Draga Valley
About 1,5 kilometers north-east of Begunje na Gorenjskem lies a wooded area called Draga valley where the Nazis murdered 161 prisoners between August 1941 and May 1942. The prisoners came from the nearby prison Katzenstein down in Begunje na Gorenjskem. Together with 20 partisans killed in the area in 1944 and 1945, they are buried in eleven marked mass graves.
Current status: Monument (2011).
Location: 46°23'02.48"N 14°13'04.72"E
Get there: Car.
Follow up in books: Pavlowitch, Steven: Hitler’s New Disorder: The Second World War in Yugoslavia (2008).
Like many other monuments in Slovenia (and former Yugoslavia), this is alos characterized by nationalist pride and heroism. Fearlessly and proudly, the victim breasts himself in front of his executioners seconds before being shot. But then we should also remember that they are established during the communist period and should symbolize the reluctance of partisans to be subdued by the Nazi occupiers.