—Milorad Mitrašinovic

Filipovic's Valiant last stand:

The Defiant One

         Stjepan Filipovic was born in southern Dalmatia on January 27, 1916 and he met his death by hanging as a Nazi prisoner of war on June 22, 1942. He was a Croat. His transgression was his participation in the Partisan resistance movement. After high school, at the tender age of 16, he moved away from his family in Srem and started a new life in Kragujevac. As the major industrial center in central Serbia, Kragujevac had many employment opportunities for a young man and Filipovic became a metal worker. In 1937 he joined the Worker's Revolutionary Movement, a Communist organization, and not long after, he was arrested for his activities in the Party. He was imprisoned for a year and upon release, he was warned to leave Kragujevac. He joined the Communist Party officially in 1940 before he left. With the Nazi invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, he found himself back in Kragujevac volunteering for active duty in the Partisan struggle against the Germans. In Valjevo, he was responsible for organizing arms and gathering supporters for the Partisan cause. In his first battle, he preformed extraordinarily well and rose quickly in the ranks of the Partisan resistance. Filipovic eventually became commander of his own battalion. His good fortune came to an end when he was captured by the Nazis on February 24, 1942. Almost four months later he was hanged in the town square in Valjevo.⁴²

         While I was in Belgrade, it was my pleasure to interview a woman, Mrs. Rakic, who personally witnessed Filipovic's execution as a sixteen-year-old girl in Valjevo.⁴³ Her recollections gave life to the material I had read about Filipovic. Her memory of that day is still very vivid, despite the fact that almost sixty years have passed. The Germans forced all of the students from the local high school into the square so that they could watch the execution and, presumably, the experience would intimidate them and deter them from any ideas they might have had about joining the resistance. Filipovic was described to me by Mrs. Rakic as man who was visibly tired, but still carried his shoulders square and with pride. He was alert and looking around at the crowd as they led him to the gallows, but he moved stiffly. She was unable to see any signs of torture in the distance but it is doubtful that the Nazis provided much entertainment for him during the four months of his captivity. Filipovic's biographical sketches in Enciklopedija Jugoslavije and Vojna Enciklopedija both assume "bestial torture" and "extended torture" respectively. In honor of his heroic last moments before the gallows, Filipovic was extended the honor of becoming a "national hero" on February 16, 1949, an title bestowed upon those who demonstrated heroism and bravery beyond the call of duty.⁴⁴ Membership in the Communist Party was also a prerequisite. As with Filipovic, many people were proclaimed national heroes posthumously but many lived to receive their honors in person. Approximately 1,900 national heroes were proclaimed, but the memory of very few has been venerated with a statue standing twelve meters high. The Filipovic Monument dominates the southwestern ridge of Vidrak Hill, which overlooks the Valjevo town square on which Filipovic was hanged.⁴⁵ What exactly did Filipovic do to bring such honor to his memory?

         Filipovic was scheduled to be hanged at 11 a.m. on June 22, 1942, but he met his death a few minutes early. He somehow found the bravery to yell a few last, defiant words to the crowd as he was being led up to the gallows, despite the fact that a group of German officers were gathered nearby, awaiting his death. His words are recorded in the Enciklopedija Jugoslavije:

         The most striking thing about the words the encyclopedia assigns to Filipovic is that he remembered to criticize the "traitors of the Serbian people." He is referring to the those who collaborated with the Germans and the royalist Četniks. This statement follows the Communist contention that anyone not contributing to the Partisan cause was, to some degree, a traitor. Mrs. Rakic could not comment on the exact words Filipovic uttered, as she was too far away to hear his comments. She was only able to discern a comment regarding Stalin, most likely some exclamation of praise, but nothing more. It is thus possible that some politically minded poetic license was taken, and the words attributed to Filipovic were composed without a solid source for the quotation. As a Partisan and an active Communist before the war, it is very likely that Filipovic would have spouted Communist slogans, but his alleged comment about "traitors" sounds contrived.

         Naturally, a man who will be executed as a prisoner of war despises the Nazis as his executioners. Then, as a last and final scathing insult, he remembers to equate his opponents in the civil war with the Germans. If indeed the words attributed to Filipovic are not exact and the reference to the Četniks as traitors of the Serbian people was "filled in" by the author of the text, we have again a fine example of the Partisans redressing history. The purpose in this is to proliferate a demeaning view of Četnik wartime actions, while simultaneously building up their own image as the fearless protectors who would sacrifice everything in the name of freedom, as Filipovic was willing to do.

         The text continues describing Filipovic's final moments:

         We are left with a profound sense of heroism at its finest. Defiant to the end, Filipovic would not go quietly. One of the things that Mrs.Rakic recalls most clearly about the hanging was the conversation in the crowd after Filipovic had been silenced with the rope. The crowd was not allowed to disperse until the Germans decided they had seen enough to sicken and dissuade them from any resistance activities. The crowd was understandably restless and anxious and it was finally allowed to break up after waiting an hour. As people departed, many comments about Filipovic's bravery, fearlessness and heroism in the face of his own execution were mumbled. Many people were in shock to see that the condemned man's last words were so passionate and patriotic after four months in captivity. Filipovic's spirit had prevailed in the end and the effect could not be erased, even by the German demands that the crowd silently stare at the body of the young patriot for one hour.

         Filipovic's stance as he stood ready for death, with a rope around his neck, his mouth open, no doubt shouting, was immortalized in a photograph.⁴⁸ The picture surfaced after the war and his image became legendary. A bronze statue was later made in his memory by Vojin Bakic. For many years, this statue graced the courtyard of the house Tito used as a meeting place, in a suburb of Belgrade, when he and the other Party members declared their intentions to fight the Germans tooth and nail on July 4, 1941.⁴⁹ It has since been moved to the Military Museum where it adorns the exhibit about the Second World War.⁵⁰ The image of Filipovic is moving in any medium. An enlarged version of the original photograph is displayed near the statue in he Military Museum, Belgrade, and both are very evocative. The defiant stance and the expression on his face make his passion for his cause clear.