Koncentracijsko taborišče Ljubelj

Memorial park and museum in memory of the prisoners who were interned in the Ljubelj South concentration camp, a subcamp of Mauthausen.

During the Second World War, a Nazi SS concentration camp was located directly below the Ljubelj Pass. During its existence (1943-1945), around 1,800 prisoners were interned in the camp while the Ljubelj Tunnel was being built for the German Reich.

The largest group, around 800, were French. There were also around 450 Poles, 188 Russians and 144 Yugoslavs. The 70 German and Austrian prisoners were mainly criminals. They were given positions of authority among the prisoners or were assigned to less demanding work. The other inmates came from Bohemia (now the Czech Republic), Norway, Luxembourg, Greece, Belgium and the Netherlands. According to Janko Tišler, who was an eyewitness to the events in Ljubelj, there were 14 Jews in the Ljubelj concentration camp. They came from Hungary and were transferred to the Mauthausen main camp after a few weeks. The source for this information is not given.

A memorial park has been created on the site of the former camp, where you can visit the concrete remains of the camp buildings, the crematorium and the J’accuse memorial.

The Ljubelj Concentration Camp is one of 7 units of Tržič Museum.

The museum, which is located in the basement of the nearby Karavla (former military border post), was renovated in 2021. The new exhibition explains the history of the concentration camp in Ljubelj, the system of Nazi terror and the integration of the camp into the local environment through artifacts, eyewitness accounts, a documentary film and educational programs.

The museum houses some objects, photos and some material about the former Ljubelj concentration camp. The material was collected by Janko Tišler from Tržič, who offered it for sale to the Museum of Contemporary and Modern History of Slovenia (MNSZS).

The purchase was realized and the material is now in the possession of the MNSZS.

The museum's exhibition and publications are based on this material. The photo collection of the MNSZS is also much more extensive. Many of the photos in the museum's photo library are duplicates of the photos in the MNSZS.

In 2021, the museum was awarded the Valvasor Prize for outstanding achievements in the field of museology.