Ivan Beja - Bela, Selca

Tonalitna plošča was unveiled in 1965 on the house where Ivan Beja - Bela, one of the organizers of the armed resistance, lived.

EŠD 19290

"Ivan Beja was born on 25 March 1910 as the third of seven children of the Czar's family from house number 3 in Sele, near Tirn.

Father Janez was a Slovene by conviction. He had participated in the First World War and was a Carinthian fighter. He died in 1957.

He raised his children as Slovenes by conviction. His descendants read a lot. Young Ivan also imitated his father. He was supposed to inherit his father's farm, but the Second World War changed his plans.

Ivan and his father condemned the Germans immediately after the occupation. They did not want to cooperate with them. Already in September 1941, Ivan joined Jožet Gricar-Metod. He was present at the meeting from 18 to 19 September with a group of fighters in Selca. In October 1941, he participated in a meeting on the Sava near Urankarjev, near Knaus, led by Lojze Hohkraut, national hero, member of the Central Committee of the Slovene Communist Party. From then on, he worked actively and organized for the NOG until his arrest on 30 August 1942. Upon arrest, he fled from the Germans and joined the Moravška unit on the first days of September. He became a respected fighter and comrade. Soon he became a member of the KP. In the unit, he was the leader of the first platoon. When the commander of the unit, Ivan Remic-Lovec, from Nazarij in the Savinja Valley, fell on 17 November 1942, the next day Ivan Beja-Bela became the commander of the first platoon in the Moravško-Zasavska battalion.

During the great German offensive, which aimed to encircle and destroy the battalion, the unit moved away from the vicinity of the Zasavska mountain - Rovisikovac, to a broader maneuvering area. The battalion encountered Germans in the mountain pass near Kolovrat on 26 February 1943. Commander Ivan Beja-Bela was seriously wounded, as a dum dum bullet tore his lower jaw and beard. He was obviously unfit for further combat. The unit was then led by Ciril Gricar-Emil. The seriously wounded Ivan was taken by the fighters to Grilov, near Piroče, at Kolovrat. However, since he did not feel safe, he left the next day. On the Musetov's studen near Briši, he washed his wound and took some rest.

He then continued his journey. The fighters who came later found him on the Dolgi Brdo or Vrh nad Mlinšami. They placed him on stretchers and carried him to Miklavž nad Kresnicami. The scene was painful. The commander Bela lay on the stretchers with a wounded beard. He could not speak. He clutched his gun and kissed it.

During emergency treatment, he was in a trench near Velika Vasi above Kresnice. Medical aid was provided by Dr. Polde Ukmar from Litija. Then he went to Dolnja and was treated in the hospital in Kočevski Rog. The wound healed, but he remained a severe invalid. He came to the area of the Vače - Šentlambert in October 1943. He was transported across the fortified Sava bridge by Karel Lovše with Grčanov's horses.

He was then among the appointed members of OZNE (organ for the protection of the people) until liberation. After liberation, he was struck by a severe illness. He died on 11 November 1946 at his birthplace in Selca."

(Milan Garantini, Ivan Beja-Bela, commander of the first platoon of the Zasavska battalion [Electronic source] Glasilo občanov (Litija), 6 June 1988, 13

Also cited: Boštjan Grošelj, Pomniki viharja /Odmev pretresljivih časov/ Šentlambert: Krajevna skupnost, 2022, pp. 12-16.