Boršt - Frenkov bunker in Hrpeljcih

In the area of Dragonja, approximately 350 meters by air from the village of Hrpeljci - Jurinčiči, there was a bunker for the Command of the City of Koper in the year 1945. The original memorial from 1951 was flooded and damaged by the river Dragonja. A new memorial was erected in the year 2004. The patrons are: MO Koper and KS Boršt.

Bunker of the Command of the City of Koper in the vicinity under the thick wall of the hut (Germans partially destroyed in 1945); with a memorial plaque for the fallen commander Franc Planinc - Frenk.

EŠD 1428

The area around the bunker has its own EŠD 1445:

The area around the bunker, where the Command of the City of Koper was established in 1944 and had its headquarters until May 1945. A marble plaque has been erected on the bunker to commemorate the event.

»In the early morning hours, they began to arrive from all sides to Boršt, former fighters and activists. Most of them had rifles. They were deployed in battalions and companies and began to advance in several directions with gunfire towards the bunker of the Command of the City of Koper, which had been blown up into the air by the occupiers with mines seven years earlier.

It was in the early morning hours of February 9th, 1945. In the small village of Hrpeljci above Dragonja, fascists and Germans surrounded the partisan bunker of the Command of the City of Koper. In it were eight partisans, who had no other shelter due to the unfavourable terrain. The bunker was well camouflaged, but due to betrayal, it was discovered.

A furious circle of enemies began with a strong attack on the bunker. The unexpected enemy advance surprised the partisans at the beginning, but soon the eight of them coldly launched into battle. However, it was in vain, as the heroes soon realized that it was impossible to break the circle and that the fate of their young lives was in the hands of the enemies. The commander Frenk gave the order for fierce, last resistance. At that moment, except for the commander, all seven partisans fell into the enemy's hands. The heroic commander Frenk himself withdrew into the bunker, deciding that he would take revenge before death. When the fascist approached the bunker to capture Frenk alive, he fired a volley at him, and the fascist collapsed like a bundle on the floor. The Germans realized that the heroic partisan would never surrender; therefore, they sent to Pomjan for explosives to blow up the bunker into the air.

Frenk, who had foreseen the fascist plan, fired a shot at his head and tore the thread of his still young life. The heroism of our young commander, who had been with us for one year in Istria and fought resolutely against the enemy, will remain in a permanent, indelible memory for everyone who knew him.

The captured partisans were taken by the fascists, transported in pairs with their hands tied, and did not return home. Only Valerij Jakomin (Jelena), who was not tied to anyone else, managed to escape and find a solution before death. About all of this and about the work of the Command of the City of Koper, tov. Jakomin spoke on Sunday at the bunker of the fallen hero Frenk.

When the military hymn from Portorož played before the bunker for the sorrowful fallen fighters for freedom, tov. Franc Benčič discovered right before the bunker the memorial plaque to the heroic commander Franc Planinc - Frenk.«

In the continuation of the afternoon ceremony, a large crowd gathered in Hrpeljci in front of the house, where the headquarters of the Command of the City of Koper was located, consisting of hosts from nearby and distant villages and members of the Association of Fighters of the Koper District. [..] After the speech, they discovered a memorial plaque on the house wall. In the late afternoon, they then celebrated this important historical day in Hrpeljci.«G. B., Solemn Unveiling of Two Commemorative Plaques / In Hrpeljci, the fighters erased the memory of glorious battle days / Istriya Weekly, Bulletin of the Liberation Front for the Istrian County, Year II, No. 38, Koper, 21st September, 1951, p. 2.
Electronic source:
Istriya Weekly, no. 38, 1951, p. 2 Access: 14. 2. 2024.