Libero and Zora Polojaz
Who were Libero and Zora Polojaz?
The Polojaz couple were born under the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Istria, in the interior, with a predominantly Croatian population. After their marriage, they lived for several years in Postojna (Postojna Cave, Slovenia) where they developed a thriving business. In this border location, they were thus able to appreciate Slovenian culture and society, and at the same time the Italian reality, in its positive aspects – of culture, creativity and entrepreneurship, but also in its many negative aspects, having lived through the nightmare of the twenty-year fascist period, which forced them to experience prison, just because they were tied to their origins and refracted to submit to the prevailing and destructive nationalism.
In spite of everything, however, they never let themselves be overwhelmed by these negative experiences, managing to safeguard the good experiences, linked to relations with the people, from the brutality and violence of the regime; they did not allow, so to speak, the baby to disappear with the dirty water.
After World War II, they moved to Trieste, realising an old project. Libero Polojaz was able to continue to develop his entrepreneurial skills here, always guaranteeing, together with his wife Zora, considerable financial support to many charitable organisations, school-related initiatives, cultural and recreational activities, especially those aimed at children and the Slovenian community. These initiatives had to meet the prerogative of not having an extremist political colouring, of not only being respectful of the other ethnic groups present in the area, but also of being as engaging and interesting as possible to the other ethnic groups, according to the principle that in order to truly coexist, one must first get to know one another.