Borci Kokrške čete, Okroglo

On April 21st and 22nd, 1942, a battle of thirteen partisans took place near the village of Okroglo against a numerically superior enemy. A week earlier, the Kokrško partisan unit had been surrounded by the Germans in Udin Boršt, and during the breakout, fourteen partisans, including two wounded, fled to the Okrogelsko cave above Savinja. The cave was relatively safe, but an informant, Pavle Kern, led almost 2000 Germans to the cave, who attempted various measures to force the partisans to surrender. The entrance to the cave was even shelled from the opposite bank of the Savinja, attempts were made to mine the cave, straw was set alight in front of the entrance, and prisoners were brought in from Begunje in an attempt to persuade them to surrender. However, these efforts were unsuccessful. A gas leak caused the immediate death of five partisans, eight committed suicide. Only Vlado Peraić survived, who had already left for the Savinja to fetch water before the encirclement began and had hidden for so long that the enemy had left.

Among the five prisoners, four Germans were executed as traitors, while Stanko Mlakar managed to escape to the partisans and fell in Udin Boršt in the same year.

Union of Combatant Associations of the Slovenian People's Republic, 1975, Monuments of the NOB in the municipality of Kranj, pp. 118–120.

Monuments of our revolution, Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 1961, pp. 128–129.

Guide through partisan trails, Ljubljana: Borec, 1978, p. 224.

EŠD: 15920

http://giskd2s.situla.org/rkd/Opis.asp?Esd=15920

They did not surrender … they chose death with pride. Gorenjski glas, April 19, 1951.

The memorial was commissioned by the local committee of the ZB NOB in Naklo according to the designs of engineer Dušan Žagar. The unveiling took place on April 22nd, 1955, on the 13th anniversary of the tragedy. At this location, the fallen were buried in the Okrogelsko cave until 1945.