Stjepan Filipović


Stjepan Filipović 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. The photo of him taken shortly before the execution has become 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 as the fifth child in the family of Anton and Ivka Filipović. The Filipović family moved throughout the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, so he lived in Županja, Mostar and Kragujevac. 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 in 1940.
Filipović was commander of the Partisans' Tamnavsko-Kolubarski unit in Valjevo by 1941. He was captured on 24 December 1941 by Chetniks unit of Kosta Pećanac and hanged in Valjevo by Serbian State Guard unit on 27 May 1942, aged 26. As the rope was put around his neck, Filipović defiantly thrust his hands out and shouted "Smrt fašizmu, sloboda narodu!" which translates as "Death to fascism, freedom to the people!". He urged the Yugoslav people to resist and implored them to never cease resisting. At this moment, a photograph was taken which has since become famous, and from which a statue of Filipović was cast.
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.Šimun Filipović brother of Stjepan Filipović was shot by Germans in Kragujevac massacre although he was ethnic Croat which would save him from death he refused to say so and he shared his fate with citizens of Kragujevac. Second brother Nikola was killed in May 1943 as a member of 1st Proletarian Brigade