Bistra - Memorial to the Fallen Fighters and Victims of Italian Fascism

EŠD 11523 - memorial plaque, heritage of memory.

The memorial plaque was erected on the western side, on the façade of the monastic building, where the Slovenian Technical Museum is now located, to the right of the main entrance portal. It is a stone plaque, white in color, marble, measuring 40 x 60 cm, discovered in 1946, dedicated to the victims of the local Italian military court – the so-called "preserski process", on which on 7 March 1942, the following sentences were pronounced: 28 people were sentenced to death, 12 to life imprisonment, 4 to thirty years' imprisonment, 5 to eight years' imprisonment, one person to five years' imprisonment, 19 people were acquitted, two minors among these 19 were proposed for judicial rehabilitation. Of those sentenced to death, sixteen were executed on 10 March 1942 in Gramozni Cave in Ljubljana, the others sentenced to death were later commuted (to imprisonment); as a dedication also to four fallen fighters from these areas.

• source: Hutar, Vera: Most, Ljubljana, Enotnost 1995, Tisk Solidarnost Murska Sobota
  EŠD: 12512 - railway double-track bridge over the Ljubljanica near Preser, originally wooden, built in 1857, and at the end of the 19th century the wood was replaced with iron construction.

The so-called "Preserski process" came about due to the retaliation of the occupying Italian army against the partisan attack on the bridge, where four Italian soldiers died, more were wounded.

After an eight-month Italian occupation of Slovene territory, the command of the Slovene partisan units decided on a larger action, which would be heard throughout Slovene territory, and decided that the partisan Somotorska unit would carry out an attack on the bridge near Preser and destroy it. Despite good preparation, the explosion was heard throughout the Barje and even in Ljubljana, but on the night of 5 December 1941, the partisans failed to destroy the bridge. Traffic across it was interrupted only for 15 hours.

The retaliation of the Italian army was unreasonable. They attacked civilians, who had no connection with the attackers.

The main command of the Slovene partisan units on 17 March 1942, unfortunately, a week after the execution of sixteen people from this "process", published the following statement in the Slovenian News:

"The blood of sixteen Slovenes has stained Slovenian land, shot by Roman fascist and imperialist bloodthirsty killers in the sense of a planned just massacre (followed are the names and surnames of the executed). Slovenian martyrs! Your blood is not in vain. New strength gives Slovenian partisan fists, from which we draw new forces, we, the correct executioners of imperialist oppressors and their domestic helpers."

(Compiled from Hribernik, Rudolf - Svarun, Dolomiti in NOB, pp. 115-122)