Registration will begin in February 2026.

TOUR DATES: September 28 – October 6, 2026

Slovenianhistoricaltours.com
Email: slovenianhistoricaltours@gmail.com for more information or to be added to our mailing list.
Youtube channel with videos from 2025 tour: http://www.youtube.com/@SlovenianHistoricalTours

By Maria Velikonja, who was an investigator at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia during the 1990’s war.

In 2025, we successfully toured Slovenia’s World War II history. In 2026, we will partner with the publisher Družina in Ljubljana. Družina will advertise the tour in Slovenia and recruit local Slovenians to join our group.

Slovenia’s sad World War II history left a divide between the “Home Guards” and the “Partisans” that has not been fully resolved. After WWII was over in 1945, Slovenia
suffered the largest crimes against humanity, or genocide, in post-WWII Europe when the British repatriated tens of thousands of refugees back to Yugoslavia, where they
were killed by the new communist government and dumped into mass graves around Slovenia.

The tour will visit these mass grave sites, former concentration camps, and prisons. We will be guided by Slovenia’s experts, including historians, archaeologists, journalists,
writers, and an international human rights expert. The focus of the tour will be on learning about communist/Partisan revolutionary violence, although crimes committed
by the Nazis, Italians, and Slovene Home Guards will also be discussed. Several sites will be visited on each day. Three or four evenings will also be dedicated to listening to
expert speakers.

The tour begins in Slovenia and will be conducted in English and Slovenian. Experts will be confirmed as we approach the tour. The website will be updated regularly. The tour cost will be published soon.

• Day 1 Monday September 28
  • Check in to pri Marku or Hotel Loka, Crngrob 5
  • Dinner and evening meeting
• Day 2 Tuesday September 29:
  • Crngrob mass graves. Hear from a family member, forced by Partisans to participate in the mass graves burial.
  • Škofja Loka castle tour with expert guide. Discussion of the concentration camp.
  • Visit Škofja Loka ossuary, holding mass grave victims.
  • Begunje na Gorenjskem, former Nazi and communist concentration camps
  • Expert: Alenka Puhar, author
  • Stay in Crngrob
• Day 3 Wednesday September 30:
  • Ljubljana: Ljubljana police headquarters basement tour–former interrogation room
  • Ljubljana Zale cemetery; monument to victims of revolutionary violence
  • Study Center for National Reconciliation (SCNR)
  • Museum of Contemporary History at Tivoli Park. Expert: Dr. Monika Kokalj-Kočevar
  • City walking tour: Dr. Renato Podbersič: former UDBA offices and more
  • Ljubljana National Library (NUK) bunker, where documents were hidden from communists: Expert Helena Janezič
  • Evening speakers at Slovenska Matica. Speakers include: a survivor of the Goli Otok communist concentration camp; Meta Velikonja, a witness to the end of the war in Ljubljana and the new communist authorities taking her father away forever.
  • Peter Hribar: a discussion on inherited trauma.
  • Stay in Ljubljana
• Day 4 Thursday October 1:
  • Ljubljana: Celica Italian jail, Žale cemetery, Šentvid school (former concentration camp), Sveti Urh, Šentjošt nad Horjulom, Orlov Home Guard cemetery.
  • Evening speakers at Slovenska Matica: Speakers include Jože Dežman, Chairman of the Concealed Mass Graves Commission for Slovenia; a speaker on the Slovenian DNA Project. Dr. Uros Kosir will give a slide presentation on Kocevski Rog.
  • Stay in Ljubljana
• Day 5 Friday October 2:
  • Flight of the Refugees: Ljubelj concentration camp, Vetrinj, Bleiburg train station, church plaques, Dobrava cemetery, Težno anti-tank ditch
  • Stay in Maribor
• Day 6 Saturday October 3:
  • Ormož, Kidričevič/Šterntal concentration camp for Gottschee civilians, Petriček house, Celje, Huda Jama mass grave, Teharje memorial.
  • Stay in Ljubljana
• Day 7 Sunday October 4:
  • Turjak, last battle of the Village Guards.
  • Kočevski Rog: Jama pod Krenom; Macesnova Gorica
  • Expert speaker: Dr. Uroš Košir.
  • Stay in Trieste
• Day 8 Monday October 5:
  • Trieste: Coroneo Italian prison; Gestapo headquarters
  • Slovenian cultural institutions
  • Walking tour of Trieste: Home Guard posts
  • Stay in Trieste
  • Evening speaker
• Day 9 Tuesday October 6:
  • Trieste: San Sabba concentration camp, Basovizza memorial and mass grave.
  • Nova Gorica: Trnovo plateau; Zalesnika mass grave
  • Stay in Ljubljana
  • Possible evening speakers
• Day 10, Wednesday October: 7
  • Tour over
  • Arrange shuttles to airport

This tour will be conducted in conjunction with Tourism Slovenia, which will coordinate transportation, lodging, and most meals. Local Slovenian citizens will also join our tour this year.

https://tourismslovenia.eu