This place was very important for the German police, who had a strong gendarmerie outpost here. As a result, a large number of partisans were killed in the area. Nine of them are buried in the cemetery next to the parish church. All of them were moved from their original graves on 16 November 1946 to the cemetery of Šmarjeta / St. Margarethen. The "Black Cross", a special organisation that takes care of military graves, placed wooden crosses on the gravesite, one bearing the inscription "Unknown Partisans" on a metal plate. When these crosses deteriorated, the Black Cross replaced them with iron ones, but with a different inscription: 'Unknown Jugoslavs'.
But the fact is, that only three of the partisans lying here are unknown. The other six are fully identified. They are: Luka Levko, born 17 October 1913 in Bistrica near Črna, killed 30 January 1944 at the gendarmerie outpost in Šmarjeta / St. Margareten; Jožef Kraiger, born 3 April 1927, died on 14 March 1945; Adolf Selišnik, born 11 February 1901 in Solčava; Franc Vatovec, born 2 February 1914; Ignacij Relagranc, born 1924; Franc Vidmar, born 23 March 1927.
The last four combatants were killed on 15 March 1945 at Zavrh / Hintergupf (1071 m), in the hills above Šmarjeta / St. Margareten. They were fighters of the protective battalion OBKOM for Carinthia. Only the partisan Mirko is known by his first name, and he was killed on 11 May 1945, at the dawn of freedom. The two completely unknown fallen fighters buried in Šmarjeta / St. Margareten fell in Trebljenje / Trieblach above Kuhar.
A stone monument with the names carved on it now stands at the gravesite of the nine fallen partisan fighters:
Jožef Kraiger, Luka Levko, Ignacij Relagranc, Adolf Selišnik,
Franc Vatovec, Franc Vidmar, fighter Mirko, 2 unknown.
Location:
Šmarjeta v Rožu / St. Margareten im Rosental is situated on the right bank of the river Drava, on the road between Borovlje / Ferlach and Apače / Abtei.