Medgorje / Mieger

Ivica Pirjevec and Janez Jenko-Drago are buried in the cemetery surrounding the parish church in Zgornje Medgorje / Obermieger. The original tombstone, which was carved on the inside of the cemetery wall, bore the following inscription:

Glory to partisan Ivica Pirjevec, a high school student from Ljubljana,
and an unknown fighter who fell together in this village fighting against the fascist bully.

Later, the name of the unknown fighter was found and inscribed on the plaque:

Janez Jenko-Drago, Naklo-Medgorje / Obermieger, 31 December 1922 - 17 January 1945.

A new stone monument with an inscription in both regional languages now stands on the grave:

To the fallen partisans 1941-1945
Ivica Pirjevec / Janez Jenko

In November 1944, Ivica Pirjevec volunteered with Majda Vrhovnik-Lojzka for very risky and dangerous political work on Gure / Sattnitzgebirge and in the capital of Carinthia, preparing equipment and persistently organising the youth.
The story of their deaths was told by locals as follows: It was a dark winter night. During the day, on 17 January 1945, new snow fell, and in the evening Ivica and Drago came to the Kurats' house in Zgornje Medgorje / Obermieger to warm up and spend the night. The father, the house master Anton Velbič, welcomed them warmly and treated them to a hearty dinner. Then he gave them a place to stay in the barn behind the house.
However, because someone betrayed them, German policemen turned up at the house the same night; they accosted Velbič, saying that he had partisans under his roof. He feigned ignorance, and at that moment a wild shooting broke out. The two partisans refused to surrender alive and accepted the fight. Ivica fired her pistol to the last bullet. Only then did the police become emboldened; they stormed the barn and killed Ivica Pirjevec on the spot. Her comrade managed to find his way out of the barn, but already at the house of the farmer Iljč in Goriče / Goritschach, he fell into a German ambush and was killed.
Before the policemen left Kurat's farm, they ordered the landlord to bury the dead woman wherever he wanted, but not in the cemetery; before that, he had to undress her and bury her naked. Indeed, Anton Velbič-Kurat respectfully buried her in his plot of land near the cemetery. He covered the corpse with a sheet - so that the earth would not get into the dead person's mouth, as he himself later said.
Janez Jenko-Drago was temporarily buried next to the house where he fell. On 13 January 1946, the two fallen partisans were buried in a common grave in the cemetery in Zgornje Medgorje / Obermieger.

Location:
Zgornje Medgorje / Obermieger lies in a depression that cuts through the eastern Gure / Sattnitzgebirge between Radiše / Radsberg and Škarbinja / Skarbin. The quickest way to reach them is to continue from Celovec / Klagenfurt via Žrelec / Ebenthal in a south-easterly direction until you reach the turn-off for Medgorje / Obermieger.