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Visit
on 28 May 1945 by Josip Broz (Marshal Tito) (1892-1980).
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When he first
arrived in Postojna he visited the staff of the IVth Army which
was based in the Adelsberger Hof hotel. Then, accompanied by General
Peka Dapčević and members of his staff, he walked through the
town to the cave. At the entrance they were greeted by Alfonz
Simčič, representative of Postojnska jama, and cave guide Franc
Verbič. These two accompanied Tito through the cave. The cave
train took them through Stara jama to Razpotje and then they proceeded
on foot through Male jame, Koncertna dvorana and Lepe jame, where
Franc Verbič played on the limestone "organ pipes" a
song "Star sovdat po cesti gre, čik pobere, dober je"
(An old soldier is going by the road), arrangement of an old Slovene
folk song "Regiment po cesti gre" (The regiment is going
by the road) which the Marshal enjoyed very much. He mentioned
that in his life he had heard music from a lot of different instruments,
but the sound of limestone "organ pipes" was an extraordinary
experience. With great interest he visited the tunnel which connects
Postojnska jama with Črna jama, through which on the night of
22 to 23 April 1944 partisans came and burned the German store
of gasoline at the entrance of the cave. He returned to Veliki
dom in the cave train and afterwards he signed his name in the
Gedenk-Buch. His signature is the last one in this old book and
it marked the end of a certain period.
It appears that this visit in May was made unofficially, and perhaps
incognito, for references to it have not been found in the newspapers
and France Perovšek, later president of commission of Provincial
national liberation committee for Zone B of Slovensko Primorje,
was not aware of it.
Tito made another visit on 28 October 1945, but that is recorded
in the second book, and so is outside the scope of this paper.
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Marshal Tito accompanied by commander of IV. army, general
Peka Dapčević and members of the staff, visited the cave
on 28 May 1945. After the visit he signed in the memorial
book, as the first visitor after the liberation and with
this act he turned a new page in history of Postojnska jama.
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