By: Nova slovenska zaveza
In memory of March 3rd, 2009, when workers removed the 11th barrier in the Saint Barbara Mine tunnel, we must remember that Slovenia is a land of concealed horrors.
The fate of the victims from Huda Jama is, in some aspects, even more terrifying than that of those who were exhausted, shot, and pushed into karst abysses. We will never know the details of the massacre of the 1,416 victims in Huda Jama. It is certain that some were shot, while others were walled alive in the St. Barbara Mine tunnel.
Being walled in for more than 400 m3 of concrete barriers in the complete darkness of the mine…
To be walled in more than 400 meters deep in the heart of the mountain, dying, surrounded with a pile of bodies in the dark, perhaps dying from suffocation or dehydration…
This horror eludes the representational power of the human mind. And yet, our minds, our wills do not fulfil their duties if they do not attempt to comprehend and touch this unimaginable terror with compassion.
Among the victims of Huda Jama, about a tenth were young women, possibly even girls from the camp in Teharje. The atrocity of the crime intensifies at the thought of these women. But so does the need to at least, with the inclination of our will and compassion, honour the magnitude of their suffering. The late Justin Stanovnik, who himself survived Teharje, would say that through such remembrance, we become better people. Therefore, and for ourselves, we must remember the victims of Huda Jama.
In the Saint Barbara Mine tunnel, they found a Slovenian prayer book among the bodies. In the darkness, the dying victim could only revive the memory of holy verses in it by touch. This prayer book joins crosses and rosaries found at Macesnova gorica, serving as a high, sublime proclamation of the culture that guided our slain in a life dedicated to their dying hours – a culture leading them into eternity.
As far as we know, all victims are buried in Dobrava near Maribor. In reflections on the burial of the victims from Kočevski Rog, we often emphasise that the victims of Huda Jama should also be joined with those from Macesnova gorica and other mass graves in a common ossuary – a symbolic act of reconciliation with the dead, and hence a sign of reconciliation among the living. We hope that the years will not pass for the victims from Kočevski Rog, as they did for those from Huda Jama before they reach their grave at Žale Cemetery in Ljubljana.
Striving for this is a significant effort for peace among the Slovenes.