Franja Partisan Hospital

During World War 2, when Slovenia was under Nazi occupation, the country’s resistance movement built a large number of hospitals hidden in the forest to take care of the wounded. These hospitals were often built in hard to reach areas of the woods, in gorges and in caves, in order to keep them out of reach of the enemy, who actively sought out these medical establishments and destroyed them.

Between 1942 and 1945, there were around 120 partisan hospitals active in Slovenia, giving shelter to more than 15,000 wounded and sick people of various nationalities who were fighting against Fascism and Nazism. Their existence and work were hugely dependent on the support of local inhabitants who helped transport and carry the wounded, organized undisturbed supply of food, medicine and sanitation, and protected the secret of their locations even at the price of their own security.

Photo: Sl-Ziga/Wikimedia

A handful of these hospitals still survive, although they no longer impart medical service. Among them, the Franja Partisan Hospital at Dolenji Novaki near Cerkno in western Slovenia was the most well-equipped with an operating room, X-ray apparatus, an invalid care facility, and a small electric plant.

The Franja Partisan Hospital was located in a gorge deep inside German-occupied Europe, only a few hours from Austria and the central parts of the Third Reich. German military activity was frequent in the general region, but the hospital remained well hidden throughout its operation. The entrance to the hospital was hidden and the building could only be reached by retractable bridges that could be removed when the enemy was in the vicinity. In order to preserve the secrecy necessary for a clandestine hospital to operate, the patients were blindfolded when they were transported to the facility. The hospital was also protected by minefields and nests of machine guns. As the hospital is in a gorge, the many trees and camouflaged buildings provided protection against air reconnaissance.

The hospital was built in 1943 under the supervision of Dr Viktor Volčjak, but it was named after Dr Franja Bojc who began working there in February 1944 as doctor and hospital manager.

Franja Partisan Hospital

Franja Partisan Hospital during the 1940s. Photo: Wikimedia

Between December 1943 and May 1945, 14 wooden cabins of various sizes and for various purposes were built in the gorge. All the necessary material was transported to the location by manual labor. In addition to cabins that housed the injured and the staff, other facilities included a surgery cabin, an X-ray unit, a kitchen, a laundry and washroom, as well as an invalid care facility. They even had their own electric plant.

The hospital had a capacity of 120 patients, but saw almost ten times as many during its operation. Most of its patients were wounded anti-Nazi resistance fighters, who could not go to regular hospitals because they would be arrested. Patients of various nationalities were treated in Franja and its dislocated units alongside Slovenes and citizens of Yugoslavia, including Italians, Frenchmen, Russian, Poles, Americans and an Austrian. Among those treated was a German enemy soldier, who decided to stay back after recovery, helping in the operation of the hospital.

The hospital also had their own cemetery, at the gorge entrance, but security measures prevented the graves from being visibly marked. The majority of the deceased was buried shortly after the war in a common tomb at the Cerkno graveyard.

After the war, the Franja Partisan Hospital was converted into a museum and opened to the public, and to this day remains one of the most visited monuments in Slovenia.

Franja Partisan Hospital