When the building of the former Minorite monastery in Celje was reshaped into a penitentiary in the 19th century, locals gave it the name Stari Pisker (English: "Old Pot"). Prior to 1941 it had been used as a prison for women; during the Second World War, German occupation forces used the site to commit many atrocities against civilians. In six out-of-court executions 374 hostages were shot in the yard, many others were tortured there. Today the site is administered as a dislocated permanent exhibition of the Celje Museum of Recent History, which holds a moving collection of farewell letters written by war prisoners held in the Old Pot who had learnt they would soon be executed.
In 1965 the prison was opened as a memorial site to victims of Nazi violence, with a memorial courtyard and a memorial room in the former torture-chamber. It was later renovated in 1995. Today, the building surrounding the memorial's inner yard is still used as a re-education establishment for juvenile offenders.
