Anton, Janez, Marija, Nežka Osolnik, Alojz Gril, Cemetery Vače

Anton Osolnik, Sistory:
date of birth: 30. 04. 1920, place of birth: Slivna pri Vačah, military status: NOV and POS, military unit, rank: Kamniško-zasavski odred, miners' leader, date of death: 29. 12. 1944, place of death: Selo pri Vačah, cause of death: murdered, perpetrator of death: Gorenjska samozaščita - German occupying units

Janez Osolnik, Sistory:
date of birth: 30. 04. 1925, place of birth: Slivna, military status: activist OF, military unit, rank: Economic Commission, date of death: 29. 12. 1944, place of death: Vače, cause of death: murdered, perpetrator of death: Gorenjska samozaščita

Marija Osolnik, Sistory:
date of birth: 30. 04. 1920, place of birth: Slivna pri Vačah, military status: activist OF, date of death: 29. 12. 1944, place of death: Selo pri Vačah, cause of death: murdered, perpetrator of death: Gorenjska samozaščita - German occupying units

Neža Osolnik, Sistory:
date of birth: 04. 01. 1922, place of birth: Slivna pri Vačah, military status: activist OF, date of death: 29. 12. 1944, place of death: Selo pri Vačah, cause of death: murdered, perpetrator of death: Gorenjska samozaščita - German occupying units

Alojzij Grilj, Sistory:
date of birth: 14. 06. 1917, place of birth: Žvarulje, military status: NOV and POS, military unit, rank: Zasavski bataljon, date of death: 29. 12. 1944, place of death: Selo pri Vačah, cause of death: shot, perpetrator of death: home guards - German occupying units»It is rarely known that on 29 December 1944 German troops and local defenders captured 11 partisans and civilians in a natural hollow on the hillside near Slivna near Vače, and two more partisans near the cave. The fate of those on Okrogle and those on Slivna was the same: death. […]
    While the surrounded fighters on Okrogle fought fiercely for two days, those on Slivna surrendered. Not out of fear, but because they were almost all without weapons. Half of the prisoners were not even partisans. During the German offensive, they had taken refuge in a shelter, which this time turned into a death trap.
[..]
   After fleeing across the border, Jože Seražin walked along the thorny path of the free Primorje, always being chased everywhere. [..] From Serbia, he returned to Vače, where he worked as a servant for the farmer, innkeeper and merchant Janez Kristan. [..] Jože enjoyed walking to Slivna with the Ronkarje family. With Marija Ronkarjeva, he intended to marry after the war. [..]
    Fate, like a sword, cut through beautiful plans. With Marija, he was caught in the hollow and death united them.
      The partisans felt at home on Ronkarje’s farm. When the harvest was not destroyed and the fruit was still fresh, there was enough food for a nine-member family. [..]
     The message arrived too late. At the railway station in Kamnik, the commander of the home guard post stopped Nežka. He asked her where her brothers were, where the partisans were, how many there were and which ones he knew. He persuaded her to convince her brothers to join the home guards in Domžale. Persuasion turned into a threat, that if they did not do so, they would come to Slivna, burn the house and throw all the living into the fire. Behind this threat lies the December tragedy of the Ronkarje family. [..] From then on, the Ronkarje family always scattered into the forest whenever they were near the home guards or Germans. In the December offensive of 1944, they heard how the captured partisans were killed and houses burned. Under such an atmosphere, the Ronkarje family—two brothers and two sisters, and the fiancé of Pepca Ronkarjeva, Alojz Gril—decided to retreat into the hollow, which was on the hill above their village, only about 250 meters from the house. At home, they decided not to leave the hollow until the villagers informed them that the enemy had already passed by and the village was free of enemies.
   From the Ronkarje family, Anton, Janez, Marija and Nežka went into the hollow. Anton and Marija were twins. Before leaving for the partisans, Anton had worked at home on the farm. As a fighter in the Kamniško-Zasavska unit, he was wounded in the hand and returned home to be treated. Marija, born in 1920 like Anton, was a seamstress. Nežka, born in 1922, had worked for a while on a farm near Kamnik, but then returned home. Janez, born in 1926, learned the trade of a blacksmith in Moravče. Because he was deaf, he was unfit for military service.
   During those days, Jelka Potočnik and Alojz Gril received shelter at the Ronkarje family.
[..]
    The fiancé of Pepca Ronkarjeva, Alojz Gril, was born on 14 June 1917 in Peške Kandrše. From there, the Gril family moved to Kolovrat, where they bought an old mill with a small garden. The father and sons restored the old home, so that the mill could again be used for its original purpose. With Pepca Ronkarjeva, Alojz met during the war, and the fruit of that love was the sons Alojz and Jože.
    Alojz was a fighter in the Kamniško-Zasavska unit, and later became the deputy commander of the miners’ unit of the Šlandrove brigade (the commander of this unit was Okrajšek).«

Jože Vidic, Sedem krst za Ronkarjevo družino, Ljubljana: Založba Borec, 1978, pp. 417, 424, 425, 426, 427, 428.»O
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II.
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3. OSOLNIK, son, born 1926
4. OSOLNIK, daughter, born 1920
5. OSOLNIK, daughter, born 1921
6. OSOLNIK, daughter, born 1923.
On December 29th, 1944, Germans and home guards captured thirteen locals and partisans in a natural cave near Slivna, close to Vače. One of them escaped. They took them to the shooting site at Selo near Vače. Four of them belonged to the Ronkarje family, that is, the Osolnik family. All twelve were executed. (Source: Jože Vidic, Seven Crosses for the Ronkarje Family, p. 742)

Silvo Grgič, Crimes of Collaborators of the Occupiers, 2nd book, The Murdered Activists and Supporters of the Liberation Front and Other Slovenes, Ljubljana : Society of Historians of the NOB Slovenia, 1997, p. 246. Library of NOV and POS, book 89.

 

Photograph: Osolnik Anton, Janez, Marija, Nežka, Alojz Gril, Geneanet, Cemetery of Vače - Vače, p. 7.