Ljubljana
Women on strike

The presence of statues in squares and other public spaces is a powerful reminder of eminent personalities and important events of history. However, as history is going through endless changes, personalities and events are often re-appraised. Those who once marked their epoch have been granted monuments. Or more simply, they granted themselves monuments. How many Napoleon monuments in Europe? How many Lenin statues in the Soviet bloc? They’re not eternal though. They always run the risk of being removed, or even destroyed.
In 1991, a monument that had been erected in 1953 on the market square aroused controversy when it was removed on the order of the city government. The monument in question was commemorating an event that had occurred in 1943. At that time, women from Ljubljana had gathered in front of the governmental palace and diocese to demand the release of their relatives and friends. More than 23.000 men, all opponents to Fascism, had been accused of treason and belonging to the Communist party. They had been deported to concentration camps on the island of Rab and to the village of Lopari. The conditions in the camps were awful. Diseases such as tuberculosis and dysentery spread. The death rate was peaking. But the bell had tolled for Mussolini. As the fascist regime in Italy was about to capitulate, the Italian authorities in Slovenia started collapsing.
There were demonstrations almost every Wednesday in front of the Italian military HQ (the soon-to-be HQ of the civilian government). On June 21, as the governor for military occupation was changed, women activists organized a big demonstration that ended in front of the cathedral. There, thousands of them stood and asked Bishop Rožman to help them free their husbands, sons, and relatives. For years, it has been said that Bishop Rožman and other clerical representatives stood at the open window, laughed at the women and insulted them. Bishop Rožman was a known collaborator of Italian and Nazi forces. Therefore, the doors of his palace remained closed. The women’s requests were not granted. Instead, the Bishop called the Italian army and fireman brigade to disperse the demonstrators. These were the events commemorated by the statue of the market square: on the one hand, the courageous women risking everything for the freedom of resistance fighters; on the other hand, the cowardly traitor who had not even the least respect for the One he served.
In 1991, however, the interpretation changed. In the ecstatic atmosphere of independence, the newly elected democratic city government decided to remove the statue. Was it due, as they said, to the restoration of the city center? No. Actually, the city government had used urban planning as a pretext. The monument-related controversy developed because it had convened a committee of historians appointed to re-appraise the events commemorated by the statue. The new interpretation favored Bishop Rožman. The historians explained that he had never refused to help the women. On the contrary: a few months before the June 21 demonstration he had met a delegation of four of the women to discuss the possibilities of interceding with the Italian authorities. Furthermore, the historians asserted that the event on June 21 in front of the Cathedral could not even be called demonstration, because the women who gathered there had come from various other locations where they were striking. In other terms: there had not even been a demonstration!
Nowadays, this interpretation prevails… as long as history doesn’t take a new path.