Mass Graves Tour 8-Days

2026 TOUR DATES: SEPTEMBER 28 – October 6, 2026

Before coming on the tour, please view the following video to familiarize yourself with the issues and history of events.

Slovenian Historical Tours 2026 Draft Schedule

2026 Tour Draft

Maria Velikonja

More sites and experts will be announced as confirmed.

Day 1 Monday September 28

Check in to pri Marku, Crngrob 5

Dinner and evening meeting

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: SCNR, city tour with Dr. Renato Podbersic, communist prison in basement of police building, UDBA headquarters; National Library hiding place for “banned” books during communism

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 political prisoner of the Goli Otok communist concentration camp;

–a witness to events at the end of the war in Ljubljana, Meta Velikonja;

–a discussion on inherited trauma from war, Dr. Peter Hribar

–communist concentration camps for women after WWII, Alenka Puhar

–the Iron Curtain Watchtower at the border of Italy and Yugoslavia, speaker TBD

Stay in Crngrob

Day 4 Thursday October 1: Ljubljana region

Ljubljana: Celica, site of former jail run by Italian occupier 1942-43

Zale cemetery. Expert guide: Dr. Donald Reindl

Sveti Urh: former Home Guard post. Expert guide: Dr. Donald Reindl

Sentvid (former communist concentration camp for Home Guard captives). Expert guide: Dr. Joze Kurincic.

Šentjošt nad Horjulom; site of Village Guard origination in 1942. Expert guide: Dr. Marta Keršič

Orlov Home Guard cemetery

Evening presentation at Slovenska Matica, Ljubljana

–Concealed Mass Graves in Slovenia. Dr. Joze Dezman, Chairman of the Concealed Mass Graves Commission for Slovenia;

–Exhumation of Macesnova Gorica and other mass grave sites, Dr. Uros Kosir, archaeologist

–International legal definitions of crimes against humanity and collaboration; collaboration of both Home Guards and Partisans with the occupiers during WWII, Dr. Jernej Cernic-Letnar, Nova University

Stay in Crngrob

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.

Stay in Maribor

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 TBD

Day 7 Sunday October 4: Kocevski Rog Mass Graves

Turjak castle, site of Partisan war crime against Village Guards. Expert: TBD

Kocevski Rog. Jama pod Kren; Macesnova Gorica. Expert guide: Dr.Uros Kosir.

Stay in Trieste

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

Stay in Trieste

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. See the former communist watchtower. Expert guide: Ivo Jevnikar

Evening speaker topic in Ljubljana: The Secret Underground Intelligence Network in Slovenia and Trieste 1941-1945. Speakers: Ivo Jevnikar, Maria Velikonja

“The Role of the British at Vetrinj”, speaker: Count Nikolai Tolstoy, author of the Minister and the Massacre

Stay TBD

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. The above is a draft schedule. More details will be added as the schedule is confirmed.

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

Trnovo Plateau Mass Graves

Huda Jama Mass Grave

Kocevski Rog Macesnova Gorica Mass Grave

San Sabba Nazi Concentration Camp

Basovizza Memorial and Mass Grave, Trieste

Jama pod Kren in Kocevski Rog

UDBA

Sveti Urh

Slovenia in Transition

Macesnova Mass Grave excavation

Photos and videos for the 2025 Tour: