Lojze Bratuž

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Lojze Bratuž (forcibly italianized into Luigi Bertossi), Slovenian choirmaster and composer, born on February 17, 1902 in Gorica - Gorizia (today Italy), died on February 16, 1937 in Gorizia.

After a large portion of current western Slovenia was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy by the Treaty of Rapallo in 1920, Bratuž remained loyal to his Slovenian origin and resisted the forced italianization of the region populated by Slovenian majority. Initially he was a teacher of singing and a choirmaster in Šmartno v Brdih and later in a small seminary in Gorizia. In 1929 he was first imprisoned for a short time by fascist authorities due to his patriotism. In 1930 he was appointed a coordinator of church choirs at the Goriška region by Frančišek Borgia Sedej, the archbishop of Gorizia. He led several Slovenian church choirs (the only choirs in Slovenian language allowed by authorities) in Goriška, Goriška Brda, Vipava Valley and Soča Valley.

December 27, 1936 a group of fascists arrested Bratuž in Podgora (in Italian Piedimonte near Gorizia) immediately after the mass where he conducted a choir. In a nearby building he was forced to drink gasoline and motor oil. He could never recover from this poisoning and died two months later in the Gorizia hospital. A few days before his death his supportes gathered beneath the hospital window, sang a Slovenian song and then fled before authorites could arrest them. Thus Lojze Bratož is today considered as one of symbols of fascist persecution of Slovenians.

During his life, Bratuž set to music several songs and adapted them for choirs. Today a Slovenian mixed choir from Gorizia and a cultural center of Slovenians in Gorizia bear his name.