Two partisans are buried in the cemetery in Apače / Abtei, who fell in the battle with the SS at Robeže / Robesch, the first armed clash between partisans and German troops on the territory of the Ostmark of Third Reich.
In March 1942, the headquarters of the Slovenian partisan troops ordered the formation of larger military units called "detachments", with a detachment headquarters at their head; the purpose of this order was to link up - gradually, in sync with their growth - the hitherto independent or unconnected national liberation troops and battalions. In order to ensure that the actions of the individual detachments were in harmony with each other, it was ordered that larger units, made up of individual detachments, should be set up under the name of "detachment groups", namely: I. Detachment Group (Gorenjska, Kokrška and Carinthia), II. Detachment Group (Sava, Pohorska in Drava), III. Detachment Group (Dolenjska, Belokrajina in Notranjska), IV. group of detachments (Ptujska, Haložanska and Kozjanska). The latter was not formed.
In the summer of 1942, II. group of detachments was given the task to move from Dolenjska to Styria. In mid-August 1942, however, the German army on Jelovica went on a strong offensive against the partisan units, among which was the 1st Battalion of the II. group of detachments, Kranjč's Battalion. All roads, all possible passes into Styria, peaks and mountain saddles were occupied by the Germans. In this delicate situation, the battalion headquarters decided to go through the Karavank Mountains in order to break through to Styria.
On the night of 20 August, Kranjč's battalion crossed the Košuta / Koschuta and arrived in Srednji kot / Zell-Mitterwinkel late in the afternoon. The locals warmly welcomed the exhausted partisans, who informed them about the OF programme and had a political discussion with them.
The battalion intended to continue through lower Obirsko / Ebriach, to cross the old Austrian-Yugoslav border near Železna Kapla / Bad Eisenkappel and to descend into the Upper Savinja Valley. However, they soon learned from the locals that German groups were moving in the area, so they decided to bypass the area via the northern slope of Žetiče / Setitsch-Alm and Obir mountain. Thus, on 25 August 1942, they arrived in the vicinity of Apače / Abtei and camped on the edge of the forest above the Lesjak family homestead at Robeže / Robesch. There they were suddenly attacked by the SS. Ten of the germans were killed in the fighting, and the partisans had two dead: Jože Vidergar-Senko (born 3 March 1903 in Ljubljana. He was a troop commissar in Kranjč's battalion) and an unknown fighter with the partisan name "Škorc". They were the first partisan fighters to fall in Carinthia.
After a few days, the bodies of both of them were transported to Apače / Abtei and buried there. Until the new tombstone was erected, Jože Vidergar-Senko and Jožef Kanzijan-Škorc had only a commemorative plaque with an inscription above their graves on the north-west side of the cemetery wall:
Two fighters of the 2nd group of detachments,
fallen on 25 August 1942 in the struggle
for the freedom of the Slovene people.
Glory to the fallen heroes!
There was no other information about them on the plate, because at that time only the partisan names of the two men, Senko and Škorc, were known. Even on the new memorial, Vidergar was initially mentioned only as Senko. Only later his identity was established. Jože Vidergar was active in the workers' movement and a member of the cummunist party of slovenia even before the war. He went to the partisans, to Podlipoglav in Dolenjska, in the early spring of 1942. His home was in Polje pri Ljubljani. He left behind his wife and daughter Senka, after whom he took his partisan name.
A third partisan is buried here…
There is a third partisan buried in the Apače / Abtei cemetery, the eldest son of Lesjak from Robeže / Robesch, Jožef Kanzian, born on 2 September 1927. He fell at Zavrh / Hintergupf on 28 December 1944, and is buried in a family grave, his name inscribed on a common plaque. A special commemorative plaque is dedicated to him at Zavrh / Hintergupf, where he was killed.
…and an exiled Slovenian family
The cemetery in Apače / Abtei is also the burial place of the deported Slovenian Božič family. The shocking inscription on the former tombstone reads:
You left your home village, you were briefly expatriated;
then you were conscripted into the army and had to spend your young life there.
Here rests Anton Božič, born on 5 December 1926, killed on 30 July 1944.
The Germans deported the Božič family to Germany. Later, Anton had to work in Gradec / Graz, where he was mobilised in the German army. He was killed on the Eastern Front.
Location:
Apače / Abtei is situated at the northern foot of the mountain Mali Obir (1947m), on the left (north) side of the road leading from Šmarjeta v Rožu / St. Margarethen im Rosental to Podjuna / Jauntal, just above the right bank of the Drava / Drau.