 1944, Mače / Matschach, at the homestead locally known as Bovčar
Florijan Križnar grew up in a large family that moved from Slovenj Plajberk / Windisch Bleiberg to Mače / Matschach after the First World War. From the beginning of 1943, when the first partisans arrived, the family actively supported the resistance. Partisans and Liberation Front activists met with civilian activists from Rož / Rosental in Bovčar's house. Representatives of the resistance group of the Communist Party KP in Celovec / Klagenfurt also came there. The partisans were also given food and sometimes a roof over their heads. On 6 May 1944, Gestapo officer Othmar Rath came to Mače / Matschach to track down the Liberation Fornt activists and shot Lekš Einspieler and 30-year-old Florijan Križnar below the Bovčar homestead, near the church where the crosses stood. Florijan's mother and seven siblings were also arrested immediately. The mother and one brother were released from the Gestapo prison a few weeks later, while the brothers Tomaž, Blaž, Matevž and Albert and the sisters Katarina and Terezija were deported to concentration camps. They survived Dachau and Ravensbrück. Albert, the youngest brother, was only 15 years old when he was deported. The arrest hit him particularly hard. After the war, he suffered from severe physical injuries and psychological trauma and died young (1929-1967).- Vir: ASZI; DÖW (4.355); KLA (94, Gz. 37.431/46); Slovenski vestnik, 11. 10. 1946, 8. and 9. 5. 1947, 4.
Marija Andrejovič, born. Esl (Maria Andreowic, Andreowitsch, Andreowitz, Esel)
* 31 October 1898, Mače / Matschach
† 15 January 1944, concentration camp Auschwitz
Locallyknown as Rožani, Preblje / Preliebl, Kotmara vas / Köttmannsdorf
Marija Andrejovič was born as the daughter of Michael Esel, a Kališnik emperor, and his wife Maria Waldhauser from Mače / Matschach. Michael's father lived in Zavrh / Hintergupf and his mother was born in Slovenj Plajberk / Windisch Bleiberg. On 1 October 1922, Marija married Jurij Andrejovič (* 26 April 1898, Preblje / Preliebl; † 25 July 1944, in the Mauthausen concentration camp, Linz I labour camp) from Prebelje /Preliebl. They had a small farm in his home village. They had five children together.
One month after her arrest, on 1 May 1943, Maria Andrejovič was sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp, where she was given the prisoner number 20 281. Around three months later, she was transferred to Auschwitz concentration camp. In the meantime, her daughter Marija looked after the farm together with her younger siblings. On 29 January 1944, she received a letter from the camp commandant informing her that her 45-year-old mother had died:
Maria Andreowic, born. Esel, * 31.10.1898, died on 15 January 1944 in the local hospital as a result of a heart valve defect. Her body was cremated in the state crematorium. An urn can be delivered if a certificate is submitted to the cemetery administration stating that the burial will be carried out in accordance with the regulations. Please send the certificate to the crematorium of the Auschwitz concentration camp as soon as possible. The urn will be sent free of charge. The death certificate is enclosed. You can apply for a death certificate at the registry office at Registry Office II in Auschwitz. The legacy will be sent shortly (KLA 88) - Source: ADG; AZSI; ITS; KLA (88, Gz. 15.797/46; 143, Gz. 1.367/59).
Gregor Cufer (Zuffer)
* 6 January 1894, Bistrica v Rožu / Feistritz im Rosental, Sveče / Suetschach
† 27 (25) October 1944, concentration camp Dachau, labour camp Riederloh
Gregor Cufer was the son of Gregor Cufer, a factory worker, and his wife Maria Žnidar. Gregor Jr. worked in a factory in Bistrica v Rožu / Feistritz im Rosental, which later became the Jungfer battery factory. In 1921 he married Neža Hirs from Sele / Zell. Of their children, only Peter Cufer reached adulthood. Towards the end of the war, on 6 May 1945, he was killed in the Czech Republic at the age of 22. After the death of his first wife, Gregor married Maria Garmbret in 1949, who, like him, worked at the Jungfer factory.
