Eleven fallen partisan fighters and activists of the Liberation Front lie in the cemetery in Sveče / Suetschach. In addition to the national hero Matija Verdnik-Tomaž, who was seriously wounded in the fight with the Nazis on 28 January 1944 and succumbed to poisoning on 2 February, there are also the remains of Aleksander Čero, who was killed on 1 May 1944 at Rute nad Bistrico v Rožu / Bärental, his brother Ivan Čero, who fell on 9 May 1944 at Rute nad Bistrico v Rož / Bärental, and his brother Ivan Čero, who was killed on 9 May 1944 at Rute above Bistrica v Rož / Bärental, who died on 9 May 1944. In addition to these three partisans, Ivan Mežik from Jesenice and Franc Lipovec from Javorniški Rovt, as well as three unidentified partisans who died in the fight with the Nazi police in the vicinity of Bistrica / Feistritz and Sveče / Suetschach, are also buried in the cemetery. The bodies of three Liberation Front activists, Aleš Einspieler, Florijan Križnar and Valentin Schwarz, are buried here together with those of the fallen fighters. They were the victims of a vicious killing. A magnificent rock monument (270 cm wide, 220 cm high) has been erected on the 12-metre-long and 1.5 metre-wide burial site. The following verse is inscribed on the newly affixed cast-iron plaque alongside the names of those buried:
You are fruitful seeds among us,
from which freedom grows
for the nations out of the black times.
A dense network of Liberation Front committees
In 1981, the Association of Carinthian Partisans attached a bronze plaque with the image of Matija Verdnik-Tomaž, who was born on 16 September 1916 in Bistrica v Rožu / Feistritz im Rosental. His father was a factory worker. When Verdnik's father had to find a living in the ironworks in Jesenica, his family moved there with him. His son Matija then trained as a metalworker in Jesenice. As a conscious worker, the young Verdnik soon became involved in the progressive movement, for which he was interned in Ivanjica shortly before the invasion of Yugoslavia by the occupying forces. Already in December 1941, Matija Verdnik joined the partisans, Cankar's company under the Stol / Hochstuhl. In the first half of 1942, he came to Koroška / Kärnten with small groups of partisans to spread the ideas of the national liberation struggle and to set up Liberation Front committees. At the beginning of 1943 he came to stay permanently in Carinthia. Thanks to him, the first OF committee of Rož / Rosental was founded in the village of Mače, and from there Verdnik lit the spark of the liberation movement from village to village. In the area of Rož / Rosental alone, about twenty committees were organised. In the summer of 1943, he became secretary of the newly formed OF District Committee for Rož / Rosental. He also set up committees north of the river Drava, and in the area of Gure / Sattnitzgebiet, under the most difficult conditions, he established alliances with conscious Slovenes and Austrian anti-fascists. Especially after the capitulation of Italy, the anti-fascist struggle in Carinthiaž also took root and developed to such an extent that the time was ripe for the establishment of an independent military and political leadership. In March 1944, the Regional OF Committee for Slovene Carinthia was formed as an independent political leadership for Carinthia, and in April 1944, the Carinthian Group of Detachments was established as an independent military leadership of the Carinthian partisans. Karel Prušnik-Gašper was appointed secretary of the Provincial Committee OF, and its headquarters were for a while at Mače / Matschach, then at Ojstra and finally at Košuta.
They left their lives
As secretary of the OF district committee for Rož / Rosental, Verdnik had his headquarters in a bunker near Sveče / Suetschach. Due to the increasing influx of fighters, a new, larger bunker had to be built on the eastern slope of Mušenik. However, this was soon given away. Matija Verdnik was seriously wounded in a clash with the Nazis, who stormed the new bunker on 28 January 1944. He succumbed to his wounds a few days later. As a fighter and as a pioneer of the partisan liberation struggle in Carinthia, Matija Verdnik-Tomaž was posthumously awarded the Order of National Hero.
On 6 May 1944, three Slovene patriots, organised in the Liberation Front, became victims of treason. A Gestapo officer, Rath, shot Aleš Einspieler, President of the Slovenian cultural association "Kočna" from Sveče / Suetschach, on the way to his interrogation. Shortly afterwards, on the same day, the same Gestapo officer shot Flori Križnar while he was loading hay onto a wagon at a neighbour's house. And last, the same Gestapo officer shot and killed gunsmith Valentin Schwarz from Sveče.
Every first Sunday in February
Every February, the Carinthian Partisans' Association organises a memorial ceremony at the graves of the fallen in Sveče / Suetschach. In 1983, the President at that time, Janez Wutte-Luc, pointed out:
"It is a historical truth that the Slovenes of Carinthia were involved in or supported the resistance movement in large numbers from at least 1942 onwards… Let us keep alive the memory of all the patriots who, as partisans, sacrificed their young lives for the liberation from the Nazi yoke, and who rest in cemeteries throughout southern Carinthia; all those who lost their lives in prisons and camps, where they were thrown by an inhuman regime for supporting the just struggle for the existence of the Slovene nation in Carinthia; and all the countless victims who fell in the struggle against fascism here in Austria and throughout Europe."
Location:
Sveče / Suetschach is a village in the municipality of Bistrica v Rožu / Feistritz im Rosental, situated towards Šentjakob / St. Jakob on the left side, a little bit away from the main road.