There were many acts of resistance carried out within Germany and those lands occupied
by the Nazis.
Many of those who found themselves living under Nazi occupation hated it during the
Second World War, and because of this they involved themselves in organised acts of defiance.
For example the French Resistance, but when the Germans and Nazis often discovered resistors,
they were dealt with brutally in horrific ways.
The Gestapo would administer brutal torture to gain as much information as they could,
but often public executions were ordered and carried out to those who went against the
occupation.
The point in this was to make sure that the other people living inside of the country
did not also defy and carry out acts of sabotage.
Civilians were even encouraged to speak to the Gestapo and other police agencies about
those who they suspected went against the beliefs of Hitler and the Nazis.
There were in the Balkan states a number of resistance groups that emerged, and the most
successful was the Partisans.
Today we look at the execution of a Partisan who were executed in public, but the images
of his execution were some of the most powerful of the Second World War, with Stjepan Filipovic
standing with his arms aloft and a noose around his neck.
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Stjepan Filipovic was born on the 27th January 1916 in Opuzen which is found today in modern
day Croatia.
His family moved throughout Yugoslavia, and Stjepan as a young man lived in a number of
different cities.
He studied to become a locksmith inside of Kragujevac, and he also learned electrical
wiring and carpentry.
In 1937, he became involved in local labour movements and political activism, joining
a number of groups.
Because of his actions he was later arrested and was sentenced to a year in prison in 1939.
After he left prison, he remained a political activist and he joined the Communist Party
of Yugoslavia.
However within a few years, the German army rampaged across to Yugoslavia.
The Yugoslav army was quickly overwhelmed by the Germans, and despite putting up a fight
there was nothing they could do.
Because Yugoslavia was now under German occupation, many members of the civilian population took
up arms and defied the occupiers.
The Invasion of Yugoslavia was brutal, and Germany attacked from all sides and were helped
out by the Italians and the Hungarians who made up the Axis alliance.
They attacked the capital Belgrade and carried out huge bombing raids, with the Luftwaffe
destroying large parts of the city.
The invasion did not last long, and within 10 days the Royal Yugoslav Army announced
that it had surrendered after being overwhelmed by the Axis forces.
Their poor training and lack of equipment and resources could not take on the German
war machine.
But inside the country, there were pockets of defiance which later rose up to become
more significant.
Many people refused to fight and bear arms against the Germans, and instead treated them
as liberators who they believed would free them from government oppression.
But two resistance groups emerged, the Partisans and the Chetnikes.
When the Germans invaded Yugoslavia, Stjepan Filipovic was inside of the city of Valjevo,
and he then in 1941 joined the Kolubara soldiers of the Valjevo Partisan Detachment.
These were a communist resistance group, and they were viewed as the enemies of the Nazis,
and Filipovic rose inside the Partisans significantly.
He was seen as a skilled leader, and he was made a commander before being transferred
across to the Tamnavsko-Kolubarski unit in Valjevo.
He served this unit, and was involved in recruiting more men and women to join the Partisans and
the resistance, as well as making sure they had enough supplies, food, weapon, ammunition
and other equipment to carry out acts of sabotage.
But for the Partisans, they also had to content with another resistance group who were seen
as their rivals, the Chetniks.
The two groups had very different ideas and wished to go about their resistance in a number
of different ways.
Despite going against the Nazis, the Chetniks were original’s made up of Ethnic serb Yugoslav
soldiers who managed to escape the Axis Army’s capture.
They fled to the hills of Bosnia, Montegro and Serbia and were led by Dragoljub Mihalovic.
The Chetnik’s numbers did rise when Serbian Peasants who fled from Croatia after the invasion
joined them, but they did not allow non-serbs to join their ranks.
The Chetniks were most conservative and feared reprisals more by the German army, and they
tended to worry about what the German occupiers would do in retaliation for their actions.
The Germans were known for carrying out a policy of ordering 100 killings and executions
of civilians for every one German soldier killed by resistors.
They were more cautious, and because of this attracted criticism and conflict from the
Partisans.
The Partisans were led by Josip Broz Tito, and their sole goal was to get rid of the
Axis and German occupation.
They then wished to create an independent socialist Yugoslav state, which would be established
after freeing the civilian population from occupation.
They favoured much more offensive action and direct action against the Germans, and they
included all ethnic groups and because of this attracted a significant amount of criticism
from Chetniks themselves.
They were rivals despite wanting the end of the occupation.
It was inside of a Partisan detachment and unit that Stjepan Filipovic began a commander
but he was captured in action on the 24th December 1941.
He wasn’t captured by the Germans, but instead was captured by the Chetniks.
They then handed him over to the Gestapo who interrogated him in the headquarters in Belgrade.
Whilst being tortured and questioned, Filipovic refused to give over any information at all
and because of this the Gestapo marked his file as an impossible case.
His file was marked with a red pen, meaning that he was a lost cause, and with this was
sentenced to death.
Sjephan Filipovic was brought into the streets of Valjevo in front of a huge crowd.
He was dragged through the central streets of the city, shouting defiant statements against
the Nazis and his executioners.
He screamed, ‘Long live the liberators of the people, down with the racists and the
collaborators and long live communism.’
Hearing this, more people were brought out of their homes to watch the proceedings, and
Filipovic was then taken into the square inside of the town.
He arrived where some gallows had been created in the centre of the square.
Underneath the wooden gallows was a bench, and Filipovic was told to stand upon the bench
to await his death.
As he stood there over the crowd, a noose which had been made from thin wire and rope
was fastened around his neck and tightened.
As the noose was around his neck, he cried out to the crowd, ‘What are you waiting
for?
Why are you allowing this?
Grab those rusty rifles and free your country from this scum, long live out liberating army,
death to facism.
Freedom to the people!’
His attempts to incite the crowd were in vain.
As soldiers approached him he tried to kick one of them, and then a soldier punched him
in the face.
He tried to strike back, and as this happened, he slipped off the bench and the noose then
tightened around his neck, and very slowly in front of the huge crowd, Filipovic strangled
to death.
However a photograph had been taken of the moments, and because of this the images of
Filipovic standing defiantly with his arms held aloft with the noose around his neck
became iconic.
The photograph was hidden as the Germans worried about the propaganda and publicity generated
by it.
Only one copy remained where it was held by a local doctor who gained the trust of the
Germans.
He then released the photograph to the rest of the world.
The iconic image of Stjephan Filipovic today is commemorated in Valjevo where a huge statue
stands as a commemoration of his bravery and defiance in the face of his death and the
Nazis.
As he stood on the gallows, he wished for an end of the Nazi occupation and he tried
to rally those within the city he was greatly fond on.
He’s seen today as a heroic symbol of defiance and opposition to one of history’s most
evil regimes.
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