By: Dr Jože Dežman
It is unusual how, in the case of the Franja hospital and the cases of Dr Viktor Volčjak and Dr Franja Bojc Bidovec, we clearly observe the ideological and cultural horizon of Slovenian progressive-collectivist madness.
There have been several public calls for everyone who wants to honour some political religion in the Franja hospital and not reality to finally understand the Stalinist process that in 1944 mortally endangered Dr Viktor Volčjak and Dr Franja Bojc Bidovec. The documents of the process were published in 1996 by Jelka Melik and Mateja Jeraj.
Alenka Puhar protested in 2018 against the television show about the Franja hospital, which she called “biased, propagandistic, and also anachronistic and made for current purposes. …
The actions of the authors seem biased and propagandistic to me, as they offer viewers a package from which all the bitter, unpleasant, thought-provoking elements of a fascinating story have been removed. Thus, a propagandistic sweet product was created, similar to hundreds and hundreds of historical praises, before which viewers had to and apparently still must remain open-mouthed. It is anachronistic because much more has been known about the Franja hospital since at least 1983, and it is also made for current purposes, as viewers could perceive a reckoning with Možina, Dežman, and the like, who allegedly manipulate historical facts.
The unbiased and non-propagandistic factual basis is much more bitter: in July 1944, the leading people of the Franja hospital were arrested, interrogated, and tortured for over two months. In October 1944, they were released, Dr Volčjak (who founded and led the hospital for some time) was degraded and “exiled” to Venice, Dr Franja Bojc was acquitted and sent back to the same hospital. The judicial process shows signs of the onset of Soviet revolutionary law, but fortunately, there were a few wise and influential people nearby who opposed it. Thus, both doctors carried the shadow on their souls and a black mark in their characteristics out of the conflict, but at least their heads on their shoulders. There is no doubt that the injustice pained them all their lives – and also that they had to remain silent about it.
The reasons for the persecution of both doctors are quite interesting: The pronounced dominance of political commissars in partisan army units, including hospitals. The political commissar who initiated the proceedings against Volčjak and Franja was convinced that he was not being sufficiently respected, that he was not being provided with the privileges he was entitled to, and that he was being deliberately mistreated. In OZNA and the prosecutor, he found combative and ruthless associates, ready for action.”
This objection still holds today. And even more so because the efforts of Slovenian extremists, who persecute Slovenian medicine, are based on a similar political commissar imagination that persecuted Franja Bojc and Viktor Volčjak, and many others, not only persecuted but also killed.
But political cyclists have the same problem as political commissars once had: Who will treat you if you win your war against the medical profession?
Another illusion of the ideological-uncultured aggressors at the Ministry of Culture is the “restoration” of the Franja hospital. There is nothing to restore in the Franja hospital, because it no longer exists. The Franja hospital was labelled as a chronic and incurable patient by the Slovenian heritage protectors from the very beginning.
In the professional journal Varstvo spomenikov (“Monument Protection”) in 1950, a report on the destruction of the current national monument Franja Hospital was published. Apparently, a significant part of the original monument was removed at that time.
The removal of original parts of the hospital continued after the landslide in 1957 and subsequent years. There were no longer any original buildings or most of their inventory. The attached reports from Varstvo spomenikov are quite telling.
And yet, the mythology of the Franja hospital is so strong that we still pretend to restore it and that we will overcome nature.
Thus, with the Franja hospital, we can clearly see both the consequences of the mad pogrom against the medical profession and the consequences of an equally mad pogrom against the sensible protection of heritage. A political commissar can trample on a doctor and hold him in the reins of power, and a hospital that no longer actually exists can be constantly “restored”.
I hope that both the medical profession and heritage protectors will be able to defend common sense, the rule of law, and human rights from these totalitarian delusions. All for the good of Slovenian democracy and the Republic of Slovenia.