Alongside Aleš Einspieler, Jože Rutar and Karel Blatnik, Gregor Cufer was one of the first members of the Liberation Front in Bistrica v Rožu / Feistritz im Rosental. He was arrested during the mass arrests on 15 May 1944 and taken to the Dachau concentration camp shortly afterwards. On 8 June 1944, he was registered there as a "protective custody prisoner" with the number 70 003. The documents contain the note "NAL" (not from the camp), which means that the prison conditions were tightened. In the documents from Dachau we find two dates of death, 25 and 27 October 1944. The death certificate from the Dachau personnel office dated 30 October 1944 gives 27 October as the date of death. On this day, Gregor Cufer is said to have died at the age of 50 at 6.30 a.m. from "degeneration of the heart muscle". In January 1945, his wife Maria was also imprisoned for several weeks.- Vir: ADG; Archiv KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau; ASZI; IST; Prušnik 1980, 45.
Aleksander Čero - Franc (Alexander Cero, Tschero)
* 31 May 1921, Sveče / Suetschach, at the homestead locally known as Krznar
† 25 November 1944, Šentjanške Rute / Rabenberg
Aleksander Čero was born as an illegitimate son of Maria Pak, Krznar's daughter, in Sveče / Suetschach. After the birth of her son, Marija married his father, Peter Čero, the son of the owner of the Činkovec homestead in Mače / Matschach. The family respected the Slovene language and culture. Aleksander Čero was active in the local cultural association and fervently promoted Slovene.
In 1938, due to lack of work, Aleksander moved to Yugoslavia, where he soon joined the illegal KPS. Immediately after the attack on Yugoslavia in April 1941, he joined the OF. In the winter of 1942/43, he returned to Carinthia as a political activist and close associate of Matija Verdnik - Tomaž. On 25 November 1944, he was ambushed by the police and shot dead. He was 23 years old. - Source: ADG; ASZI; Slovenski vestnik, 28. 1. 1947.
Ivan Čero - France (Johann Cero, Tschero)
* 1925
† 1 May 1944, Šentjanške Rute / Rabenberg
Ivan Čero was the younger brother of Alexander Čero. When he was born, his parents, Marija Pak and Peter Čero, were already living in Slovenia.
Ivan also joined the partisans; his partisan name was France. On 1 May 1944, he was killed at Šentjanške Rute / Rabenberg, aged only 19. - Source: ASZI; Slovenski vestnik, 28. 1. 1947.
Primož / Primus Einspieler
* 21 April 1875, Sveče / Suetschach
† 13 January 1945, concentration camp Dachau
Primož Einspieler was the son of Ursula Einspieler. He was a wireman by profession. He and his wife Anna Laschitz had two children. They lived in Celovec / Klagenfurt. In 1901 he joined the Socialist Party and was a member until 1925.
On 2 July 1941, Primož Einspieler was imprisoned. The Gestapo immediately sent him to the Dachau concentration camp. On his prisoner's card was the remark "hostile to Germanism". His political activities and punishments were also recorded, including for "insulting honour and stealing in the forest". On 18 August 1941, he was temporarily transferred to Buchenwald concentration camp, but returned to Dachau at the beginning of September. He had to wear prisoner number 27 125, and was assigned to Block 30. According to the Dachau death register, he died on 13 January 1945 in prisoner block 15 of "pneumonia and diarrhoea", aged 69. - Source: ADG; Archiv KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau; ASZI; DÖW; ITS.
Ana Marija Fertschnig
* 5 August 1930 v Svečah / Suetschach
† 1941(?)
Alleged euthanasia victim. - Source: Wilhelm Baum et al. (ed.): The book of names. The victims of National Socialism in Carinthia. Klagenfurt-Vienna: Kitab-Verlag 2010. Helge Stromberger, information 3. 8. 2022.
Thomas Malle
* 1897, Bistrica v Rožu / Feistritz im Rosental
† 29 June 1940, Hartheim
Victim of euthanasia. Thomas Malle was born in 1897; he was a sawmill worker at Bistritza v Rožu / Feistrtz im Rosental. On 4 December 1934, he was transferred from the clinic in Innsbruck (record in the file: R. 1897 schizophrenia) to the regional hospital in Celovec / Klagenfurt. On 29 June 1940, he was transported from Celovec / Klagenfurt to Linz and then euthanized in Hartheim Castle. - Source: Wilhelm Baum et al. (eds.): Das Buch der Namen. Die Opfer des Nationalsozialismus in Kärnten. Klagenfurt-Wien: Kitab-Verlag 2010. Helge Stromberger, information 3.8.2022.
