The Hojnik clan lived high above the Lepena / Leppen valley. It is a three-hour walk to Železna Kapla / Bad Eisenkappel. On their land, the Hojniks grew bread for their large family. As everywhere in / Lepena / Leppen, the Hojnik family spoke slovenian. In Lepena / Leppen, partisans came to almost every house, and so too to the Hojnik's.
On Tuesday, 18 January 1944, according to the neighbours, the following happened: German gendarmes surrounded the house from all sides and ordered Johi and Mica, Hojnik's 18-year-old twins, to prepare to leave; and also their mother Angela. Father Johan was lying down, suffering from pneumonia. They ordered two carts to be drawn up, each with a pair of oxen. Then they ransacked the whole house and stole whatever they could lay their hands on: blankets, meat, flour… When they had loaded the looted goods onto the first wagon, they put Micka in front of the oxen and Johi in front of the second wagon. On the second wagon, they loaded the 59-year-old sick master, Johan Polanšek. His 46-year-old wife Angela had to walk behind the cart.
They were identified by their clothes …
When Florjan Polanšek, the ninety-year-old grandfather, saw what the gendarmes were doing, he started to scold them, and they drove him away too. Although he walked with crutches, he resisted. No sooner had they reached the forest than they killed him with their rifle butts. After a while, Johi noticed that his father and mother were no longer on the cart, but he could hear the guns firing. The gendarmes, among whom was the known criminal Orlitsch from Železna Kapla / Bad Eisenkappel, shot both - the Hojnik's master and mistress, the mother of seven children. The bodies were piled up and burned. But they were only partially burnt, so that the neighbours recognised the victims by their clothes. The Germans spread the news around Železna kapla / Bad Eisenkappel that the Hojniks had gone to the partisans. The relatives informed the municipality that they had found the Hojniks burnt. The municipality appointed a commission to verify this. Before the commission (Valentin Polanšek, Angela Polanšek and Ludwig Truschner) arrived at the scene of the massacre, the police had covered up the traces of the crime. They tore down the garden fence, threw everything on the victims and burned them again. At that time, Hojnik's house also burnt down. The cremated remains of the victims were buried secretly, without bells ringing, in the cemetery of Železna Kapla / Bad Eisenkappel.
The 11-year-old son Roki survived because he was staying with his aunt in Železna Kapel / Bad Eisenkappel, where he went to school. The elder son Jozej, aged 20, was in the German army. When he found out about the crime, he deserted and went to the partisans. He was killed as an anti-fascist fighter just before the end of the war. His daughter Mici did not return from Ravensbrück. An SS man, fleeing from the Red Army, shot her. Only Jochi, who was being chased by the gendarmes towards Železna Kapla / Bad Eisenkappel, managed to escape. He too went to the partisans.
Never held accountable …
Although the perpetrators of the massacre were known (Gendarme Orlitsch), neither the post-war Allied authorities nor the Second Austrian Republic have identified those responsible for this crime. In 1982, the Association of Carinthian Partisans erected a dignified memorial at Hojnik's house, attended by a large number of locals and visitors from other places. The inscription in both regional languages reads:
On 18 January 1944, the SS police brutally murdered and burned
the Hojnik family: 89-year-old grandfather Florijan Polanšek, 59-year-old
master Johan Polanšek, 46-year-old mistress
Angela Polanšek, 19-year-old daughter Maria was executed
in the Ravensbrück camp, 20-year-old son Jože was killed at the
at the end of the war as a partisan.
Glory to the victims
Location:
If you come through Železna Kapla / Bad Eisenkappel in the direction of the Jezersko border crossing, turn left shortly after the centre of the town in the direction of Lepena / Leppen.