Monument Protection 1950
“The Institute restored the NOB monument objects partly on its own and with its work teams, and partly under the Institute’s guidance and with material supplied by the Institute, they were restored by the organisations of the Veterans’ Association of the National Liberation War. Some were restored by the owners of the objects themselves. Hospital “Franja”: restoration work that began last spring was continued this year. The barrack for the wounded to the right of the entrance was raised on a new retaining wall. It received a new entrance and access stairs. The bunker under the barrack was cleaned and protected with a concrete wall against infiltrating water, soil, and rubble from the steep slope. The other two barracks on the left bank of the torrent received new, stronger retaining walls, new floors, and the smaller one also received a new wooden roof. Other hospital facilities: the isolation room, the radiation room, the kitchen, the laundry room, with the bathroom and the invalid room, which stand above the stream that often swells into a torrential stream, are permanently exposed to the harmful effects of moisture. The original fir beams, which were completely rotten and decayed, had to be replaced with more durable and resistant oak and partly reinforced concrete beams, where indicated by the static calculation. It was also necessary to replace the soft floors with oak ones. All oak wood, floors, and beams exposed to moisture were treated with bitumen, diluted with carbolineum, and partly with tar, and these blackened spots were covered with natural-coloured cladding to preserve the external appearance of the objects. It is understandable that, in parallel with these works, internal cleaning and arrangement were also carried out, as they were during the liberation struggle. The interiors of all rooms were covered with brown paper, which not only enhances the aesthetic appearance of the rooms but also has practical significance, as it sealed numerous gaps that allowed cold and moisture to penetrate inside. These rooms had previously been lined with similar paper, but it had decayed and disintegrated over the years. Furthermore, the bunk beds with bedding, kitchen equipment, and items in the laundry and bathroom were cleaned. All equipment in the operating room was also cleaned. The instruments were conserved by an expert in the Ljubljana hospital in such a way that they will be protected against atmospheric deterioration for a long time. A lot of effort and work was required to arrange the torrent, which swells with every rainfall, especially during spring and autumn rains, threatening all the monument objects. The work team cleaned the entire riverbed, built up the banks, and, where necessary, reinforced them with concrete support. They replaced all eleven already rotten footbridges made of softwood, with a total length of 133 meters, with new oak ones, which will last much longer. These new bridges, starting with the pivoting one, allow visitors to safely ascend the steep cliffs to the hospital and further into the bunkers and firing nests. Of course, all these restoration works required a huge amount of various building materials. In 1950, they used 110,471 dinars worth of cement, oak wood, planks, bitumen, carbolineum, tar, nails, paper, and other smaller materials for these works. All the goods were transported to the hospital using cable cars built specifically for this purpose.
However, the protection of the hospital has not been completely completed with the work done so far. The team is now building woven and masonry barriers in exposed places, which will protect the hospital objects of “Franja”, one of our most beautiful monuments of the liberation struggle, from snow avalanches, rubble, and stones that could otherwise fall from the steep cliffs onto the wooden objects. All the protective works done so far have been carried out by a work team of two to ten members under the supervision of the Institute and its directives in its own regime.”
Monument Protection 1959
In 1957, various minor maintenance works were carried out on several monument objects as required for their care. However, the hospital Franja required more extensive works due to urgent renovation needs and even more so because of a natural disaster that struck it in September. The special care we continuously dedicate to this important historical object already dictated the complete renovation of roofs on five buildings in the spring, thus ensuring the structures were well protected against weather influences. On September 12th, however, a rockslide detached from the upper part of the left northern slope in the form of a stone mass measuring 2 x 2 x 1.50 m, which dragged along even more stone as it fell, severely damaging the structures. The damage to the barracks extended around 100 m. More than 10 m³ of stones that collapsed into the gorge severely damaged six barracks and partially destroyed their hospital equipment, operating table, beds, etc. All the structures were immediately restored, but the danger of further slides, especially during rainy and winter periods, has not yet been eliminated. A commission sent by the Institute for Monument Protection of the LRS to the hospital Franja immediately after the disaster, which included, among others, technical experts engineer Lojze Poljanšek and geologist Anton Grimšičar, determined through an exact inspection of the steep, rocky slope of the gorge that further rockslides could only be stopped by constructing palisade stone walls in the threatened areas. Thus, it would be necessary to build several such walls up to 10 m wide and 3 m high in several places, sometimes in a chessboard pattern. The importance of this monument object certainly demands its protection as soon as possible because another accident could harm it much more severely than this time. The hospital Franja is among the most visited monument objects of the National Liberation War, which also imposes a responsible duty on us to ensure the protective works are carried out as soon as possible, certainly in the first half of 1958.
Monument Protection 1960
Hospital Franja. The rockslide that detached on September 12th, 1957, in the upper part of the northern slope, severely damaged seven hospital buildings. The commission, which inspected the entire area immediately after the disaster, determined that the stone slides would continue to collapse from the slope. On the proposal of engineer Alojz Poljanšek, we will protect this NOB monument from sudden stone slide collapses by constructing palisade walls at the endangered spots. Engineer Poljanšek prepared detailed plans, according to which protective walls began to be erected in the spring of 1959. He provided the following report on this work: The barracks of the partisan hospital “Franja” lie in a narrow rocky gorge through which a stream flows. Some structures are built directly over the stream, while others are right next to it and mostly leaning on the steep rocky slopes that rise from the left and right sides of the stream. These slopes are almost vertical and unwooded near the barracks, but in higher areas, they are steeper than 55° and poorly overgrown with beech shrubs.