Terezija / Reza Pak (Theresia, Rezi Pack)
* 1892, Sveče / Suetschach, at the homestead locally known as Krznar
† 1944, Sveče / Suetschach
Like her brother Joza, Terezija / Reza Pak was active in Slovenian cultural life in Sveče / Suetschach from an early age. She was very active as the librarian of the cultural and educational association Kočna. She and her brother belonged to the inner circle of the Liberation Front in their home town. After her brother was imprisoned, 52-year-old Reza was found dead. There were different stories about the circumstances of her death: that she had committed suicide or that she had been murdered by the Nazis or by the partisans and portrayed as a suicide. - Source: Borec 1951/7, 229f.; Andrej Feinig, information 22.10.2012.
Andrej Permož (Andreas Permosch)
* 25 September 1904, Mače / Matschah, Sveče / Suetschach
† 1945, (missing since liberation from Dachau concentration camp)
At home at the locally as Pirman known farm, Šentjanž v Rožu / St. Johann im Rosental, Svetna vas / Weizelsdorf. Andrej Permož was born as the son of Helena Permož and Felix Moser, a labourer. He was also called Drejča or Pirmanov Drejči. He farmed with his mother on the Pirman farm, which his mother inherited from her aunt. The farm was one of the largest in Šentjanž v Rožu / St. Johann im Rosental. He had an illegitimate child, born in 1938, and was engaged to be married. He was an important representative of Slovenian cultural life in Rož / Rosental. He was also President of the Catholic Slovenian Association for many years. A theatre group and a tambourine group rehearsed in his house.
After the Anschluss, Andrej Permož publicly showed his critical attitude. In 1943, together with Janez Weiss, Miho Gabrijel, Urh Olipic and Hans Richter, he founded the OF District Committee for lower Rož / Rosental. They tried to recruit new fighters through political agitation. A resistance group was soon formed in the municipality of Svetna vas / Weizelsdorf, which consisted of about 50 Slovene and German-speaking people. The group supplied the partisans with food, sanitary material and important information. On 29 June 1944, while on a courier mission, Permož was arrested by the Gestapo.
In October 1944, Andrej Permož arrived at the Dachau camp. As a "preventive prisoner", he had to wear the number 117 270. Three weeks later, he was transferred to the Natzweiler concentration camp. He was then taken to the branch camp Schörzingen with the number 38 214. Andrej Permož sent his last message to his mother in February 1945 from the camp Neckarelz. It was therefore assumed for a long time that he died there. In reality, he was transferred back to Dachau in mid-March 1945 and immediately after his arrival in early April he was assigned to the Allach branch camp. His camp file says "Liberated by the American army". At his mother's request in 1948, the ITS informed that because of this remark, a death certificate could not be issued. However, they added that all Dachau concentration camp registration cards which did not contain a death, dismissal or transfer note at the time of liberation bore such a stamp. However, only prisoners who died in the main camp up to 27 April 1945 are entered in the death register, and only those who died in the branch camps up to the end of March 1945 are entered in the death register. Internees who died before liberation or on evacuation marches are not entered in the Book of the Dead. Andrej Permož died at the age of 40. - Source: ADG; Archiv KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau; ASZI; IST; KLA (126, Gz. 1.166/55); www.lettertothestars.at
Valentin / Foltan Schwarz (Švarc)
* 1 November 1893, Sveče / Suetschach
† 8 May 1944, hospital in Celovec / Klagenfurt
Valentin Schwarz was born as the son of the wireman Tomaž Schwarz from Bistrica v Rožu / Feistritz im Rosental and his wife Anna Partl. The family lived in his mother's birthplace at the Kocijan family home in Sveče / Suetschach. Valentin was a gunsmith in Borovlje / Ferlach. 1925 he married Angela Fantur. They had a son. Valentin Schwarz and his wife Angela supported the OF from the very beginning. On 6 May 1944, a Gestapo officer, Othmar Rath, accompanied by a gendarme, shot at Valentin Schwarz and fatally wounded him in an attempt to arrest him. Valentin died in the early hours of 8 May 1944 in a hospital in Celovec / Klagenfurt at the age of 50. On 6 May 1944, his wife Angela, a knitter, was also arrested. She remained in Gestapo prison until the end of the war. Her house was confiscated. - Source: ADG; ASZI; KLA (64, 481).
