The author discusses problems of creative effort in arts and science within the occupied Slovene territory in the period 1941-1945. At the same time, he also analyzes the significance of cultural silence as commanded by the Liberation Front, and tries to find out to what extent Slovene artists followed the call. After the end of World War II, the new authorities squared the accounts with those who did not follow, and attempted to destroy the results of their work. The author approaches the events from two points of view; in the occupied territory, the foreign authorities encouraged creative efforts, while artists, active within the Liberation Front, opposed such efforts and criticized their colleagues who were willing to collaborate with either the occupying forces or local quislings in the cultural sphere.