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Slavko Malnar (* 1937)

• Slavko Malnar was born on February 8, 1937 in Ravnice

• In 1942, his village was set on fire

• Together with his family, he is taken to Bakar, and then to Rab

• From Rab they are moved to the Gonars camp

• Slavko today is active in telling his story to young people and has an interest for local history

CHILDHOOD AND BEGINNING OF WWII

Slavko Malnar was born in Ravnice the 8th of February 1938. When he was 18 months old, his parents moved to France, where his father found a job. However, with the beginning of WWII, the family went back to their home town, hoping to escape the war.

ČABAR UNDER ITALIAN OCCUPATION

The 12th of April 1941, fascist troops occupied Čabar. Slavko remembers how, at the beginning, the population seemed satisfied, as they believed the Italians would start exploiting the forest, bringing jobs and economic development. However, things changed fast. The fascist forces imposed on the local population a process of “Italianization”, which included the use of the sole Italian language. The population become more supportive of the partisans forces, which became then stronger and started the first attacks on the Fascists. The first attack happened during the spring of 1942, in Gorači. During this action, 28 Italian soldiers were killed. As a retaliation, Fascist forces captured, tortured, and killed 12 civilians from Erženi. Arrests and violences became more frequent. Between the spring and summer 1942, the Italian soldiers killed 136 civilians, from the local villages, accused of cooperating with the partisans. The native village of Slavko, Ravnice, was set on fire on July 26th, together with a series of other villages in the Čabar area.

RAB CONCENTRATION CAMP

Slavko and his family were taken to one of the collection center in the region, where they spent a few days. Then, they were transported by truck to Bakar, as the camp on Rab was not ready yet. Slavko and his family spent a few days there. Then, around the 2nd of August, they were moved to the Kampor, the concentration camp on Rab. Here, women and men were separated. Because of his young age, Slavko was in the women camp, together with his mother. The interneed in the camp were mainly from the province of Kvarner, Čabar, and Slovenian municipalities, and were civilians, accused of cooperating with the partisans.

The camp conditions were extremely hard, people were exposed to hunger and death because of illnesses. Hygiene standards were not satisfactory at all and illnesses were spreading easily. Food was not enough and the number of people dying began to increase very rapidly. The internees were housed in tents with 6 people each, which became terribly hot during the summer. Water was missing.

GONARS CONCENTRATION CAMP

Between November and December 1942, Slavko and his family were moved to Gonars, near Udine. Despite the difficult situation that the internees faced in Gonars, the life in the camp was better in comparison to Rab. In Gonars, they had wooden barracks and beds. And each of them had their own blankets, which was a big improvement compared to Rab. After the capitulation of Italy in 1943, Slavko left Gonars. He and his family reached Palma Nova, then Pivka, then Rakek, and finally Ravnice, by foot. Unfortunately, Slavko’s younger brother, who was born in Gonars, didn’t survive.

EDUCATION AND LIFE

After completing his military service in 1960, Slavko finished the upper grades of primary school, and then the secondary school of economics in Zagreb. In 1980 he graduated from the Higher School of Economics in Pula. He worked in different factories during his life, and as a banker. Since retiring in 1992, he has been studying local history and native language to save him from oblivion. Together with Željko Malnar, he was the author and editor of the show “Pod starim krovovima” on Radio Čabar. He is the author of several books, including History of the Čabar region. He is very engaged in preserving the memory of the victims of Italian fascist camps, in cooperation with anti-fascists from Croatia, Italy and Slovenia.