Dr. Monika Kokalj Kočevar
People of Gorenjska Forcibly Mobilized into the German Army
Almost every Slovene family has at least one family member who was forcibly mobilized into the German Army during the Second World War. Our family from Gorenjska is no exception. Uncle Milan, born in 1926, was forcibly mobilized in August 1943. His older brothers Ivan, Viktor and Jože joined the partisans to avoid the German mobilization. The small baker’s apprentice Milan was left at home because he was weak and with sick legs completely unsuitable for long marches and rapid movement in partisan units. Nevertheless, the German commission at the conscription centre in Kamnik determined that he was suitable for the German Army. Milan was sent to the state labour camp in Breitenwaida near Vienna and from there to his military unit in France. In June 1944, he found himself in battle near the town of Brehal in Normandy. He was captured by British troops and taken to Woodhouselee Prisoner-of-War Camp near Edinburgh, from where he returned to his homeland with comrades who had joined the Partisan 5th Overseas Brigade. At the end of the War, only three of the four brothers returned home. The family still doesn’t know where Ivan’s grave is.
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