It was run by the Slovene Partisans from December 1943 until the end of the war as part of a broadly organized resistance movement against the Fascist Italian and Nazi German forces.
Although the Wehrmacht forces, which occupied territory that had been annexed by Italy, launched several attempts to find the hospital, it was never discovered.
Built in difficult and rugged terrain in the remote Pasica Gorge in western Slovenia by Slovene Partisans, the hospital opened in December 1943 and saw continuous improvements until May 1945.
The hospital was located deep inside German-occupied Europe, only a few hours from Austria and the central parts of the Third Reich.
In order to preserve the secrecy necessary for a clandestine hospital to operate, the patients were blindfolded during transportation to the facility.
[2] Extremely well equipped for a clandestine partisan operation, the hospital remained intact until the end of the war.