crimes committed by totalitarian regimes - Ministrstvo za pravosodje

Crimes committed by totalitarian regimes
he would get much for his administration. After the Tolmin process, which ended with harsh sentences, he was
very disappointed. He became a strong opponent of the communist government. Jože Pogačnik was sentenced
twice to long prison terms with forced labour, before he suceeded Vovk in the Ljubljana Diocese in 1963.
Convicted priests and other consecrated persons served their sentences in 1945 and 1946 in penal
camps in Kočevje and Teharje. Later they were moved to the Ljubljana Penal-Correctional Facility (PCF) on
the street “Miklošičeva ulica”; in Maribor, they were moved to the PCF in Pobrežje (only for those sentenced
to more than six months of imprisonment) and they were sent to work camps, erected near various work
and construction sites. Priests were put to work in Žale building apartments; in Novo Mesto, working the
quarry; in Medvode, constructing a hydroelectric plant; in Ljubljana-Šiška, in the factory Litostroj; in Tacen,
in the police school. In the penal camp Šterntal (Strnišče), priests laboured in a gravel plant and worked on
the construction of a factory for bauxite and aluminium; in Ig, they farmed. Priests were also put to work
copying registers and philharmonic music sheets, and translating books. Nuns were mostly kept in Ferdreng
camp, PCF Begunje, PCF Rajhenburg, and in the prisons of the Škofja Loka castle. They (all) worked on the
construction of New Belgrade and on the building of the Brotherhood and Unity Highway.
Priests, monks, nuns and theology students were imprisoned in unbearable conditions: the
degradations of the wardens, often in solitary confinement, inadequate nutrition, dirt, insects, lack of
beds and covers, appalling medical care, the cold and so on. Questioning and pressure from interrogators
did not cease.
Numerous sacral objects and properties – churches, chapels, shrines and monuments, crosses,
cemeteries – were desecrated, destroyed or demolished under some ‘scientific’ pretense. After the
cessation of diplomatic relations with the Vatican (1952), a number of chapels, shrines and monuments
were systematically destroyed. Here some examples: All 26 churches in the enclosed area Kočevska Reka
disappeared, most between 1953 and 1956. The Church of St. Martin in Poljane above Škofja Loka,
designed by the Baroque architect Gregor Maček, was demolished in 1954 because it was blocking the
view of the mountains. The Carmelite church in Selo was demolished in 1951 because of renovations to
the road “Zaloška cesta”. The Church of St. Joseph was confiscated in 1949 and given to the company
Vesna Film. In the same year, the Church of Mary of Succour, a property of the Order of the Cross, was
confiscated and given to the Old Catholic parish, along with the hospital church of the Holy Cross, which
was transformed into a mechanic workshop for bed and wheelchair repairs. The pilgrimage church of
Holy Mary on Ptujska Gora was removed from sacral use in 1952 and changed into a museum. Only after
several years of protests and appeals, it was returned to sacral use in 1957. Because of the planned Seventh
Congress of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia (1958), the exhibition center grounds (Gospodarsko
Razstavišče) were enlarged and the church of St. Christopher was demolished. Plečnik’s Church of Sts.
Cyril and Methodius was, after years of protests, moved to another (hidden) place. 17
Until 1961, 1,411 priests had been given administrative punishments, 95 received short prison
sentences – 1,450 days altogether – and 1,316 had to pay fines – altogether 5,315,000 dinars. The reasons
for administrative punishments were numerous: prohibited rites and events outside the church (such as
processions), spreading false information, breaking the Law on the Legal Status of Religious Communities,
violations of public peace and order, economic reasons, unlawful collections, church bell-ringing, disrespect
of state institutions, illegal printing, traffic violations and others. In 1951, administrative punishments
were especially numerous because of “illegal teaching of religion”. Because priests did not have a license
to give religious instruction in schools, they instructed children in churches and presbyteries. But then in
1952, religion was banned from schools and moved to churches and presbyteries. 18
After 1961, pressure on clergy somewhat decreased and relations slightly improved after the reestablishment
of diplomatic relations between Yugoslavia and the Holy See in 1966. But considerable
pressure was exerted upon religious laymen, especially teachers, professors and civil servants. Many
teachers who lived according to their religious beliefs had great problems and were removed from
schools. The basis of all education in schools was Marxist atheistic ideology. Although free profession
of religion was constitutionally guaranteed after 1970, free exercise of religion was not allowed in
public.
17
Tamara Griesser Pečar, Boj proti veri in cerkvi (1945–1961), Družina, Ljubljana 2008.
18
Tamara Griesser Pečar, Cerkev na zatožni klopi, pp. 104, 635–684. The situation after 1961 still must be researched.
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