Peter Stingl
* 23 August 1888, Spodnje Kraje / Unterkrajach, Sveče / Suetschach
† 20 April 1945, concentration camp Dachau
Peter Stingl was the son of Peter Stingl and Anna Krušic. His father was already a factory worker at Bistrica v Rožu / Feistritz im Rosental and lived in a house in Spodnje Kraje / Unterkrajach. Peter Stingl, Jr. also worked in the factory in Bistrica v Rožu / Feistritz im Rosental. In 1919, he married Lucija Plajberšnik in Bilčovs / Ludmannsdorf, who lived in Kamen v Podjuni / Stein im Jauntal. They had two children. After being denounced by the so-called "Werkschutz" - the company's protection service - Peter Stingl was arrested even before the large-scale arrests in Rož / Rosental. On 22 March 1944, the Gestapo sent him to Dachau concentration camp. His arrival was recorded on 15 April 1944. He had to wear prisoner number 66 799 and was assigned to Block 30. After his admission, his clothes and other belongings were taken from him and deposited in a storage unit called the "Effektenkammer". The following items of clothing and belongings are recorded on his file: three shirts, two pairs of underpants, one pair of shoes, one cane, as well as miscellaneous papers, photographs and cash. On 19 April, as Stingl was suffering from obesity, he asked for the urgently needed bandage to be returned to him. According to the Dachau death register, Peter Stingl died in the early hours of 20 April 1945 of enterocolitis, aged 56.
His wife was not informed. A letter from Dachau did not arrive until May 1946, ending the uncertainty: "At your request, we have to inform you through the Red Cross of the sad news that your husband, Mr Peter Stingl, died on 20 April 1945 in concentration camp Dachau. We offer you our sincere condolences."
Peter Stingl's remains were buried in the Dachau forest cemetery. - Source: ADG; Archiv KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau; ASZI; ITS; Slovenski vestnik, 2. 1. 1948, 4.
Matija Verdnik - Tomaž
* 28 September 1916, Slovenski Javornik
† 1 February 1944, Polana, Bistrica v Rožu / Feistritz im Rosental
Matija Verdnik was born near Jesenice as the son of a factory worker, Tomaž Verdnik, and his wife Katarina Obilčnik. Both parents were originally from Bistrica v Rožu / Feistritz im Rosental. His father was transferred from Bistrica v Rožu / Feistritz im Rosental to the industrial town of Jesenice, and Matija grew up there. The links with his parents' hometown remained close. Matija became an ironworker and at the age of 16 he joined the Communist youth organisation.
After the attack on Yugoslavia in April 1941, Matija Verdnik joined the resistance movement and was in Cankar's group under Stol. In 1942 he was in Carinthia several times, where he successfully spread the Liberation Front network. His radius of action stretched from Beljak / Villach to Celovec / Klagenfurt. As secretary of the district committee for Rož / Rosental, Verdnik first had his own bunker near Sveče / Suetschach, but later had to build a larger one, which was betrayed. During the German police attack on the bunker on 28 January 1944, Matija Verdnik - Tomaž was seriously wounded. He died of blood poisoning at the age of 27. After the war he was buried in the cemetery in Sveče / Suetschach - Sources ADG; ASZI; Karner/Moritsch 2005, 322; Padlim 1987, 153f.
Sources:
Brigitte Entner: Wer war Klara aus Šentlipš/St. Philippen? Kärntner Slowenen und Sloweninnen als Opfer der NS-Verfolgung. Ein Gedenkbuch. Klagenfurt: Drava 2014.
Wilhelm Baum et al. (Hg./izd.): Das Buch der Namen. Die Opfer des Nationalsozialismus in Kärnten. Klagenfurt-Wien: Kitab-Verlag 2010.
Helge Stromberger, schriftlich und mündliche Auskunft / pisna in ustna informacija, 3. 8. 2022
www.lettertothestars.at
Abbreviations:
ADG – Archive of the Diocese of Gurk
KLA – Carinthian Provincial Archive
ASZI – Archive of the Slovenian Scientific Institute
ITS – International Tracing Service