March 16, 2008
Anton Zakelj - Diaries and Memoirs
On the back of this picture is written,
“To Cilka, from Tone, 1946".
Anton (“Tone” for short) and Cilka were married in a refugee camp in
Austria in 1946. When this picture was
taken, Anton was 39.
My father, Anton Zakelj, was
born June 1907 in Ziri, Slovenia, a village nestled in the green foothills of
the Julian Alps, about 30 miles west of Ljubljana. He began his diary when he was 18 and continued some writing almost
80 years. He died peacefully in January 2006. For about the first 30 years, he wrote in
Esperanto, partly because he liked the language and partly to protect the
information. During some of those
years, people were sometimes jailed simply for thinking the wrong thoughts. Later, in America during the 60's and 70's,
Anton started writing in Slovenian.
During the 80's, he started translating his earlier diaries into
Slovenian and adding memories. He had a
near-photographic memory and an amazing ability to connect events in his life
with major events in world history.
During World War II, the
Germans occupied Slovenia, which was then part of Yugoslavia. At the same time, a civil war raged, with a
number of groups fighting each other for post-war control of Yugoslavia. When the Allies defeated the Germans, the
communists took over Yugoslavia and took revenge on anyone who did not support
them. Anton and his future wife Cecelia
became refugees, living in temporary camps for the next five years. I was born in one of those camps in
1948. In 1949, they emigrated to a farm
in Wisconsin, where they lived for 6 months.
In 1950, they moved to Cleveland where factory jobs were available. They lived in Cleveland the rest of their
lives.
During the 90's, I started
working with my father to type the Slovenian version of parts of his diaries
for publication in Slovenia, and to translate them into English for publication
in America. At the same time, we sorted
through his wonderful collection of photos and combined them with the diaries. The American Home, a
Slovenian-American weekly in Cleveland, began publishing excerpts each week and
have now published most sections from 1943 to 1957. In Slovenia, the journal Zirovski Obcasnik has published,
in Slovenian, many of those same years.
In fact, it was Miha Naglic, the editor of the Obcasnik, who originally inspired and encouraged us to
publish these diaries. Many years still
remain to be translated, edited and published.
This web page proudly presents excerpts from my father’s diary. This material is copyrighted and is not intended to be used for sale or profit. But please feel free to share it with your friends. If you have questions or comments, or if you would like a copy in a better format for printing, please send me an e-mail at zakelj@cs.com
John Zakelj
St. Paul, Minnesota
Click on the headings below
to see a eulogy and excerpts from the diary:
Eulogy
for Anton Zakelj - January 17, 2006
Escape from Communism,
Part I - October - December 1943
Escape from Communism,
Part II - May- June 1945
Anton
Žakelj’s Refugee Camp Diary – Commentary and Summary
Life in the Refugee
Camps, July - December 1945
Life in the Refugee
Camps, January - December 1946
Life in the Refugee
Camps, January - December 1947
Life in the Refugee
Camps, January - December 1948
Life in the Refugee
Camps, January - December 1949
Starting Over in America,
December 1949 - June 1950
Starting Over in
America, June 1950 - June 1953