16. Hostages
The monument erected in 1950 is dedicated to 20 hostages shot by the occupier on 8 February 1945, behind the wall of the city cemetery.
Between the two wars, there were many German-oriented people in Ptuj and frictions between the Slovenians and Germans were frequent. During World War II, the city was occupied by the German army and the authority of the city was temporarily taken over by members of the Swabian-German Kulturbund. The city became the headquarters of the occupying district from which the Germans expelled approximately 640 Slovenians.
The hostages were mostly collaborates or members of the liberation movement, whom the Nazis executed and announced their deaths by proclamations. Not a single court convicted the hostages, but their fate was decided by the commander of the security police and the security service in Lower Styria. The political prisoners were informed about their death sentences just before being shot. Until October 1942, they could write goodbye letters, after which that was no longer allowed, so some would write them secretly.
