Cink (, also ''Frata''; german: Zinken) is a remote abandoned settlement in the

Municipality of Dolenjske Toplice The Municipality of Dolenjske Toplice () is a municipality near Novo Mesto in southeastern Slovenia. Its seat is the town of Dolenjske Toplice. The area is part of the traditional region of Lower Carniola. The municipality is now included in the S ...

in southern

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

. The area is part of the traditional region of

Lower Carniola Lower Carniola ( sl, Dolenjska; german: Unterkrain) is a traditional region in Slovenia, the southeastern part of the historical Carniola region. Geography Lower Carniola is delineated by the Ljubljana Basin with the city of Ljubljana to the no ...

and is now included in the

Southeast Slovenia Statistical Region The Southeast Slovenia Statistical Region ( sl, Jugovzhodna Slovenija statistična regija) is a statistical region in southeast Slovenia. It is the largest statistical region. The development of this region is largely the result of industry (the au ...

. Its territory is now part of the village of

Podstenice Podstenice (; german: Steinwand) is a settlement in the Municipality of Dolenjske Toplice in Slovenia. It was inhabited by Gottschee Germans. At the start of the Second World War its population was expelled and in 1942 the village was burned to t ...

History

Cink was a Gottschee German settlement. In 1924 the forest railway for the sawmill at Rog was extended toward Cink. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

the Partisans established a political school for the

League of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia , SKOJ mk, Сојуз на комунистичката младина на Југославија, СКМЈ sl, Zveza komunistične mladine Jugoslavije, ZKMJ , colorcode = red , founded = 1919 , dissolved = 1948 , succeeded by = League of S ...

at the site, which was in operation for nearly a year. From July to August 1942 the command of the

Partisan Partisan may refer to: Military * Partisan (weapon), a pole weapon * Partisan (military), paramilitary forces engaged behind the front line Films * ''Partisan'' (film), a 2015 Australian film * ''Hell River'', a 1974 Yugoslavian film also know ...

5th Detachment Group was stationed at Cink after it was relocated from

, and a party conference was held there from 5 to 7 July or 8 July that year. A logger's cabin now stands at the site and a plaque was installed in the nearby forest in 1953.

Mass grave at Cink cross

After the Second World War, members of the

Slovene Home Guard The Slovene Home Guard ( sl, Slovensko domobranstvo, SD; german: Slowenische Landeswehr) was a Slovene anti- Partisan military organization that was active during the 1943–1945 German occupation of the formerly Italian-occupied Province of Lju ...

and other armed groups subordinate to the German forces were killed and buried in a

mass grave A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of execution, although an exact ...

5 km east of the village known as the Double Shaft by Cink Cross Mass Grave ( sl, Grobišče Dvojno brezno pri Cink križu). The victims are believed to have been transported to the site from the prison in

Novo Mesto Novo Mesto (; sl, Novo mesto; also known by other alternative names) is a city on a bend of the Krka River in the City Municipality of Novo Mesto in southeastern Slovenia, close to the border with Croatia. The town is traditionally considered t ...

. The shafts are located at the crossroads to Cink on the road from Podstenice. The opening is long, starting below an old beech grove and continuing along a fence. The bottoms of both shafts are covered by large rocks that fell there from the surface and the entryways to the shafts were dynamited. The grave site is registered as cultural heritage. File:Dvojno brezno pri Cink krizu.jpg, Double Shaft by Cink Cross Mass Grave File:Dvojno brezno pri Cink krizu ograja.jpg, Double Shaft by Cink Cross Mass Grave

References

External links

Cink on Geopedia
{{Dolenjske Toplice Former populated places in the Municipality of Dolenjske Toplice