The Slovene Partisans, Part 1
Photography of Daily Life
During the last three months of World War II, Opapa fought with the Slovene Partisans in Northern Yugoslavia. The Partisans, as I wrote yesterday, were an anti-fascist and Communist resistance group led by Josip Tito.
What was it like to be living and working with the Slovene Partisans?
We can gain some insight into daily life among the Partisans through photography. Today, I started reading a great book entitled Red Glow: Yugoslav partisan photography and social movement, 1941–1945 by Davor Konjikušić. In it, Konjikušić reprints and identifies hundreds of photographs taken by Partisans during the War years. He also offers a historical context for the photos.
Here are a few photos from Slovenia in 1944-5, which all come from Red Glow. This is one of the few color photographs, which shows the uniform of the Slovene Partisans, with their wool coats and titovka caps. This is a uniform that would have been very familiar to Opapa.
We can also get a sense of what it was like to live in the wake of German occupation. This one shows the damage wrought by retreating German troops:
One of the best things about the photographs is that they also show the role of women in the Partisan movement. I didn’t know, for example, that there was a huge and influential Anti-Fascist Women’s Front, founded in 1942.
Life was not just patrols, politics, and combat. Here is a photo of a Partisan band from Slovenia.
This photograph is a reminder that music, social gatherings, and entertainment were important during wartime. It also shows a collection of flags that is unique to the time and place: you can see the Communist flag in the center, between the British and American flags. To the right are a large Partisan flag and a photograph of Josip Tito.
Finally, it turns out that the photo I posted a few days ago, showing a Partisan patrol in Slovenia during 1945, was published in Konjikušić’s book, and he also identifies the photograph and location:
As Konjikušić’s book confirms, this surreal photograph was, indeed, taken in Slovenia at the same time that Opapa was with the Partisans.