Battle of Dražgoše The Battle of Dražgoše ( ) was a Second World War battle between the Slovene Partisans and Nazi Germany armed forces , which took place between January 9 and January 11 , 1942 , in the village of Dražgoše ( nowadays Slovenia ) . This battle was the first direct confrontation between the two . It ended with brutal reprisals of German forces against the villagers and the destruction of the village . The battle . Fighting ( both numerically and equipment - wise ) vastly superior Germans the Partisan Cankar Battalion ( numbering 240 combatants ) suffered eight casualties throughout the entire battle . German forces suffered 26 casualties according to German documents . After three days of fighting , the Partisans were forced to leave the village . After the battle , the Partisans were pursued and killed by the Germans . More recent publications have cast the events in a different light , stating that the Partisans selected Dražgoše as scene to challenge the German forces . The villagers asked the Partisans forces to leave the village , but they refused ; then , when the German forces attacked , the Partisans fled . According to Carsollis and Ferrar , the Partisans believed that uprisings such as the one at Dražgoše and the resulting reprisals turned the population against the Germans . The Catholic populace considered that the Partisans staged such uprisings in or near Catholic villages deliberately so that Catholics would be targeted by reprisals . Aftermath . German troops executed 17 male civilians immediately upon having secured a portion of the village . During the evening of the following day , a further 18 male residents who had previously escaped , only to be apprehended as they returned were executed , houses were looted and the village was set on fire . When the fires died down , the Germans then demolished the entire village . The remaining villagers were then rounded up and sent to concentration camps . After the war , the village was entirely rebuilt . Two days after this engagement , German troops attacked two partisan platoons on the Mošnje Pasture ( ) . During the 13 - hour engagement , some 12 Partisans were killed and 5 were wounded . Significance . The Battle of Dražgoše was lauded as a heroic act of defiance during the Communist era . It has been as well highly praised after Slovenia declared democracy and independence . Danilo Türk , the president of Slovenia , described the Battle of Dražgoše as the " biggest moral victory " of the Slovene nation and as the " victory of responsibility for the future of one ' s own nation " in 2008 . He stated that it was a foundation for Slovenia as an independent country . On the other hand , due to the sources that narrate a story about how the Partisans cynically used the village , the political analyst Boštjan M . Turk characterised the Battle of Dražgoše as a great suffering of the Slovenian nation and a disgrace for the Partisan movement . According to Turk , " Dražgoše represents a major defeat of the will and spirit of the resistance against the Nazis because innocent people paid for the Partisan hoax with their lives . " He later added that Dražgoše was not a failure from the Communist point of view because it raised fear among people and made the execution of the revolution and the conquest of power much easier .