Majda Vrhovnik was a Slovene communist and medical student.
Background
Majda Vrhovnik was born 14 April 1922 in Ljubljana. Her older brother Vladimir Vrhovnik (17 August 1916 – 28 April 1945, aka Volodja or Mirko, also a member of the Communist Party) was born in Vienna, but the family moved to Ljubljana after the First World War.
Career
After graduating from an upper secondary school she enrolled in the University of Ljubljana’s Faculty of Medicine. She was accepted for membership in the Communist Party of Yugoslavia in 1940. Vrhovnik joined the underground movement immediately after the occupation of Yugoslavia.
She became a courier for the organizational secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Slovenia, Tone Tomšič (1910–1942).
Vrhovnik nonetheless remained in Ljubljana. She participated in organizing an underground printshop for the resistance in Ljubljana.
As a courier, she carried manuscripts for the underground printshops in Ljubljana codenamed Podmornica "submarine" at Brdo Street (Cesta na Brdo) northern 95 and Tunel "tunnel" at Emona Street (Emonska cesta) northern
2. At her own choosing, on 22 January 1944 she was sent to the Slovenian Littoral.
There she served as an instructor for the Young Communist League of Yugoslavia (SKOJ) for Idrija and an instructor for SKOJ training courses for the SKOJ Regional Committee for the Littoral. However, she did not remain there long, but volunteered to work in Carinthia. In 1944 she was named secretary of the District Committee of the Communist Party of Slovenia for Mežica.
She crossed the Drava River and went through the Sattnitz Mountains, first working in the Völkermarkt area and then in Klagenfurt.
Disguised as a peasant girl, she spent several months in Klagenfurt and took part in organizing committees for the Liberation Front, espionage, and illegal publications for the city. The Gestapo managed to discover her through betrayal, and on 28 February 1945 she was arrested in a house below Kreuzbergl Hill in Klagenfurt.
She was tortured in prison and shot on 4 May 1945. Her grave remains unmarked to this day.
She was proclaimed a people"s hero of Yugoslavia on 5 July 1951 or 20 December 1951.
Majda Vrhovnik Primary School (Osnovna šola Majde Vrhovnik) at Gregorčič Street (Gregorčičeva ulica) northern 16 in Ljubljana was named for Vrhovnik in 1958, created by merging Primary School northern 5 on Šubic Street (Šubičeva ulica) and Primary School northern
6 on Vrtača Street.
A bust of Vrhovnik was created by the Slovene sculptor Stojan Batič in 1961 and stands in front of the school. "Majda Vrhovnik" was used as a pseudonym by Franci Zavrl, the editor of Mladina, after his arrest. The pseudonym "Majda Vrhovnik" was also used by the Mladina journalist Vlado Miheljak at the same time.
Membership
She was a member of the District Committee of the Communist Party of Slovenia for Klagenfurt and was named a people"s hero of Yugoslavia after her death. During her studies she was a member of the Slovene Club and the student revolutionary movement. In the fall of 1944 she became a member of the District Committee of the Communist Party of Slovenia for Klagenfurt.