Gramozna Jama ('Gravel Pit')

Gramozna jama in Ljubljana is the place where the Italian occupiers shot dead at least 185 Slovenian hostages in the years 1942 and 1943. This is a symbolic location and perhaps the most emblematic evidence of the brutality of the Italian occupation of Slovenia during World War II, where dozens of hostages were executed. Among them was the Slovenian painter Hinko Smrekar. The hostages to be shot were chosen at random from those arrested during the patrols of Italian military patrol units, without trial, without any proven guilt, merely on the basis of the "justification" that "they are most certainly guilty of communist activities, since no perpetrators of resistance actions were discovered in the prescribed period of 48 hours'. The members of the regular Italian army shot and killed the hostages in the gravel pit of Gramozna jama and near Tomačevo. In 2003, Gramozna jama with its monumental group (by architect Vinko Glanz) and Monument of the Hostages (by Borisa Kalina) was declared a locally important cultural monument.

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Source

• Text: Kaj Metz + TracesOfWar
• Photos: Koos Winkelman