Joži Munih-Petrič was born in Bohinjska Bistrica, where she attended primary school. One of her classmates was Tomaž Godec. She spent several years living in the Czech Republic, where she also got married, before returning to her homeland in 1934. After a brief period working in the trade industry, she took a position as a nurse in Zagreb. In 1941, she was arrested by the Ustaše. Upon her release, she moved to Ljubljana, where she collected medical supplies and sent them to partisans in the Gorenjska region. After the war, she settled in Kranj, where she lived for the rest of her life.
Slovenian literary historians classify Joži Munih-Petrič among the authors of večerniška or “popular” narrative prose. All of her books were published by two publishing houses: Kmečki glas and Mohorjeva družba in Celje. She wrote several novels, including Sadovi zla (The Fruits of Evil), Večni krog (The Eternal Circle), Bremena in radosti časov (The Burdens and Joys of Time), Za kos kruha (For a Piece of Bread), and Sovraštvo ni večno (Hatred is Not Eternal), as well as shorter stories such as Ana, Ljudje iz Stržišča (The People of Stržišče), and Ptice pojo nad Olševkom (The Birds Sing Over Olševka). However, she was never able to fulfill her wish of writing a novel about the life of Tomaž Godec.
A Life Filled with Perseverance and Human Understanding
Joži Munih-Petrič experienced rural life firsthand as a child, a theme she later explored in her novels and stories. Most of her works take place in Gorenjska and the Tolmin region, where she had her roots. At the start of her writing career, no publisher wanted to release her first novel, Za kos kruha, but she remained steadfast in her path and eventually saw the publication of her first story, Ljudje iz Stržišča.
Her deep connection to her birthplace, Bohinj, is reflected in her novella Ana, which is partly autobiographical. It tells the story of a young girl forced to grow up quickly, leave her home, and move to Ljubljana in search of a better life.
Information: Anja Poštrak, mag. Barbara Kalan / Gorenjski Museum
Photographs: Gorenjski Museum
