During the time of Nazi occupation, a gestapo prison was housed in the imposing Katzenstein Mansion in the centre of Begunje na Gorenjskem. Between the years 1941 to 1945, a total of 11,477 were imprisoned – the majority of whom were members of the Gorenjska resistance movement. Today, one part of the mansion, where the cells of those condemned to death were housed, has been converted into a museum that serves as a reminder of the suffering, fear, uncertainty and inhumane torture that was used during interrogations throughout World War II.

The museum preserves and exhibits the shocking records scribbled by prisoners on the walls of the cells, as well as the occupying force’s announcements of the shootings of hostages. The documentary material and other objects depict the lives of the internees and exiles housed in prisons and concentration camps (mainly Dachau and Mauthausen) and the atrocities carried out by the Nazis on the local population. The most extreme form of Nazi suppression of liberty was the shooting of hostages. 849 prisoners from Begunje’s prisons were executed.

On 4 May 1945 the Kokrica detachment of the Partisan army seized Begunje prison and freed 632 prisoners. To this day, the date is still honoured by an annual commemoration ceremony.

In the mansion park and the nearby Draga valley there is a burial place of 667 hostages and partisans. The monuments were designed according to plans by the architect Edvard Ravnikar. There are also artistic sculptures in the park, the work of the academic sculptor Boris Kalin – Pripornik (detainee) and Talec (male hostage) from bronze and Talka (female hostage) from Karst marble.

The former bell from the parish church, which was cast in 1923 by the Carniolan Industrial Society, is also a unique monument.