Homec Cemetery, Avbelj Ciril, Marija, Olga

Ciril Avbelj, Sistory: Father: Franc, Mother: Marija, Date of birth: 16. 03. 1921, Place of birth: Šmarca, Place of residence: Šmarca, Old municipality: Homec, New municipality: Kamnik, Profession (social status): keymaker, Date of death/disappearance: 22. 07. 1944, Place of death/disappearance: Dobeno, Country of burial: Slovenia.

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Marija Avbelj, Sistory: Father: NULL, Mother: Marjeta, Date of birth: 05. 10. 1898, Place of birth: Šmarca, Place of residence: Nožice, Old municipality: Homec, New municipality: Kamnik, Profession (social status): housewife, Date of death/disappearance: 18. 04. 1945, Place of death/disappearance: Kamnik, Place of burial: Kamnik, Žale.

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Olga Avbelj, Sistory: Father: Franc, Mother: Marija, Date of birth: 16. 01. 1931, Place of birth: Šmarca, place of residence: Nožice, Old municipality: Homec, New municipality: Kamnik, Marital status: underage, Profession (social status): domestic helper, Date of death/disappearance: 18. 04. 1945, Place of death/disappearance: Kamnik, Place of burial: Kamnik, Žale.«On April 14, 1945, Marija Avbelj from Nožice came to Jasen near Radomlje and told her son Alfonz: "I have brought you food." Marija's 23-year-old son Alfonz-Savo was the commander of the Kamnik unit of the VDV. Savo's brother Slavko had fallen as a partisan in July 1944.

"German families are already leaving Kamnik," she told the fighters. "For two months now, there have been neither home guards nor Germans here. Why don't you come and mine the road? You must prevent them from taking the loot they have gathered at the end of the war back to Germany."

Following her mother's advice, Savo decided to carry out the operation.

"Mama, go back home. We will contact you at night, where we will stay the next day, and in the evening we will mine the road."

Marija returned to Nožice. At night on April 16, 1945, Savo came home with three fighters. [..]

Around ten in the morning, Savo saw through the window a group of home guards riding bicycles towards the house.

"The home guards are coming!" Savo warned his mother, sister, and the fighters.

"They often ride by here," his mother replied.

"Minka, close the doors and if they knock, tell them you are alone at home and since you don't have a key, you can't open the door," Savo told his sister.

Near the house, the home guards jumped off their bikes and surrounded the house. In a rush, they threw the bikes onto the ground.

"Open up, open up," they shouted and knocked on the door. The pounding grew stronger. Since they could not open the door, they forced their way in. Marija and her daughters, 15-year-old Olga and 11-year-old Minka, were waiting for them in the kitchen. Olga tried to escape through the window, but they pulled her back and started beating her, then they also beat Marija.

"Where are the partisans? Where is Savo? We know for sure that he came home tonight," they kept asking.

The partisans stood in the adjacent room, ready for battle. For a while, they still hoped the home guards would leave, but suddenly the doors burst open. At the threshold stood the commander of the Domžalje garrison, Peter Cerar, who blindly fired his submachine gun into the room. From the corner, Savo's submachine gun opened fire. Cerar was mortally wounded and fell to the floor. The home guards who stood behind him pulled him back into the house. After the shots, the other home guards who had been searching for partisans in the upper rooms ran down the stairs. Savo tried to fire, but the bullet did not work and remained in the barrel.

The fighters opened the window, threw a grenade, and after the explosion jumped out and fled towards Bistrica. During the retreat, Savo was wounded in the back, but he could still walk. Worse wounded was Ivan Zorman-Dušan from Bukovica near Vodice, who was a territorial youth activist. A dum-dum bullet hit his knee. The partisans wanted to take him to the forest, but he refused and told them to go on and save themselves, as there was no more help for him. He pulled out his pistol and shot himself in the head.

At Hrastarje on Rudnik, Savo was bandaged for his wounded ear and back. The next day, they learned from the farmers that Dušan was not dead, but had shot himself. The farmers who were nearby and needed a meadow asked them to hide him somewhere. Meanwhile, a German patrol came and killed him.

The home guards took revenge on Savo's 47-year-old mother Marija and 15-year-old Olga. They tied them to the cart on which they were transporting the wounded commander to Domžale. They were locked up in Domžale until Cerar's funeral. They tortured them. After the funeral, they were taken to the Kamnik Gestapo, where they were killed after being tortured. Savo learned about the tragic fate of his mother and sister only after the war.»

Jože Vidic, Seven Crosses for the Ronkar Family, Ljubljana: Založba Borec, 1978, pp. 374–376.»28. AVBELJ Marija, born in 1897 in Domžale.

In the autumn of 1944, she was tortured and then killed by Domžale Home Guard members, who were the mother of the commander of the local VDV unit, Alfonz Avbelj-Sava, together with her daughter 29. AVBELJ Olga, born in 1929, an activist of the OF. (Source: Jože Vidic, Seven Crosses for the Ronkar Family, p. 376)

Silvo Grgič, Crimes of the Collaborators of the Occupiers, Volume 2, Killed Activists and Sympathizers of the Liberation Front and Other Slovenians, Ljubljana. Society of Historians of the Slovenian People's Liberation War, 1997, p. 29.

Domžale Grave Searcher, Homec /no_think

»28. AVBELJ Marija, born in 1897 in Domžale.

In the autumn of 1944, she was tortured and then killed by Domžale Home Guard members, who were the mother of the commander of the local VDV unit, Alfonz Avbelj-Sava, together with her daughter 29. AVBELJ Olga, born in 1929, an activist of the OF. (Source: Jože Vidic, Seven Crosses for the Ronkar Family, p. 376)

Silvo Grgič, Crimes of the Collaborators of the Occupiers, Volume 2, Killed Activists and Sympathizers of the Liberation Front and Other Slovenians, Ljubljana. Society of Historians of the Slovenian People's Liberation War, 1997, p. 29.

Domžale Grave Searcher, Homec /no_think

»28. AVBELJ Marija, born in 1897 in Domžale.

In the autumn of 1944, she was tortured and then killed by Domžale Home Guard members, who were the mother of the commander of the local VDV unit, Alfonz Avbelj-Sava, together with her daughter 29. AVBELJ Olga, born in 1929, an activist of the OF. (Source: Jože