Overview
- Interview Summary
- Stanislav Kotnik, born in 1925 in Nova Vas in the former Yugoslavia, describes attending a technical school in Ljubljana at the beginning of the war; the active communist party in the school, which led to the closing of the school in 1942; pressure from a priest to denounce the actions of his uncle, who sympathized with the Partisans; the arrest of all men between the ages of 18 and 55 by Italian forces; his own arrest despite being underage; being taken with a group of men to a stable in the village of Veliki Vrh; the role of a local priest, Italian officer, and a soldier in deciding the fate of the prisoners; the execution of the priest by partisans after the capitulation of Italy; his deportation to the concentration camp on the island Rab; the death of inmates due to thirst, starvation, and poor hygiene; life in the Rab concentration camp; his transfer to the village of Reka, then Visoko, then the concentration camp in Gonars; joining the resistance movement; punishment by the Italians for reading classified information to the other inmates; a prisoner revolt in 1943 that led to his escape; being wounded in 1944 and hiding in his brother’s home; the effects of the Holocaust on his family; and the aftermath of the war.
- Interviewee
- Stanislav Kotnik
- Date
-
interview:
2009 February 01
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, courtesy of the Jeff and Toby Herr Foundation
Physical Details
- Language
- Slovenian
- Extent
-
2 videocassettes (DVCAM) : sound, color ; 1/4 in..
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
- Conditions on Use
- No restrictions on use
Keywords & Subjects
- Topical Term
- World War, 1939-1945--Personal narratives, Slovenian. Clergy--Crimes against--Slovenia. Famine--Slovenia. Guerrillas--Slovenia. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Yugoslavia. World War, 1939-1945--Atrocities--Slovenia. World War, 1939-1945--Prisoners and prisons, Slovenian. World War, 1939-1945--Underground movements--Slovenia. Men--Personal narratives.
- Geographic Name
- Gonars (Italy) Italy--Armed Forces. Ljubljana (Slovenia) Rab (Croatia) Slovenia--History--1918-1945. Slovenia--History--Axis occupation, 1941-1945. Slovenia.
- Personal Name
- Kotnik, Stanislav.
Administrative Notes
- Holder of Originals
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- This is a witness interview of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Perpetrators, Collaborators, and Witnesses: The Jeff and Toby Herr Testimony Initiative, a multi-year project to record the testimonies of non-Jewish witnesses to the Holocaust. Nathan Beyrak, Project Director for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Oral History Branch, coordinated the interview with Stanislav Kotnik on February 1, 2009 as part of the Museum's Former Yugoslavia Witnesses Documentation Project in Slovenia.
- Funding Note
- The production of this interview was made possible by Jeff and Toby Herr.
- Special Collection
-
The Jeff and Toby Herr Oral History Archive
- Record last modified:
- 2023-11-16 09:17:26
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn45151
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Also in Oral history interviews of the Former Yugoslavia Witnesses Documentation Project, Slovenia
Oral history interviews of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Former Yugoslavia Witnesses Documentation Project in Slovenia.
Date: 2009
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Oral History
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Oral history interview with Albina Vogrin
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Oral history interview with Štefanija Kogoj
Oral History
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Oral history interview with Ivana Zamida
Oral History
Ivana Zamida, born in 1929 in Papezi, Slovenia, discusses her time in Rab and Gonars concentration camps; surviving a flood in the camp on the island of Rab; many deaths as a result of starvation and harsh living conditions; witnessing a female prisoner’s suicide; receiving extra food from a male prisoner; receiving parcels from Ljubljana; and returning to Slovenia after the capitulation of Italy in 1943.
Oral history interview with Kristina Kverh
Oral History
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Oral History
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Oral history interview with Franc Pantar
Oral History
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Oral history interview with Julijana Janeš
Oral History
Julijana Janeš, born in 1933 in the former Yugoslavia, describes her brothers joining a partisan unit in 1942; the arrest of her village in 1942 by Italian forces and their transfer to Rab concentration camp in Kampor; the harsh conditions in the camp, resulting in the deaths of her grandparents; her transfer to Gonars concentration camp; conditions in the camp, resulting in the death of her neice; returning home after the capitulation of Italy; moving to the village of Podpreska; and the sight of Chetnicks withdrawing from Serbia and Croatia at the end of the war.
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Oral History
Dana V. Klanjšček, born in 1922 in the former Yugoslavia, describes her participation in the resistance movement; her arrest by Italian police in 1942 and imprisonment in Venice and then Padova; her return to Slovenia in 1943 after the capitulation of Italy; her arrest and interrogation by the Bela Garda; her transfer to Ravensbrück and then Grünberg labor camp; a forced march in 1945 in which the guards deserted the group of prisoners; Soviet soldiers informing them of the end of the war; her return to Slovenia; and the death of her brother after the war as a result off his treatment in concentration camps.
Oral history interview with Alojz S. Kunej
Oral History
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Oral history interview with Janez Štiglic
Oral History
Janez Štiglic, born in 1938 in the former Yugoslavia, describes his deportation to the concentration camp at Celje in 1942; mass shootings in Celje, which resulted in the death of his father; the death of his mother in Auschwitz; his transfer between different concentration camps; being a subject to medical experimentation; his liberation in 1945 by American forces; his return to Slovenia with his neighbor and brother; and the long-term effects of his experiences during the war on his life.
Oral history interview with Miloš Poljanšek
Oral History
Miloš Poljanšek, born in 1923 in the former Yugoslavia, describes his deportation to Somobor and then Ljubljana in 1941; joining the resistance movement; his arrest and interrogation by Italian police in 1943; two Jewish prisoners in his cell in the prison in Ljubljana; his transfer to a prison in Kopar; his transfer to Hamburg Neuengamme concentration camp in 1943 by German fores; conditions in the concentration camp; his release in 1944 and return to Slovenia; and his time in a working brigade until the end of the war.
