Medicinska fakulteta Univerze v Ljubljani 1919–1945 - Univerza v ...

professional evaluations, the Faculty Council proposed filling
these vacancies with Dr France Hribar, currently prosector at
the Maribor Hospital, as full professor of pathology, Dr Karlo
Lušicky, currently assistant at the Zagreb Internal Clinic, as full
professor of internal medicine and Dr Božidar Lavrič, the chief
physician of the Second Surgical Unit of the General Hospital in
Ljubljana, as full professor of surgery� On the University Council’s
proposal all the candidates were appointed on 27 June 1940 and
promptly started work at the Ljubljana University� Third-year
lectures started in the autumn of 1940� Professor Hribar, who was
elected dean for the 1940/41 academic year, led the campaign to
further expand the faculty as soon as possible� In 1941, a draft
for the reform of the whole medicine course was produced at a
meeting of the Faculty Council� The plan was to open the seventh
and eighth semesters in the 1942/43 academic year, but this was
prevented by the Second World War�
The Faculty of Medicine during the Second
World War
After Slovenia was occupied, the university was temporarily
closed but when reopened, its vitality started to wane� Even
before the war, the democratic fortress had become the hub
of resistance� The Italian authorities exerted pressure on the
rector, university teachers and students, which was followed by
mass raids, deportations and the first victims� For the 1941/42
academic year, the office of dean of the Faculty of Medicine was
entrusted to Prof� Božidar Lavrič and, after his internment, the
dean’s duties were taken over by Prof� Karel Lušicky on 3 March
1942� Besides dean Lavrič, the following professors were arrested:
Ladislav Klinc, Alija Košir, Milan Cunder, as well as the assistants:
Martin Benedik, Milan Žumer and Franc Derganc� The rector
Milko Kos repeatedly intervened with the authorities for their
release without success� In 1942, the first faculty workers joined
the partisans and after Italy capitulated, their numbers increased�
Having little staff to start with, the faculty was left with only a
few people� From the 19 teachers and associates it had at the
beginning of 1941, eight were absent�
In the first half of 1943, the former Banovina Institute for the
Research and Treatment of Neoplasms was integrated into the
Faculty of Medicine� The gynaecologist and oncologist Dr Leo
Šavnik was appointed as its director�
After Italy’s capitulation, the president of the Regional Administration,
General Rupnik, promised his full support to the
university and he was duly addressed by the rector in 1943
at the request of dean Lušicky with a proposal to extend the
Medical Faculty to the full term of 10 semesters� The dean also
explained that new teaching manpower would be acquired with
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chief physicians from the hospital who were already considering
temporary engagement as part-time lecturers� The faculty was
given approval to open only the seventh semester� The Faculty
Council at once asked for approval to open the eighth semester as
well, but was refused� On 11 November 1943, all lectures at the
Ljubljana University were stopped until further notice by decision
of the head of the Regional Administration, Leon Rupnik�
The Students of the Faculty of Medicine in
Ljubljana
In the period between the World Wars, due to its unfavourable
spatial situation and incompleteness, the Faculty of Medicine
was the smallest of all Ljubljana University faculties in terms of
the number of students� From the winter semester of 1919 to
the winter semester of 1943, it was attended by around 1860
students� The conditions in which it operated forced it to limit
the number of first-year places in the very first academic year and
many other times later� In addition to Slovenians, the Ljubljana
Medical Faculty was attended by students from other parts of
the country, with many students enrolling from abroad� In the
twenties, Russians dominated the enrolled foreigners; there were
28 in total� In the early thirties, the Ljubljana Medical Faculty
was sought by students of Jewish origin from Poland and, in
the second half of the thirties, the enrolled students included
55 Bulgarians� Over the entire period, the faculty also admitted
16 students from Czechoslovakia and individuals from other
countries� In view of the increased number of enrolled students
from Poland - 59 in the 1933/34 academic year - the dean’s office
of the Faculty of Medicine reported the situation to the Medical
Chamber in 1933, stressing the need to protect the interests of
Slovenian doctors� In agreement with the rector and in line with
the position of the minister of social policy and national health it
was decided that foreigners would be prevented from practising
in Yugoslavia after the war� At a Faculty Council meeting it was
also decided that foreign students could only enrol in the first
semester of medicine provided that the number of total students
enrolled in all four semesters was lower than 180� Despite
the faculty’s difficult situation and restricted enrolment, the
percentage of medical students rose over the years� According to
the data collected by Vasilij Melik, Ljubljana University always
comprised more than 10% medical students, after 1932/32 above
20% and just before the Second World War around 30%� The
proportion of female students rose as well and in the wartime
exceeded half of the total number of students enrolled� As a
whole, the first generation of enrolled students was the youngest
in the population attending the Ljubljana University, consisting
mostly of the post-war generation of secondary school graduates�
Although the Ljubljana Faculty of Medicine operated in difficult
conditions, all the prescribed courses were taught and all the