Svet pod Krimom

The micro-history of resistance and collaboration, as the subtitle could read of Gestrin’s study on the life in the villages at the base of Mt. Krim in 1941–1945, is the author’s attempt at reconstructing the most traumatic period in Slovenian history. Gestrin’s history of death and hope is not just another descriptive statistics of combat units, but rather a cross-section of a violent daily routine that divided former neighbors into members of the resistance and collaborators with the occupying forces. These are brought back to life in the central chapters of the book, also by revealing nearly every aspect of their existence: what kind of families they came from, what they did for a living, the extent to which were they (if at all) active in the Communist Party or a trade union organization before the war. To what extent were they (if at all) torn between work in the nearby Ljubljana and chores on their farms, how did they experience the occupation, why did they join the Partisan and MVAC units, respectively, and, finally, why were they forced or otherwise compelled to switch sides and what implications did that have for their families…

Mikrozgodovina upora in kolaboracije, kot bi lahko podnaslovili Gestrinovo študiju o življenju v podkrimskih vaseh v času med 1941 in 1945 je avtorjev poskus rekonstrukcije najbolj travmatičnega obdobja slovenske zgodovine. Gestrinova zgodovina smrti in upanja ni samo še en deskriptivni opis vojskujočih se enot, temveč prerez nasilnega vsakdana, ki je nekdanje sosede razdelil na odpornike in sodelavce okupatorjev. Le-ti skozi osrednja poglavja knjige znova oživijo tudi zato, ker izvemo o njih skoraj vse: iz kakšne družine so izhajali, kaj so bili po poklicu, v kolikšni meri so bili (če so bili) dejavni v komunistični partiji ali sindikalni organizaciji še pred začetkom vojne. V kolikšni meri so bili (če so bili) razpeti med delom v bližnji Ljubljani in opravki na domačiji, kako so doživljali okupacijo, zakaj so se pridružili partizanskim enotam oz. enotam MAVC in, končno, zakaj so morali ali hoteli ene zamenjati z drugimi in kaj je to pomenilo za njihove družine ...