Bojan Štih was a Slovene literary critic, stage director, and essayist. He was one of the most influential figures in modern Slovene theatre after 1945.

Štih was born in Ljubljana

Ljubljana

Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is the centre of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located in the centre of the country in the Ljubljana Basin, and is a mid-sized city of some 270,000 inhabitants...

, where he attended the prestigious Bežigrad Grammar School

Bežigrad Grammar School

Bežigrad Gymnasium is a selective coeducational state secondary school for students aged between 15 to 20. It is named after the Bežigrad district in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where it is located...

. During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, he collaborated with the Liberation Front of the Slovenian People

Liberation Front of the Slovenian People

On 26 April 1941 in Ljubljana the Anti-Imperialist Front was established. It was to promote "an international massive movement" to "liberate the Slovenian nation" whose "hope and example was the Soviet Union"...

. In 1942 he was arrested by the Italian Fascist

Italian Fascism

Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...

 occupation authorities and sent to the Gonars concentration camp

Gonars concentration camp

On February 23, 1942 the Italian fascist regime established a concentration camp in Gonars, a town with approx. 4,600 inhabitants near Palmanova in the Province of Udine in northeastern Italy.Most of the prisoners were from present day Slovenia and Croatia...

. In late August 1942 he escaped from the camp along with a group of Slovene Communist activists, among whom was also the partisan leader Franc Ravbar and Boris Kraigher, the later who became prime minister of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia

Socialist Republic of Slovenia

The Socialist Republic of Slovenia was a socialist state that was a constituent country of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1943 until 1990...

. Štih actively participated in the Slovene partisan resistance in the Julian March

Julian March

The Julian March is a former political region of southeastern Europe on what are now the borders between Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy...

.

After the end of the war in 1945, he worked as a journalist and editor. In 1957, he received a degree in history

History

History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...

 at the University of Ljubljana

University of Ljubljana

The University of Ljubljana is the oldest and largest university in Slovenia. With 64,000 enrolled graduate and postgraduate students, it is among the largest universities in Europe.-Beginnings:...

. The same year, he started working as a director at the Drama Theatre in Ljubljana, where he worked together with the playwright and author Jože Javoršek

Jože Javoršek

Jože Javoršek was the pen name of Jože Brejc , a Slovenian playwright, writer, poet, translator and essayist. He is regarded as one of the greatest masters of style and language among Slovene authors...

. In the 1960s, he worked in the majority of theatres in Slovenia, where he introduced contemporary western trends. He was also a prolific essayist.

He died in Ljubljana in 1986 and is buried in Žale

Žale

Žale Central cemetery , often abbreviated to Žale, is the largest and the central cemetery in Ljubljana. It is located in the Bežigrad district and operated by the Žale Public Company.- History :...

 Cemetery. Štih Hall in Cankar Hall

Cankar Hall

Cankar Hall is a cultural and congress center in Ljubljana, Slovenia. It stands on the central Republic Square , opposite the Parliament of Slovenia....

, the largest cultural and congress centre in Slovenia, was named after him, as was Štih Street in the Bežigrad

Bežigrad

The Bežigrad District or simply Bežigrad is a city district in the northern part of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. It encompasses the area between the southern rail line to the south, the Upper Carniola rail line to the west, the highway loop to the north, and Šmartno Street and the Žale...

 district of Ljubljana.

His was the uncle of Barbara Brezigar

Barbara Brezigar

Barbara Brezigar is a Slovenian lawyer and politician. She currently serves as State Prosecutor General of the Republic of Slovenia.She was born in a middle class family in Ljubljana as Barbara Gregorin...

, Slovene jurist and politician and current Chief Public Prosecutor of the Republic of Slovenia.

Sources

• Jože Pogačnik
  Jože Pogačnik
  Jože Pogačnik is a retired Slovenian film director and screenwriter.After studying film directing, Pogačnik first worked as a film critic, before becoming a prominent author of docmentary films in the 1960s, manly dealing with social issues...
  
  , "Bojan Štih" in Slovenska misel: eseji o slovenstvu (Ljubljana: Cankarjeva založba, 1987), 470-71.