Bolnica B/11 - Pepca v Beli peči, Smrekovec

Frequent clashes with the Germans in the area of Mežiška Valley urged the leadership of the partisan sanitation units to organize a more extensive network of sanitation posts, where it would be possible to provide injured or sick fighters with necessary medical aid and safe shelter. Thus, on August 16, 1944, Peter Tomazin - Skala and the first partisan nurse on Koroška, Anica Rožen - Pepca, his later wife, were given the task to go to the area of Bistra near Črni na Koroškem and there immediately start building a new post for the wounded. Pepca was appointed as the administrator, Peter Tomazin - Skala as the political commissar of the hospital. In aid they were assigned a seven-member staff. The space for the hospital was found in Beli Peči, high in the mountain above Rigelnik, under the present hunting lodge on Trati. The hospital could accommodate up to 25 wounded at once, who would lie on the upper floor beams. The kitchen was built very safely, since the underground flue purified the smoke and smell in the kitchen, which could have caused the post to be discovered.

The hospital was given the name B-11 (B = Bistra), it was also called the Territorial unit (TČ) 1 - 15, among the fighters it became known as Pepca - after the nurse Anica Tomazin - Pepca. By the end of December 1944, the hospital had already taken in its first wounded and successfully carried out its work until the beginning of February 1945, when it was disbanded. Fortunately, the staff, despite heavy snow, timely withdrew from the Germans. Later, the hospital was abandoned by the partisans.

A memorial plaque on the hospital was unveiled on August 22, 1976. In 1978 the hospital was renovated, and on July 25, 1984, it was equipped with props and a permanent exhibition was opened in it.

Source: Memorials and landmarks of the NOB in Mežiška Valley.

Authors: Professor Janez Mrdavšič and Alojz Krivograd

EŠD 7719

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