Franc Rozman Stane


Franc Rozman - Stane (March 27, 1911 - November 7, 1944), was a legendary
Slovenian partisan commandant.

Franc Rozman was born in the village Spodnje Pirni?e, near Ljubljana, Austro
- Hungary (now Slovenia) to mother Marjana and father Franc Rozman. Among
four children Franc was the third.

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 Pirni?e. 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 the 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 a captain and a 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 and in July 1941
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 brother Martin and after he joined the Slovenian
partisans. Soon he became a military instructor with the High command of the
Slovenian partisan's forces. He was given a task to set up the Styrian
battalion (?tajerski bataljon), which would be gathered by the partisan's
troops, (the Revirje and Savinjska troops (Revirske in Savinjske ?ete)),
which were active on Styria in the autumn of 1941. He participated in the
Attack on ?o?tanj and later in the Battle of ?reta. 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 Slovenian 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 Slovenian partisan's unit. In July 13, 1943 he became a commandant
of the High command of the Slovenian partisan's army with a rank of a
general and he led it after that up to his death. He died in White Carniola
(Slovenian 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 the
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 Slovenian schools bear his
name. The Franc Rozman Stane Barracks (Voja?nica Franc Rozman Stane) at
Ljubljana-Polje also proudly bears his name.