Humiliation procession of partisans from the KASTELIC unit who were captured by the Nazis in the streets of Celje, moments before their execution in the courtyard of the Gestapo prison. Celje, Slovenia, November 1942.
In the photo the partisans are seen chained to each other with each carrying a sign on their body with their name and the crime they committed as an act of public humiliation before their execution. The nine were executed minutes later by a firing squad of SS men.
The partisan woman seen in the forefront of the photograph is named Martha Puntz, from the Savinja partisan unit in Slovenia. She was captured by the Nazis on November 7, 1942, near the village of Kreflovi na Dobrovljali. The inscription on the sign she carries is in German and reads: “I am the gun-woman Martha Puntz. I was involved in 8 murders and several raids”. Martha, a Slovenian partisan who joined the resistance movement and operated in the Savinja partisan unit in the forests of southeastern Slovenia, against the occupation of Yugoslavia by Axis forces during World War II. She was born in 1922 in the village of Gabrovica pri Črnomlju, near the town of Semič. (Martha was also a poet and writer, her writings were published in the partisan newspaper “Mladi borec” – Young Fighter).
The name of the partisan seen behind her is Kasteliz Ivan. In addition to the degrading sign hanging around his neck, he holds another sign in his hand that reads: “We carried out the raid on the post office in Ornborg”.
The name of the third partisan in the row is Slobko George. The inscription on the sign he carries states: “I am a bandit. I was involved in thirty raids in the south”.
The fourth person behind them is named Leopold Strel. The sign he carries states: “I am the bandit Leopold Strel, and I carried out 40 attacks and 9 murders”.
As far as is known, 26 partisans who were captured a few months earlier were executed that day by the Nazis.
We did not find another photograph online in which these partisans were taken from the angle shown in the photograph before us, probably before us is the only photograph in the world. There are other photographs from the same procession from different angles showing the Nazi soldiers as well, see here , (the photo there is described: “A few moments before the execution – Martha Puntz of the partisan unit in Savinya was captured on November 7, 1942, near the village of Kreflovi na Dobrovljali”) and see both here and here .
Size: 12×9 cm. Very Good Condition.
