Teharje

Teharje
Teharje
Location in Slovenia
Coordinates:
Country Slovenia
Traditional region Lower Styria
Statistical region Savinja
Municipality Celje
Area
 • Total 1.01 km2 (0.4 sq mi)
Elevation 254.6 m (835 ft)
Population (2002)
 • Total 256
[1]

Teharje is a settlement in the municipality of Celje in eastern Slovenia. It lies on the right bank of the Voglajna River on the eastern outskirts of Celje. The area was traditionally part of the Lower Styria region. It is now included with the rest of the municipality into the Savinja statistical region.[2]

The local parish church is dedicated to Saint Martin and belongs to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Celje. It was first mentioned in written documents dating to the 13th century, but the current building is a Neo-Romanesque structure from 1905.[3]

History

In 1943, during the Second World War, German forces built a military camp for approximately 500 people in Teharje, including six residential barracks and ten other buildings. Towards the end of the war the Germans used the camp to hold prisoners that had participated in the defense of Celje, and the camp was abandoned for a short time after the war. The camp was reactivated by the Yugoslav communists at the end of May 1945 to accommodate former members of the Slovene Home Guard and others that had collaborated with the Germans, as well as civilians that had fled before the advancing Yugoslav People's Army to Allied camps in Austrian Carinthia. On 31 May 1945 the entire 2nd Assault Battalion headed by Vuk Rupnik was brought to Teharje, and in the first days of June 1945 approximately 3,000 members of the Slovene Home Guard joined them. It is estimated that the postwar authorities executed approximately 5,000 internees of Teharje without trial during the first month or two after the Second World War.[4]

A memorial park designed by the architect Marko Mušič was built on the site of the camp in 2004.[5]

References

  1. ^ Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia
  2. ^ Celje Municipality site
  3. ^ Slovenian Ministry of Culture register of national heritage reference number ešd 3440
  4. ^ European Public Hearing on “Crimes Committed by Totalitarian Regimes" page 148 <<Internees from the concentration camp in Št. Vid nad Ljubljano were taken by train and cattle wagons to Kočevje and from there by trucks to selected hidden locations in the forests of Kočevski Rog. Larger Karst abysses were chosen as the places of execution. A certain number of internees from the concentration camp Teharje were killed in its immediate vicinity, but the majority was killed in the neighbourhood of Stari Hrastnik, Trbovlje and Laško. Many were killed there and thrown into caves produced by mining, while some were thrown into deserted mining shafts. Of several thousands of internees in the concentration camps Teharje, Št. Vid nad Ljubljano and Škofja Loka, only a smaller number of civilians and juvenile Home-guards survived. These were released after the amnesty that was declared on 3 August 1945>>.
  5. ^ Slovenian Ministry of Culture register of national heritage reference number ešd 26716

External links