Grizoldova House

The doors of the Grizold family house on Smolnik were always open to fighters, couriers, informants, and activists. This sturdy house has long been known for its national awareness and love of freedom. At the Grizold family house, various meetings and conferences were held by both illegal and legal collaborators. His son Franjo reproduced illegal literature. He was a member of the Local Committee of SKOJ for the area of Maribor-right bank. This house was the site of the establishment of the Pioneers' Organization for the area of Ruš at the turn of the year 1944/45. On 28 March 1945, the Germans brutally murdered the owner Mirko Grizold and his 17-year-old son Franjo, shot Jožet Friedrich, and then looted and set fire to the house.

From the Planinski vestnik of February 1981:

»'Welcome to the Grizold family house'..

This is how the Slavoloki greeted us as we climbed the 840 m high Smolnik above Ruš. Here, on 5 October 1980, a ceremony was held, organized by social-political organizations and the Smolnik-Fara KS. They unveiled a memorial plaque, on which it says:

GRIZOLDOVO DOMAČIJO

were set on fire by German soldiers on 27 March 1945

brutally murdered

the owner Mirko Grizold and his son Franjo

and shot Jožef Friedrich.

The earth has swallowed your blood.

From it, life grows for us.

Approximately 2000 people gathered at this amazing place in the Pohorje to pay tribute to the memory of the victims of the struggle for our freedom and to become familiar with the difficult, yet magnificent history of the NOB in this area, while also combining it with a beautiful hike in nature. [..]

Tovarišica Knifič-Gašparičeva carefully outlined the political situation of that time, emphasizing that over the course of 100 years, four generations of the Grizold family have remained steadfast in the fight for Slovenian rights. Davorin Grizold, the grandfather of the 15-year-old Franjo who was brutally murdered, a people's poet and national awakening figure, established the first reading society in Ruš in 1865 and among the villagers strengthened national awareness. She said that the Grizold house, high up on the Pohorje, was an extremely important NOB stronghold during the occupation. Family members actively participated in the NOB. At their home, there was a technique, a safe house for couriers, informants, and activists. Partisans always found a warm home here. When the occupier revealed all of this, on 27 March 1945, just before Easter, on the threshold of freedom, German SS units surrounded the house. They tortured the owner Mirko, plucked out the eyes of the still-living 15-year-old son Franjo, and then killed them together with Jožet Friedrich, who was at the house. Mrs. Antonija Grizold, who is still alive today, was driven out of the house with her three small children, who were crying and clinging to her arms. She had to be a witness to this tragedy. Then the Germans looted the farm, got drunk, rolled the barrels down the hill, and shot the large ones that they could not move, so that all the alcohol ran down into the cellar. Then they set the house on fire.«

(Erna Muser, Pohorje vabi, Planinski vestnik, Glasilo Planinske zveze Slovenije 2, February 1981, p. 90, 91. Electronic source: Planinski vestnik, 2, February 1981, 89. Access: 10. 6. 2024)