-Stjepan Filipovic; Yugoslav Partisans; Executed by Germans 1942 -Wikipedia, Stjepan Filipovic (he isn't well-known outside the former Yugoslavia and I cannot find any English-language newspapers or books talking about him) Stjepan "Stevo" Filipović (Стјепан "Стево" Филиповић) (27 January 1916 – 22 May 1942) was a Croatian partisan who was executed during World War II and posthumously declared a national hero in 1949. Filipović was born in Opuzen, Croatia in the last days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Before the outbreak of the Second World War he lived in Mostar (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Kragujevac (Serbia), then both part of Yugoslavia. He joined the workers' movement In 1937 and later the Communist Party of Yugoslavia in 1940. Filipović was arrested in 1939 and sentenced to a year in prison. Filipović was with the yugoslav Partisans in Valjevo in 1941. He was captured On 24 February 1942 by German forces and subsequently hanged in Valjevo on 22 May 1942. Just prior to his execution, in front of the crowd who were there to watch the hanging, he shouted anti-fascist sentiments as well as his support for the Yugoslav Communist Party and Red Army. He was hanged 15 minutes before the scheduled time. The city of Valjevo has a monument of him, under a Serbianized version of his name, Stevan Filipović. A monument was also erected in his home town of Opuzen in the eighties, but this was torn down in 1991.
Moments before Stevo's death. Reminds me of a quote, "They can take our freedom, and they can take our lives, but they can never take our honor."
