Kidričevo
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Kidričevo () is a town near
Ptuj Ptuj (; german: Pettau, ; la, Poetovium/Poetovio) is a town in northeastern Slovenia that is the seat of the Municipality of Ptuj. Ptuj, the oldest recorded city in Slovenia, has been inhabited since the late Stone Age and developed from a Roman ...
in northeastern
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 ...
. It is the seat of the
Municipality of Kidričevo The Municipality of Kidričevo (; sl, Občina Kidričevo) is a municipality near Ptuj in northeastern Slovenia. The seat of the municipality is the town of Kidričevo. The area is part of the traditional region of Styria. The municipality is no ...
. The area is part of the traditional region of
Styria Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to ...
. The municipality is now included in the
Drava Statistical Region The Drava Statistical Region ( sl, Podravska statistična regija) is a statistical region in Slovenia. The largest city in the region is Maribor. The region's name comes from the Drava River and includes land on both banks along its course thro ...
. The town is industrialized and best known for the Talum aluminum-smelting factory. The town developed due to the industry in the area and is an example of
urban planning Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, ...
in the late 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s.


Name

The historical settlement that the town was built around was called ''Strnišče''. In 1947,Savnik, Roman, ed. 1980. ''Krajevni leksikon Slovenije'', vol. 4. Ljubljana: Državna založba Slovenije. p. 401. this was renamed ''Kidričevo'' after
Boris Kidrič Boris Kidrič (10 April 1912 – 11 April 1953) was a Slovene politician and revolutionary who was one of the chief organizers of the Slovene Partisans, the Slovene resistance against occupation by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy after Operatio ...
, a leading Slovenian communist and one of the chief organizers 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 ...
movement in Slovenia from 1941 to 1945. In 1974, territory was separated from the settlements of Kidričevo and Župečja Vas to create the current settlement of Strnišče.


Sterntal Concentration Camp

The Sterntal Concentration Camp ( sl, Taborišče Šterntal, german: Lager Sterntal) was located in Kidričevo. It was a central collection point for the expulsion of
ethnic Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...
from Slovenia (
Ostsiedlung (, literally "East-settling") is the term for the Early Medieval and High Medieval migration-period when ethnic Germans moved into the territories in the eastern part of Francia, East Francia, and the Holy Roman Empire (that Germans had al ...
) after 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 roots of the camp go back to a
prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...
camp from the
First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, later used as a refugee camp for people displaced by the
Battles of the Isonzo The Battles of the Isonzo (known as the Isonzo Front by historians, sl, soška fronta) were a series of 12 battles between the Austro-Hungarian and Italian armies in World War I mostly on the territory of present-day Slovenia, and the remaind ...
. In 1941, following annexation, the German authorities (german: CdZ-Gebiet Untersteiermark) established a prisoner of war camp at the site to provide labor to build an aluminum smelter (the plant was not completed until 1947–1954, using forced labor by political prisoners from postwar camps). At the beginning of 1942, the camp contained 1,076 workers, 185 criminal internees, and 89 prisoners of war. In 1944, family members of deserters were also forced to work at the camp. In May 1945, under the direction of
Aleksandar Ranković Aleksandar Ranković ( nom de guerre Marko; sr-Cyrl, Александар Ранковић Лека; 28 November 1909 – 19 August 1983) was a Yugoslav communist politician, considered to be the third most powerful man in Yugoslavia after Jo ...
, the Yugoslav secret police (
OZNA The Department for People's Protection or OZNA ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, Одељење за заштиту нaрода, Odjeljenje za zaštitu naroda, Odeljenje za zaštitu naroda; mk, Одделение за заштита на народот; sl, Oddele ...
) established a concentration camp at the site to collect ethnic Germans from across Slovenia, especially from
Lower Styria Styria ( sl, Štajerska), also Slovenian Styria (''Slovenska Štajerska'') or Lower Styria (''Spodnja Štajerska''; german: Untersteiermark), is a traditional region in northeastern Slovenia, comprising the southern third of the former Duchy o ...
and
Gottschee Gottschee (, sl, Kočevsko) refers to a former German-speaking region in Carniola, a crownland of the Habsburg monarchy, Habsburg Empire, part of the historical and traditional region of Lower Carniola, now in Slovenia. The region has been a coun ...
. Ethnic Hungarians from Prekmurje were also sent to the camp.Mikola, Milko. 2008. "Concentration and Labour Camps in Slovenia." In: Peter Jambrek (ed.), ''Crimes Committed by Totalitarian Regimes,'' pp. 145–154. Ljubljana: Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, p. 147.
Overcrowding and poor hygiene at the camp caused many of the inmates to die from
amoebiasis Amoebiasis, or amoebic dysentery, is an infection of the intestines caused by a parasitic amoeba ''Entamoeba histolytica''. Amoebiasis can be present with no, mild, or severe symptoms. Symptoms may include lethargy, loss of weight, colonic ulce ...
and
typhoid fever Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several ...
. The inmates were also physically and mentally tortured, and many were shot. Tortures included forcing the prisoners to lie on the ground while their captors rode motorcycles over them. The deaths included large numbers of the elderly and young children; some accounts state that no children under the age of two survived. The camp, which was designed to accommodate 2,000 people, contained between 8,000 and 12,000 prisoners. Up to 5,000 people died at the camp. The Sterntal Concentration Camp was closed down in October 1945 through the efforts of the
Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...
, and most of the survivors were sent to Austria.


Mass graves

Kidričevo is the site of two
mass graves 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 ...
connected with the Sterntal Concentration Camp. The Sterntal 1 Mass Grave ( sl, Grobišče Sterntal 1) was uncovered in the 1980s during excavation work at the Talum factory. The remains were removed and disposed of in an undocumented manner. The grave is located in a meadow behind the factory. The Sterntal 2 Mass Grave () contains the bodies of prisoners from the Šterntal concentration camp. It is located in a pine grove opposite the entrance to the former camp, about from the road.


References


External links


Kidričevo on Geopedia

Kidričevo municipal site

Talum Company
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kidricevo Populated places in the Municipality of Kidričevo