Tomislav Ravnić

* 1929

  • „We were on the 2nd of May, nobody can tell me that was 1st or 3rd or 5th, I even think that was the first unit that entered Pula, that's my opinion according to all literature that I had read, by everything I know because from that place, there from airport we were all going to shoot, I had a machine gun i we were entering the city through Šijana, and there's a church, first houses on the right, there opposite Pula two women. Those were the only civilians that I have seen that day in Pula, and in Pula there were maybe even 40 000 inhabitants, Those two women in the yard were watching us. I was relatively little, I grew up later. And one of them said: „Well look at that youngster, - I remembered that vividly – „he is also a partisan.“

  • „In Ližnjan was located Italian garrison, when the war broke out, they arrived in Ližnjan.“ „Where in Ližnjan were they located?“ „They were, they were...“ „In school building?“ „No. Dopolavoro, where Dopolavoro was located, they had there, but they had tents and tey were...the whole battalion was for a long..We were swimming with the battalion commandant's wife, she was a pretty woman, us kids were moving fooling around, ha fooling around (laughing)...with her, she was a good lady.“ „Of course, of course...“ „And when they, ummm, parked there camping, actually at Marlera raised their tents, this and that, doing exercises it was then when I and late Dodo, Doris started the fire intentionally but it started to engulf the tents. Oh dear mother of God, they picked us up, him and me. You know how. They jailed us and beat usp and barely my father managed to bail us up: „They are just kids“, and this and that...They let us go you see, and I never talk or write about it, abut what I want to say is, wait a minute, when German garrison, actually when the Italian garrison was disarmed in Ližnjan in 1943, we took the weapons, me and late Bubi who was the president of the Pula municipality in his latter days, Bubić Anton he is the most known here, then Ševrlica, we had weapons and rifles carrying to my father's barn. We wrapped about two dozen rifles and munition and other equipment in hay, all of that went to partisans.“

  • „There we went, entered inside. We were arriving here regularly, to clash with them. We were just simply clashing with them. We were, because English and Angloamerican were constantly choosing sides with baccoli neri, sides of irredenta to say it in that way...“ „Actually a fascist.“ „Well a fascist part, but also a part of those who weren't fascists but were keen to, because let me tell you something. Don't forget it. Even our partisans in Italy as the Italian fascists when talking about Istria, they all think the same you know. Don't forget that. They don't like that, our partisans, all of them, to some it's...., but to most of them no, no, most of them are very nostalgic towards Istria. That's why it is so, we...they can very quickly harmonize their positions about Istria you know. That's why we, so the English were always choosing...we were, our gropu from Ližnjan, we would come here well prepared and always protesting, there we would get, with water cannons cleaned up, all wet, we would alwys fight with them, manifested they on the this side, and we on the other side. And we took two drunk Englishmen and stripped them naked, mother naked because they were arguing with us, what they had said I didn't understand, but they were drunk. We stripped them naked. We didn't beat them, but we stripped them naked and there behind the cinema building, what is the name of that cinema, it's name used to be Belgrade.“ „There is no cinema there anymore, only a garage.“ „Yes. But behind that are ruins, that building where the store was, there where you go to Šišan. That was a ruin, where a bomb strucked, that was a ruin. And in that ruin we pulled them in that ruin and stripped them naked and let them alone.“

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    Pula, 13.10.2015

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    media recorded in project Testimonies of Istrian survivors
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So young and already a partisan

Tomislav Ravnić
Tomislav Ravnić
photo: Pamět Národa - Archiv

Tomo Ravnić was born in 1929 in Ližnjan. During Italian administration in Istria his name was Italianized and written as Tomaso Ranni in the registers. He finished Italian primary school in Ližnjan and in Pula he managed to finish one class of lower secondary school in Pula,  before joining the partisans. His family helped the partisans a lot. After Italian capitulation his father managed to hide weapons from the Italian garnison into stable and later forwarded it to the partisans. He even ceded his fishing boat to partisans. Tomo joined the partisans in 1944, not long after a major surgery, as a courrier in supporting company of maritime coastal command of the northern Adriatic coast. He took part in final military operations of Yugoslav army for liberation of Istria and his unit was among the first to enter the city. The city itself didn’t witness any combat while the combat at Muzil, where the Germans made their retreat, was heavy but succesfull. They treated German prisoners humanely however he did steal a pen from a German corporal. When the fighting stopped, he took the first chance and grabbed a bike to go home to his parents and inform them that he is alive and doing well. After the war had ended he refused to go to Soviet Union for military education. Instead he finished Secondary Technical School in Zagreb and Faculty of Economics in Ljubljana.