Stjepan Filipović (27 January 1916 – 22 May 1942) was a Yugoslav communist who led the Kolubara Company of the Valjevo Partisan Detachment during the 1941 Partisan uprising. He was captured and executed in 1942 in Valjevo. A photo of him taken shortly before his execution became a symbol of resistance against fascism in the Second World War, and was, among others, exhibited in the United Nations building in New York. He was proclaimed People's Hero of Yugoslavia in 1949.

Biography

Stjepan Filipović was born on 27 January 1916 in Opuzen (modern-day Croatia) as the fifth child of Anton and Ivka Filipović. He was an ethnic Croat. The Filipović family moved throughout the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, so he lived in Županja, Mostar and

Kragujevac Kragujevac ( sr-Cyrl, Крагујевац, ) is the fourth largest city in Serbia and the administrative centre of the Šumadija District. It is the historical centre of the geographical region of Šumadija in central Serbia, and is situated on ...

. In Kragujevac, he studied locksmithing and mastered the basics of electrical wiring, carpentry and bookbinding. He joined the labour movement in 1937, but he was arrested in 1939 and sentenced to a year in prison. He joined the

Communist Party of Yugoslavia The League of Communists of Yugoslavia, mk, Сојуз на комунистите на Југославија, Sojuz na komunistite na Jugoslavija known until 1952 as the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, sl, Komunistična partija Jugoslavije mk ...

in 1940. Filipović was commander of the Partisans' Tamnavsko-Kolubarski unit in Valjevo (modern-day Serbia) by 1941. He was captured on 24 December 1941 by

Chetniks The Chetniks ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, Четници, Četnici, ; sl, Četniki), formally the Chetnik Detachments of the Yugoslav Army, and also the Yugoslav Army in the Homeland and the Ravna Gora Movement, was a Yugoslav royalist and Serbian nationa ...

unit of

Kosta Pećanac Konstantin "Kosta" Milovanović Pećanac ( sr-cyrl, Константин Коста Миловановић Пећанац; 1879–1944) was a Serbian and Yugoslav Chetnik commander ('' vojvoda'') during the Balkan Wars, World War I and World ...

and hanged in Valjevo by a

Serbian State Guard The Serbian State Guard ( sr, Srpska državna straža, italics=yes, SDS; sr-Cyrl, Српска државна стража; german: Serbische Staatsgarde/Serbische Staatswache) was a collaborationist paramilitary force used to impose law and ...

unit on 27 May 1942, aged 26. As the rope was put around his neck, Filipović raised his arms and shouted "Smrt fašizmu, sloboda narodu!" ("

Death to fascism, freedom to the people "Death to fascism, freedom to the people!" ( sh-Latn-Cyrl , Smrt fašizmu, sloboda narodu! , separator= " / " , Смрт фашизму, слобода народу! , sl, Smrt fašizmu, svoboda narodu!, mk, Смрт на фашизмот, ...

!"). He urged the Yugoslav people to resist and implored them to never cease resisting. A photograph taken at this moment was widely reproduced and became a symbol of anti-fascist resistance. A statue of Filipović was cast in its likeness. Filipović was declared a National Hero of Yugoslavia on 14 December 1949. The town of Valjevo has a statue dedicated to him, "''Stevan'' Filipović". A monument was also erected in his home town of Opuzen in 1968, but was demolished in 1991. His brother Šimun was shot by Germans in the

Kragujevac massacre The Kragujevac massacre was the mass murder of between 2,778 and 2,794 mostly Serb men and boys in Kragujevac, by German soldiers on 21 October 1941. It occurred in the German-occupied territory of Serbia during World War II, and came as a r ...

in Serbia; although he was an ethnic Croat, which could have saved him from death, he refused to say so, sharing his fate with citizens of

. Stjepan's second brother Nikola was killed in May 1943 as a member of the

1st Proletarian Brigade The 1st Proletarian Brigade, later the 1st Proletarian Division, was the first brigade-size formation raised by the Yugoslav Partisans during World War II. The unit was one of the elite formations of the National Liberation Army of Yugoslavia. Its ...

References

External links

*
Narodni heroji Jugoslavije
', Mladost, Belgrade, 1975. {{DEFAULTSORT:Filipovic, Stjepan 1916 births 1942 deaths People from Opuzen People from the Kingdom of Dalmatia Yugoslav Partisans members 20th-century Croatian people Croatian communists Executed Croatian people Recipients of the Order of the People's Hero Resistance members killed by Nazi Germany People executed by Nazi Germany by hanging Croatian people executed by Nazi Germany Yugoslav people executed by Nazi Germany People notable for being the subject of a specific photograph