The village cemetery in Šentjanž v Rožu / St. Johann im Rosental is the resting place of partisans who fell in battles with the enemy at Žingarica / Singerberg and Šentjanške Rute / Rabenberg. The stone monument in the central part of the cemetery is carved with following text in both regional languages:
Partisans killed in the fight against fascism 1941-1945
Franc Vavče, Janez Vester, Toni Lesičnik, Mihael Brumnik,
Terezija Malle, Egidij Hafner
Franc Vavče was born on 13 September 1912 in Ravne and died on 28 August 1944 at Žingarica / Singerberg; Egidij Hafner, Lapš, who was born in Šentjanž / St. Johann 31. August 1908, was killed in the forest near his home on 10 November 1944; Terezija Malle, born 14 February 1924 in Šentjanž / St. Johann, was killed on 10 November 1944 at Šentjanške Rute / Rabenberg, together with Hafner and Brumnik. Mihael Brumnik-Matjažek, known as Harišev from Obirsko pri Železni Kapli / Ebriach bei Bad Eisenkappel, was born on 22 August 1920 and died on 10 November 1944 at Šentjanške Rute / Rabenberg.
At the entrance to the cemetery in Šentjanž / St. Johann, the fallen fighter Wester (here his surname is written in the German version) has a special gravestone, which was erected by his relatives. Following text is carved into the stone:
Janez Wester, born on 6 April 1928, murdered on 30 October 1944
in the partisan struggle at Šentjanške Rute / Rabenberg, is buried here.
Home soil be light to him!
Wester's tombstone also bears a photograph of him in an oval. In the centre of the cemetery, at the end of the avenue under the cypress tree, stands an artistically wrought cross which reads, among other things:
Hornböck Janez 1878 - 1942 / died in Dachau camp
Janez Hornböck served as a parish priest in Mežica during the Second World War. He was arrested in 1941 and sent to Dachau as a conscious Carinthian Slovene. After a long period of torture, he died in the crematorium.
Monument also at Šentjanške Rute / Rabenberg
In 1983, the Association of Carinthian Partisans erected a dignified monument with a bilingual inscription at the home of Egidij Hafner, known as Lapš homestead in Šentjanške Rute / Rabenberg:
On 10 November 1944, the SS-police attacked a partisan bunker and killed
three fighters at Šentjanške Rute / Rabenberg above Lapš, and burned them the next day:
EGIDIJ HAFNER from Šentjanške Rute / Rabenberg,
MIHA BRUMNIK from Obirsko / Ebriach,
REZIKA MALLE from Šentjanž / St. Johann.
On 30 October 1944, a partisan was killed in Šentjanškes Rute / Rabenberg.
JANEZ WESTER.
Glory to the victims
Since 2015, the annual "Memorial Hike for Ston" on every second Sunday in October, dedicated to the partisan fighter Bogdan Mohor-Ston from Kranj, who was sent to Rož / Rosental by the Liberation Front to organise the resistance here, has led to the two memorial islands in Šentjanž / St. Johann. The forests of Šentjanške Rute / Rabenberg offered him protection and refuge.
Location:
Šentjanž / St. Johann is situated on the south bank of the Drava, halfway between the Humperk Bridge and Bistrica v Rožu / Feistritz im Rosental. The cemetery is on the left in this direction, a little off the main road.
Recommended:
Bogdan Mohor-Ston: Luna. Od koroškega partizana do političnega zapornika v Bileči / Vom Freiheitskämpfer in Kärnten zum politischen Gefangenen in Bileča. Drava založba, Celovec 2007.