GANČANI-Memorial to Štefan Kovač-Marku

Along the local road Beltinci-Gančani, in a beech grove, there was supposed to be a meeting of the district committee of the Communist Party of Slovenia for Prekmurje in the evening of October 18, 1941. Stefan Koval and Vinko Megla, organizers of the resistance against the occupier, were among the first to arrive at the agreed meeting place. The location and time of the meeting had been disclosed, and the Hungarians thoroughly surrounded and blocked it with loops. Their goal was to capture or kill all members of the National Liberation Army in Prekmurje who were supposed to attend the meeting. When Evgen Kardoš whistled the agreed-upon melody, Stefan Kovač responded with a whistle. He turned on the spotlight, which illuminated the place where Kovač and Megla were waiting. Immediately after that, shots were fired and Stefan Kovač fell dead. Vinko was lightly wounded and managed to escape. The other members of the committee, Miško Kranjec, Martin Žalik, and Stefan Horvat, who were coming to the meeting from the direction of the village Lipa across the field, heard the shots and turned back.

Granite memorial (unveiled in 1951), placed at the site where the Hungarian fascists shot Stefan Kovač, the organizer of the National Liberation Movement in Prekmurje.

EŠD 1258

The memorial was erected by the local organization of the League of Yugoslav Communists of the People's Liberation Army and Partisan Movement Beltinci on the 10th anniversary of the event on October 18, 1951.

Monuments of Our Revolution, Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 1961, p. 238.

Image source 4: FB Franc Štibernik

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