Trnovec, Kočevje


Trnovec is a settlement in the hills northeast of the town of Kočevje in southern Slovenia. It was a village inhabited by Gottschee Germans. At the start of the Second World War its original population was evicted. The area is part of the traditional region of Lower Carniola and is now included in the Southeast Slovenia Statistical Region.

Name

After the Second World War, the settlement of Trnovec was administratively combined with Podstenice and shared that name. It was separated again from Podstenice in 1988 and Trnovec was reestablished as a separate settlement.

Church

The local church, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, was a late Gothic building that was burned down in 1942 during the Second World War.

Mass graves

Trnovec is the site of three known mass graves associated with the Second World War. The Rog Sawmill Mass Grave is located on the edge of the woods on the left side of Rog Road, at a large pile of sawdust. The remains of unknown victims were found at the site in 1989. The Larch Hill Cave Mass Grave is located on a heavily karstified ridge north of Rog Road and southwest of Larch Hill. It contains the remains of a large number of Home Guard troops and soldiers of other nationalities that were turned over to the Yugoslav authorities after the war and murdered. The Larch Hill Rock Shelter Mass Grave lies on the southwest edge of a shallow sinkhole in the middle of a wooded leveled karstified area southwest of Larch Hill. It contains the remains of one or more unknown victims that probably fled to the rock shelter during the war or during the killing at Larch Hill Cave.