Dušan Špindler - Kovač (1912-2003) : učitelj in osrednji organizator mariborskega odporniškega gibanja

slovenian

2026

volume 33, issue 1

execution of partisan recruits on Pohorje in 1944   resistance movement

Zgodovinsko društvo Celje
(Obvezni izvod spletne publikacije)

Through a biographical study of Dušan Špindler (1912-2003), the author examines the resistance movement in Maribor, whose main organizer from autumn 1943 to spring 1944 was this schoolteacher. A committed communist, Špindler taught at several elementary schools during the 1930s. After the Nazi occupation and his return from the Mauthausen concentration camp, he was tasked by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Slovenia for northeastern Slovenia with building the backbone of the Maribor resistance movement, with the assistance of fellow teachers. During the Informbiro trials of 1949–1950, he was sentenced to a long term of imprisonment with forced labour on charges of collaboration with the Gestapo. However, his conviction was most closely connected to the tragic events on Pohorje in January 1944, when a group of new recruits from the Slovenske Gorice region were tortured and executed within a partisan unit on suspicion of sympathizing with the Blue Guard movement.

09.10.2026