During the World War II, Stukelj was a judge in Novo Mesto,
Slovenia. In 1943, when Italy, which was occupying that part of
Slovenia, surrendered and, according to the instructions of the
Allied Expeditionary Force, handed the town over to Tito's
partisans. The partisans immediately declared a general
mobilization and Stukelj was readily drafted into the partisan
formations as a private. Because he had not joined the partisans
voluntarily and had in addition been a Sokol, a member of the Slav
gymnast and patriotic organization, the communists suspected that
Stukelj might not have the appropriate enthusiasm for their cause.
Stukelj was ordered to appear before the communist divisional
Judge Advocate Joze Rus who greeted him with the ominous words:
"We hear that there is something wrong with you!"
[Joze Rus, district judge in Ljubljana; before the war tried to
infiltrate the Sokol organization with the communists and later at
the first session of the Communist "Parliament" in Jajce proposed
that Tito be voted the title of Marshal of Yugoslavia, he became
the President of the Yugoslav rubber stamp Assembly after the war
and eventually declared a "hero." -- Milovan Djilas, in his book
Wartime, Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, New York, 1977, p. 235,
characterized Rus as a man of rather limited limited political
potential but useful for having brought with him into the
communist fold several Sokols who had turned communists.]
When Stukelj came out of the interrogation his gun, which he had
to leave outside, was gone and he was sentenced to forced labor in
a detachment assigned to clear the rubble from sites bombed by the
Germans. Within a week or two, the Germans moved toward Novo
Mesto and the partisans, who were guarding Stukelj and other
prisoners fled in a hurry before the advancing storm troopers,
leaving the prisoners to their fate. The partisans were brave
only when it came to shooting unarmed men, women or children or
when they terrorized the civilian population but they knew better
than to stand up to the SS. When the Germans came across the
prisoners, who were clad in the partisan uniforms, they lined them
against the wall to be summarily shot. Stukelj was able to
attract the attention of the German officer, explained to him that
he was no communist, and showed him his identity card from the
Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936 signed by Adolf Hitler himself.
The German officer examined the document and decided to let
Stukelj go.
The attempt of Joze Rus and the Slovenian communists to get rid of
the "bourgeois" Olympian champion was thus thwarted and Stukelj
lived to see the golden old age and the Olympics in Atlanta. It
was the unknown German officer, who thought more highly of the
Olympic Champion than his own compatriots, and the signature of
Hitler that saved Stukelj from certain death!
Vitaca Milut (an10805@anon.penet.fi) wrote:
: Preuzeto bez dozvole, samo za fer upotrebu:
: NOVI SAD - Devedesetsedmogodisnji Leon Stukelj iz Maribora koji, na poziv
: organizatora, boravi kao gost na Olimpijskim igrama u Atlanti, nije
: dozvolio da se njegove medalje pripisuju ni Sloveniji ni nekadasnjoj SFRJ.
: "Ja sam jos uvek u Kraljevini Jugoslaviji i na tu adresu upisite moje
: medalje"- rekao je Stukelj stranim agencijama.
: (Izvor: CPHA)
: Prenela
: Vitaca Milut (Pronounced: Vitacha Miloot)
: =======================================================================
: Kad je Djordje Srbijom zavlad'o
: i Srbiju krstom prekrstio "Drino, vodo, plemenita medjo,
: i svojijem krilom zakrilio, izmedj' Bosne i izmedj' Srbije,
: od Vidina, pak do reke Drine, naskoro ce i to vreme doci,
: od Kosova, te do Biograda, kada cu ja i tebeka preci
: 'vako Djordje Drini govorio: i cestitu Bosnu polaziti!"
:
: (Iz narodne pesme "Pocetak bune protiv dahija")
: =======================================================================
: --****ATTENTION****--****ATTENTION****--****ATTENTION****--***ATTENTION***
: Your e-mail reply to this message WILL be *automatically* ANONYMIZED.
: Please, report inappropriate use to abuse@anon.penet.fi
: For information (incl. non-anon reply) write to help@anon.penet.fi
: If you have any problems, address them to admin@anon.penet.fi