Franc Rozman Stane
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Franc Rozman Stane (March 27, 1911 - November 7, 1944), was a legendary Slovene partisan commandant.
Franc Rozman was born in the village Spodnje Pirniče, near Ljubljana, Austro - Hungary (now Slovenia) to mother Marjana née Stare and father Franc Rozman. Among four children Franc was the third. His two elder sisters were Marjeta and Terezija.
When three years old, he lost his father, a railway track worker, in the World War I, who died in Russia. Stane had a poor and hard childhood. His sisters Marjeta and Terezija had to go to an orphanage, Franc and his brother Martin stayed in Pirniče. When he was 15 years old, he became a hind in one tavern and after that he trained as a journeyman baker. As a young boy he made enthusiastically for the troops, but he was rejected on his asking to join the military school. In spring of 1932 he had to serve in the army. In 1935 when Italians started to mobilize Slovene youngsters for the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, Franc decided to join Ethiopian forces. He didn't succeed.
As soon as the Spanish Civil War had broken out, he decided to travel to Spain. He was among the first Yugoslav volunteers in Spain, where he, on October 1, 1936 joined the Spanish republican army. In Jarma he completed noncommissioned officer's school, became a lieutenant and a commander of a company, then captain and commander of a battalion. His comrades in arms remembered him as a lively, earnest and decreed person.
After the war in Spain he spent some time in French camps. In April 1941 he went to Meissen, Germany and in July the same year he finally returned home through Germany. For a while he dwelled with one activist of the OF (the Liberation Front (Osvobodilna fronta)). In early December he visited his youngest brother Martin and after he joined the Slovene partisans. Soon he became a military instructor with the High command of the Slovene partisan's forces. He was given a task to set up the Styrian battalion (Štajerski bataljon), which would be gathered by the partisan's troops, (the Revirje and Savinjska troops (Revirske in Savinjske čete)), which were active on Styria in the autumn of 1941. He participated in the Attack on Šoštanj and later in the Battle of Čreta. Germans constantly tried to get rid of Franc Rozman and they set up many ambushes.
In the spring of 1942 Franc Rozman became a commandant of the Slovene partisan's brigade, which was established in April 5, 1942 on Kremenik in Lower Carniola (Dolenjska), numbering more than 300 fighters, and it was by its organizing composition, abilities of fighters, and its power at that time the most powerful Slovene partisan's unit.
On July 13, 1943 he became a commandant of the High command of the Slovene partisan's army with the rank of a lieutenant general (generallajtnant) and he led it after that up to his death.
He died in White Carniola (Slovene Bela Krajina) as a consequence of a bad wound of which he got with the testing of a new weapon (mortars), sent to the partisans by British Allies. There were some rumours he was killed by sabotage, caused by the Serb military authorities, but they have never been fully proven.
The commandant Stane, as he was named by the partisan's fighters, is considered to be one of the brightest figures from the times of the NOB (the National liberation struggle). A well known partisan song Komandant Stane (The commandant Stane) is dedicated to him. Many Slovene schools bear his name. The Franc Rozman Stane Barracks (Vojašnica Franc Rozman Stane) at Ljubljana-Polje also proudly bears his name.
Internet coffeehouse in Celje bears his name Internet kavarna Stane.
External link
- A picture of the commandant Stane on a drawing of Slovene painter Božidar Jakac (http://www.zzb-nob.si/november.htm) (in Slovene).
- Internet kavarna Stane (http://www.filter-slovenia.org/) (in Slovene).sl:Franc Rozman-Stane