Stjepan Filipović

Stjepan Filipović (27 January 1916 – 22 May 1942) was a Croatian Partisan who was executed during World War II and posthumously declared a People's Hero of Yugoslavia.

Filipović was born on 27 January 1916 in Opuzen (in modern-day Dubrovnik-Neretva County, 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 the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. He joined the workers' movement in 1937, but he was arrested in 1939 and sentenced to a year in prison. He later joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia in 1940.

Filipović was commander of the Partisans' Tamnavsko-Kolubarski unit in Valjevo (modern-day Serbia) by 1941. He was captured on 24 February 1942 by Axis forces and subsequently hanged in Valjevo on 22 May 1942. 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 subsequently-famous photograph was taken from which a statue 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 torn down in 1991; reconstruction is planned by the Croatian Ministry of Culture.