My Life in Totalitarianism 1941-1991
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MY LIFE IN TOTALITARIANISM 1941-1991 MY LIFE IN TOTALITARIANISM 1941-1991 The Unusual Career of an Electronics Engineer Peter Staric Copyright © 2012 by Peter Staric. Library of Congress Control Number: 2012916879 ISBN: Hardcover 978-1-4771-5574-5 Softcover 978-1-4771-5573-8 Ebook 978-1-4771-5575-2 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. This book was printed in the United States of America. To order additional copies of this book, contact: Xlibris Corporation 0-800-644-6988 www.Xlibrispublishing.co.uk [email protected] 303972 Contents Introduction .................................................................................................21 PART 1 Occupation 1.1 Italians Arrived ................................................................................37 1.2 German Stukas Destroyed the Ljubljana Broadcasting Station ......43 1.3 Anti-Imperialists Front Established ................................................47 1.4 New Situation in High School (Realka) ..........................................49 1.5 Radio Amateurs’ Activities ..............................................................53 1.6 Secret Radio Station ........................................................................56 1.7 Mutual Killing Has Begun ..............................................................60 1.8 Brother Rudi Returns from Split .....................................................69 1.9 Sent to Italian Concentration Camp Gonars ..................................72 1.10 Arrival at the Camp .........................................................................77 1.11 Epidemics of Dysentery ..................................................................85 1.12 The Visit of the Cardinal Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli ......................90 1.13 Some Fellows Dug a Tunnel and Escaped .......................................92 1.14 For Cold Weather Lice had Spread .................................................94 1.15 Transfers to Campo Monigo, Treviso ..............................................95 1.16 Released from the Camp! ................................................................99 1.17 At Home Again .............................................................................101 1.18 TB .................................................................................................105 1.19 The Ultimate Polarization; Germans Arrived ...............................115 1.20 Allied Air Raids .............................................................................123 1.21 Last Year of German Occupation ..................................................129 PART 2 End of War; Communists Introduced “People’s Democracy” 2.1 Partisans Arrive in Ljubljana .........................................................139 2.2 Dissolution of Slovenian Army .....................................................146 2.3 Return to Ljubljana; End of My Military Service .........................153 2.4 Sanatorium Golnik; Return to Civilian Life .................................160 2.5 Studies at the University ................................................................165 2.6 Terror Sets On ...............................................................................174 2.7 Struggles for Life ...........................................................................189 2.8 Professional Work ..........................................................................194 2.9 Moved to another Apartment and Again to Sanatorium ..............197 2.10 Graduation and Working as Engineer ...........................................205 2.11 Introducing Personal Cars in Yugoslavia .......................................214 2.12 Mountaineering .............................................................................218 2.13 Traveling Abroad ...........................................................................230 2.14 Decision to Work Abroad..............................................................243 2.15 The American Interlude ................................................................251 2.16 Back Home in Ljubljana Again .....................................................267 2.17 Working at Iskra Again; Tito and the Communists Stepped on the Brake ...............................................273 2.18 Marshall Tito Dies ........................................................................286 2.19 Twenty Months of Mobbing .........................................................289 2.20 Working at Jožef Stefan Institute ..................................................297 2.21 Moving to Milan Vidmar Institute; PhD Thesis ...........................308 2.22 Struggle for independence of Slovenia ..........................................311 Epilogue .....................................................................................................327 Bibliography ...............................................................................................341 Short Life Story .........................................................................................345 Index...........................................................................................................347 Figure Captions ..........................................................................................351 * The English pronunciation of the specific Slovenian or Serbian fonts is: č as ch ć as tj š as sh ž as zh The author’s name Starič should be pronounced as Stahrich. To my children, Miroslav and Zorana Comments to Figures and Sources Since this is the book of my life, I have mostly included the photos of my family, of me and of my friends. However, I have added some pictures of the war time in Slovenia, of our mountains, of my hometown Ljubljana and of the Italian Concentration camp on the Adriatic Island Rab, which are relevant to my narrative. To prove every important historical event I have mentioned, by quoting the source in brackets, e.g. [32], would not be appropriate in a book of this sort. I have done this only in some very important cases, where I have written the full book title. The reader can find the particulars in the Bibliography. Since many Slovenes, who live in USA, Australia or UK might read this book I have quoted also the relevant Slovenian sources. Besides, I am preparing the Slovenian book, were I will include the same Bibliography. Preface Most war memories are biased, depending on which side the writer is, as well as on the freedom of expression during the time of writing and publishing. The last is valid for the totalitarian systems, which were introduced after the war under the influence of the Soviet Union. Since in Yugoslavia we had such system, here the narratives of the victorious side were mostly published from 1945 until 1990, when Yugoslavia began falling apart. However, several years before the disintegration, the stories of the defeated side began appearing sporadically, with increased frequency in newspapers and magazines as truncated and censored as they were. With very rare exceptions, the authors of any side stood firmly on their positions: they were good guys, and the others are the bad ones. In rare cases, the authors admitted some “small irregularities or mistakes” on their own side, but I cannot recall reading about any credit given to their adversaries. Within the frames as drafted above, two basic pictures came to expression. On the first one, Germans, Italians, and other occupiers were painted as bad guys. The Slovenian counterrevolutionaries (Vaške Straže and later Domobranci), who joined them, were displayed still worse. They were shown as traitors, and in history, numerous cases explained what happened with the traitors! The other picture showed the (Slovenian) Liberation Front (Osvobodilna Fronta or OF), which was initiated and led by the communists, in the worst light. They were Stalin’s puppets and criminals, who took the advantage of occupation and the suffering of the nation as a lever to seize the full power after the war (which they did). Each side kept blaming the other one for many cases of torture and execution of their adversaries as well as of the entirely innocent people, including children. Even now, as the communist system is gone, the same accusations are either published or heard back and forth, time and again. So far, I have had enough experience to tell that people who are blinded by communism, fascism, Nazism, or even by chauvinist nationalism are capable of committing the worst possible crimes. Unfortunately, such crimes were committed on the territory of my country, Slovenia. And about six hundred mass graves have been discovered so far, in which about one hundred thousand to two hundred thousand people murdered after WWII were buried. These 15 Peter Staric mass graves were spread all over Slovenia. Several decades after the war, everything seems normal on the surface. But whenever we went out, especially when hiking in forests and valleys, the awareness of the proximity of these graves, many of them still not discovered, cause an uneasy and depressing feeling. Maybe