- Lojze Bratuž
Lojze Bratuž, forcibly italianized into "Luigi Bertossi" (
February 17 1902 -February 16 1937 ) was a Slovenechoirmaster andcomposer , killed by the Italian Fascist squads. He is regarded to be a martyr ofanti-Fascist struggle of the Slovenian population in theSlovenian Littoral region during Italian rule.Bratuž was born in a Slovene family in the town of
Gorizia , then the center of theAustro-Hungarian County of Gorizia and Gradisca , in 1902. He was educated in the Slovene schools of the town and chose a music career.After the
Slovenian Littoral and the adjacent regions ofInner Carniola were annexed to the Kingdom of Italy by the Treaty of Rapallo in 1920, Bratuž remained loyal to his Slovene origin and resisted the forced italianization of the region populated by a Slovenian majority. Initially he was ateacher of singing and a choirmaster in the village ofŠmartno v Brdih in the Goriška Brda region north of Gorizia, and later in a smallseminary in Gorizia. In 1929 he was first imprisoned for a short time by fascist authorities due to his Slovenianpatriotism . In 1930 he was appointed a coordinator of churchchoir s at theGoriška region byFrančišek Borgia Sedej , the archbishop of Gorizia. He led several Slovenian church choirs (the only choirs in Slovenian language allowed by authorities) in the Gorizia region (in Goriška Brda, theVipava Valley , Soča Valley and in the upperKras region).December 27 1936 a group offascist s kidnapped Bratuž in Podgora (now a suburb ofGorizia ) immediately after the mass where he conducted a choir. He was brought to a nearby building where he was brutally beaten up and forced to drinkcastor oil , mixed withgasoline andmotor oil . He could never recover from thispoison ing and died two months later in the centralhospital of Gorizia. A few days before his death his supporters gathered beneath the hospital window, sang a Slovene song and then fled before authorities could arrest them. Thus Lojze Bratuž soon became a symbol of fascistpersecution of Slovene in theJulian March .During his life, Bratuž set to music several songs and adapted them for choirs. Today a Slovene mixed choir from Gorizia and a cultural center of Slovenes in Gorizia bear his name.
He was married to the poet
Ljubka Šorli . Their only child,Lojzka Bratuž is a famous author and activist in the organizations of the Slovene minority in Italy.ee also
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TIGR
*Boris Pahor External links
* [http://www.rtvslo.si/kultura/modload.php?&c_mod=rnews&op=sections&func=read&c_menu=4&c_id=37339 An article at RTVSLO (in Slovenian)]
* [http://www.damjanabratuz.ca/slovenian/pogovori/ljubezen.htm An article about Bratuž's niece Damjana Bratuž (in Slovenian)]
* [http://www.mepzlbratuz.org/pages/home.php Mixed Choir Lojze Bratuž (in Slovenian)]
* [http://www.kclbratuz.org/ Lojze Bratuž Cultural Centre in Gorizia (in Slovenian and Italian)]
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