On the left slope above the barracks, the surface of the limestone rock in the upper part of the slope is significantly weathered and cracked. Therefore, individual larger and smaller pieces, especially in spring, have separated from the limestone massif and rolled into the stream bed. Over time, whole tracks have formed on which smaller stones were held back; however, when a larger rock was triggered, it pulled this rubble with it, creating a full slide. Such a slide occurred on September 12th, 1957. Individual stones hit the structures with such force that over a distance of approximately 100 meters, they penetrated the roofs and ceilings, damaging the furniture in the barracks. To protect these structures and visitors from slides, appropriate protections had to be planned. The main difficulty was that the part of the slope where the protective barriers were to be erected was extremely steep and difficult to access, and the trees growing on the slope were unsuitable for this purpose. Detailed cost analyses showed that the cheapest protection was to build defensive walls from stone rubble found on-site in the upper levels. This construction is possible in such a way that crates are made from special (palvis) wire mesh, which is then filled with small stones. These crates are then used as stone blocks to build the wall, except that instead of mortar, the blocks are connected with strong wire. This way, the dangerous stones lying on the steep slope can be used for building the wall. Such a wall will also protect the slope from a snow avalanche. In the lower levels, where there is no longer a risk of snow avalanches, it is planned to stretch concrete iron between the rock slopes, anchored in solid rock at intervals of one meter above each other. Between these irons, a double-layered wire mesh is stretched and well tied. To reinforce this mesh as much as possible, the concrete irons supporting the mesh are also tied horizontally with irons anchored in solid rock on the slope above the mesh. The height of the mesh protection is 3 to 4 meters. By spring, it will be clear if these protective measures were successful; otherwise, new protections can be constructed at a suitable location using either the first or second method.
Monument Protection 1962
Detailed inspections in 1960 showed that the protective measures taken on the monument sites in recent years were mainly positive. The rockslide that severely damaged seven structures of the Franja hospital in 1957 necessitated urgent measures. For this purpose, two palisade walls were built on the endangered spots of the steep slope above Franja in the following two years, and a double-layer wire mesh was installed below them. This intervention not only protected the monument structures from rockslides but also largely from falling stones that had frequently fallen from the slope every year, especially in spring. The Franja hospital structures are well maintained because the diligent caretaker Bevk promptly performs minor repairs. However, in 1960, major damages were identified on some roofs and floors. The path leading to Franja from the drawbridge up the rock and further to the bridge above the hospital, which leads to the bunker for the wounded, especially needed thorough repair and better protection. It was also found that this bridge was partly weathered and would require urgent renovation the following year. In Rog, the monument structures are particularly exposed to significant moisture. By coating the wooden walls and roofs with carbolineum, we have partly delayed rotting, but it is impossible to carbolise the foundation beams and floors on the underside because they lie on the ground. Therefore, in 1961, we will raise all barracks 15 to 30 cm from the ground and underpin them with dry stone walls with ventilation openings. The air circulating under the structures will significantly contribute to the more successful preservation of the foundations and lower parts of the barracks. With the underpinning of the monument structures, we will also solve another important problem. The rapid construction of the barracks, demanded by wartime and often done with inadequate tools and sometimes poor materials, which were the only ones available, often meant improvised work. Too little attention was paid to the foundations, so it is understandable that some barracks have visibly tilted over time, and those among them that were built on sloping ground and poorly supported on the lower side are in danger of collapsing. With the underpinning of solid, dry foundation walls, we will of course straighten the monument structures and give them a better appearance. Regarding these issues outlined here, work in 1960, in addition to regular maintenance of the monument structures, focused primarily on technical preparations, especially the procurement of suitable wood and other materials needed for major renovation works at Base 20 and in the Franja hospital the following year, and later on other monument sites in Rog.
…
Franja Hospital. All safety measures were meticulously implemented on the path from the drawbridge up to the cross bridge above the hospital. Iron ropes for gripping on the inner side of the path were newly secured to the live rock in some places. Similarly, iron and wooden fences on the outer side of the path were newly fixed for complete visitor safety where necessary. The bridge in front of the hospital entrance was only partially renovated. Most attention was given to the 8-meter long bridge above Franja, which connects both slopes and leads across it to the bunker for the wounded. The bridge is now completely new and much stronger than the previous one for safety reasons. It is constructed on new, solid concrete foundations and additionally supported from the middle downward on both slopes, ensuring complete traffic safety. The solid, almost oversized construction of the bridge was dictated by certain reasons. Visitors to the Franja hospital like to climb the bridge, from where they have a beautiful view in all directions: towards the bunker for the wounded, which is nearby, the hospital structures below, and upward along the narrow, disappearing gorge through which the stream flows deep below them. The extremely strong construction of the bridge also allows for greater load, such as when the bridge is full of visitors. As mentioned, the view from this bridge is the most beautiful, and beyond it, there is no better vantage point. For this reason, a barrier was erected at the upper part of the bridge to prevent visitors from going towards the bunker, which does not itself represent a significant sightseeing attraction, and the path to it is still insufficiently secured, certainly not for mass visits. Among other structures of the Franja hospital, larger repairs were required for the power station barrack, the invalids’ home, the x-ray barrack, and the barrack for the wounded. Only minor repairs were carried out on the other barracks. The plan for the bridge was made by master carpenter and technical teacher Janez Markelj, who supervised and oversaw all the works on the bridge above Franja as well as other structures. The costs for all the wood were borne by the Municipal People’s Committee of Idrija, while the Institute for Monument Protection of the LRS covered the costs for other materials and work. In 1961, over 20,000 people visited the Franja hospital.
