BMO / Online campaign - Slavko Malnar

Slavko Malnar was born on February 8, 1937 in Ravnice near Čabar, where he spent his entire life. When he was less than two years old, he went to France with his parents, where his father found a job. They returned to their homeland in 1939 to escape the war. But in April 1941, the Italians occupied the Čabar region, stationed their troops in all places and began the process of Italianizing the population. On July 26, 1942 he survived the burning of his native village by the fascists and expulsion together with the majority of the population, first to the Italian fascist camp on the island of Rab and then to the Gonars camp in Italy. When he returned to the devastated Čabar area after the capitulation of Italy with his mother, father and two brothers, they could barely make ends meet. The youngest brother, who was born in Gonars, passed away soon. In 1944, still in the midst of the war, he started going to a four-year primary school in his area and soon began working. After completing his military service in 1960, he finished the upper grades of primary school, and then the secondary school of economics in Zagreb. During his life he worked for the Tršće Forestry, Social Accounting Service in Čabar and the Tršće Chemical Products Factory. For the last few years before retiring, he worked at Riječka banka. Since retiring in 1992, he has been studying local history and mother tongue, to save it from oblivion. Together with Željko Malnar, he was the author and editor of the show Under the Old Roofs on Radio Čabar. He is the author of several books, including History of Čabar region, Surnames in the Čabar region through the centuries - from 1498 to 1997, PAMEJNEK: speech of the Čabar region, Victims of fascism in Čabar and novel Lost childhood. He is very committed to preserving the memory of the victims of Italian fascist camps, in cooperation with anti-fascists from Croatia, Italy and Slovenia.

See the interview at: Slavko Malnar - YouTube