2026 TOUR DATES: SEPTEMBER 28 – October 6, 2026
The tour begin on September 28, 2026.
To register, please send an email to slovenianhistoricaltours@gmail.com. Provide your name, email, address, and phone number in your email.
Slovenian Historical Tours 2026 Schedule
Maria Velikonja
More sites and experts will be announced as confirmed.
Day 1 Monday September 28
Check in to pri Marku, Crngrob 5
Day 2 Tuesday September 29: Gorenjska
Skofja Loka castle tour with expert guide; 1945 concentration camp for Home Guard captives.
Visit Skofja Loka ossuary, holding mass grave victims
Begunje na Gorenjskem, former Nazi and communist concentration camps. Tour conducted inside current psychiatric hospital.
Crngrob mass graves holding Croat victims. Guest speaker is family member of man who was forced to bury the victims.
Pevno mass grave of child victims-Guide Helena Janezic
Stay in Crngrob
Day 3 Wednesday September 30: Ljubljana
Ljubljana: city tour with Dr. Renato Podbersic, communist prison in basement of police building, UDBA headquarters; National Library hiding place for “banned” books during communism
Celica, Italian prison in 1942
Contemporary Museum of History, Ljubljana, with Dr. Monika Kokalj-Kovecar: German mobilization of Slovenians during WWII; exhibits from the Huda Jama mass grave
Evening presentations at Slovenska Matica, Ljubljana
–a discussion VOS murders of Hribar familr, Dr. Peter Hribar
–The Secret Underground Network, Ivo Jevnikar and Maria Velikonja
–Concealed Mass Graves in Slovenia. Dr. Mitja Ferenc, Chairman of the Concealed Mass Graves Commission for Slovenia
Day 4 Thursday October 1: Ljubljana region
-Šentjošt nad Horjulom; site of Village Guard origination in 1942. Expert guide: Marta Keršič
-Sveti Urh: former Home Guard post. Expert guide: Dr. Donald Reindl
Sentvid High School (former communist concentration camp for Home Guard captives). Expert guide: Dr. Joze Kurincic.
Orlov Home Guard cemetery
Evening presentation at Slovenska Matica, Ljubljana
–Exhumation of Macesnova Gorica and other mass grave sites, Dr. Uros Kosir, archaeologist
–Law Before Labels; The Importance of Defining Crimes, Home Guards and Partisans, Maria Velikonja
Day 5 Friday October 2: Flight of the Refugees to Austria
Flight of the Refugees: Ljubelj Nazi concentration camp, Vetrinj, Bleiburg train station (where refugees were forced by the British onto trains back to Yugoslavia), church plaques, Dobrava Cemetery, Tezno anti-tank ditch where communists killed and hid 20,000 people. Expert guide: Dr. Helena Jaklitsch.
Day 6 Saturday October 3: Maribor and Celje
Kidricevic concentration/death camp for Gottschee civilians
Stalag Nazi POW death camp. Expert guide: Dr. Daniel Siter
Teharje memorial of the death camp
Petricek, former home for orphaned children of Teharje
Huda Jama tunnel, site of concealed mass grave
Stay in Maribor
Day 7 Sunday October 4: Kocevski Rog Mass Graves
Turjak castle, site of Partisan war crime against Village Guards.
Kocevski Rog. Jama pod Kren; Macesnova Gorica. Expert guide: Dr.Uros Kosir.
Day 8 Monday October 5: Trieste
Trieste: Coroneo Italian prison; Gestapo headquarters. Expert Guide: Ivo Jevnikar
Walking tour of Trieste: Home Guard posts and Civilian Police
Slovenian cultural institutions
Day 9 Tuesday October 6: Trieste and Ljubljana
Trieste: San Sabba Nazi concentration camp and refugee camp, Bazovica memorial to (Slovenian) victims of fascism; Bazovica mass grave of (Slovenian) victims of communism. Expert guide: Ivo Jevnikar
Ljubljana: Watch the film Nasa Kri at the Sipos Studios
Optional dinner in Ljubljana. Speaker: Alojze Peterle,1st Prime Minister of Independent Slovenia
Day 10 Wednesday October 7
Tour over
Arrange shuttles to airport
Experts, including historians, archaeologists, researchers and journalists will guide us. We will also have several evening talks by experts on specific topics.
This tour will be conducted in conjunction with Tourism Slovenia, which will coordinate transportation, lodging, and most meals.
https://tourismslovenia.eu
Videos from the 2025 tours have been uploaded to the Slovenian Historical Tours youtube channel. or at http://www.youtube.com/@SlovenianHistoricalTours:
Sterntal Communist Concentration Camp
Kocevski Rog Macesnova Gorica Mass Grave
San Sabba Nazi Concentration Camp
Basovizza Memorial and Mass Grave, Trieste
Macesnova Mass Grave excavation
Photos and videos for the 2025 Tour:
Ameriški rojaki na temnih točkah slovenske zgodovine | Družina – vsak dan s teboj
Television coverage of tour in Trieste: https://www.rainews.it/tgr/fjk/video/2025/10/ameriski-slovenci-na-krajih-spomina-79d5f479-4c97-4518-8e2b-4a53f141aca6.html?nxtep&fbclid=IwY2xjawOfJNRleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFRUjc0ZEU0SEVZa01BdDd3c3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHmU8O_a0Cz0CL5hCmdGuvf22RNrbLOg7qM6EqBLZvPN3PQLBlzvxSii5iGDj_aem_YXEJEViK3AifgK_v_dBjmw
Television interview with Planet TV Ljubljana:
Press conference at conclusion of tour in Ljubljana: