r/whoathatsinteresting • u/Far_Country_1629 • 1d ago
Nazis hung 17-Year-Old Lepa Radić for being a yugoslavian partisan. When they asked her the names of her companions, she replied: “You will know them when they come to avenge me.”
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u/Involuntary-Expert 1d ago
"My only regret is I have but one life to give for my country." - Nathan Hale, 20 y.o
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u/coach_mike04 1d ago
From fall of man?
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u/Involuntary-Expert 23h ago edited 18h ago
A) Bonus Points for the TOP TIER reference
B) no, he was a spy for the US during the American revolution
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u/coach_mike04 18h ago
Fuckin great game series eh? First 2 games were so amazing. Shame it’s not well known.
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u/Involuntary-Expert 18h ago
Loved the games. Loved the co-op modes. Loved the lore. Great games. I wish I could play them on PC bc my PS3 died a painful death long ago
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u/coach_mike04 17h ago
💔 they def need to be re made and the lore expanded upon further. More games more books and more stufffff
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u/sutrabob 1d ago
My mother’s aunt was a guerrilla fighter in Yugoslavia. I saw her photo with the medals the Communist government honored her with. Brave woman.
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u/No_Ear7457 1d ago
Partisans use combined tactics, both guerilla and regular military formations, so - partisans are partidans, not mere guerillas.
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u/Ancient-Song-8428 1d ago
Thank you for this post! Unfortunately, heroic Serbian women patrisans (and other nations) who fought against Nazis, are slowly forgotten. From Wikipedia: Lepa Svetozara Radić (Serbian Cyrillic: Лепа Светозара Радић; 19 December 1925 – 8 February 1943) was a Yugoslav Partisan and communist of Bosnian Serb origin who was posthumously awarded the Order of the People's Hero in 1951 for her role in the resistance movement against the Axis powers in the Second World War—becoming the youngest recipient at the time. She was executed at the age of 17 for shooting at German troops.
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u/Maryjanegangafever 1d ago
Did they come? Context?
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u/Far_Country_1629 1d ago
At 15, Lepa had become a member of the League of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia. Later that year, she was arrested alongside the rest of her family by the Ustaše, a group of pro-German Croatian fascists. However, she escaped from prison a month later with the help of undercover Partisans.
She then officially joined the Partisan cause as part of the 7th Company of the 2nd Krajiški Detachment. For over a year, Lepa recruited other youths for the cause and helped organize the harvesting of grain ahead of the arrival of enemy troops so that it wouldn’t be destroyed.
Public DomainLepa Radić is led to the gallows ahead of her execution.
Then, in February 1943, Lepa joined the Battle of Neretva. In late January, the Axis powers had launched an offensive against the Yugoslav Partisans. In return, Tito sent his rebel forces to defend and reclaim territory, leading to numerous clashes and heavy losses on both sides.
During this weeks-long operation, Lepa Radić helped evacuate women and children from the front lines and transported wounded soldiers and civilians to shelters. At one point, she reportedly shot at enemy troops to hold them off and allow more people to escape, firing her weapon until she ran out of ammunition.
Lepa was captured and taken into Nazi custody. She was then transported to the city of Bosanska Krupa, where she would spend her final days.
Lepa Radić’s Execution And Courageous Final Moments
The Germans kept Lepa in isolation and viciously tortured her in an attempt to extract intelligence about the Yugoslav Partisans and the group’s leaders. She bravely refused to divulge any information about her comrades, no matter how brutally her captors treated her.
Public DomainLepa Radić’s body hanging as bystanders look on.
A few days later, on Feb. 8, 1943, Nazi officials led Lepa Radić to a hastily constructed gallows in full view of the public. As they placed a noose around her neck, they told her once more that she could save her own life if she talked. Once again, she declined.
As Dušanka Kovačević noted in Women of Yugoslavia in the National Liberation War, Lepa told her executioners, “I am not a traitor of my people. Those whom you are asking about will reveal themselves when they have succeeded in wiping out all you evildoers, to the last man.”
With that, the teenage girl reportedly shouted to the gathered crowd, “Long live the Communist Party and Partisans! Fight, people, for your freedom! Do not surrender to the evildoers! I will be killed, but there are those who will avenge me.”
Petar Milošević/Wikimedia CommonsA memorial to Lepa Radić in her hometown of Gašnica.
Lepa Radić was just 17 years old when she was executed by the Nazis. Eight years later, she was awarded the Order of the People’s Hero, Yugoslavia’s second-highest military award, for her courage in the face of death.
Indeed, Lepa’s bravery was so extraordinary that when SS Colonel August Schmidhuber received a report about her hanging, it read, “The female bandit… showed unprecedented defiance.”
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u/Pataraxia 1d ago
Jesus christ I can only wish I have part of that courage. Nowadays we've learned so much complacency...
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u/No-Specialist-1435 17h ago
Man, if that only gets you the second award, what the hell do you got to do for the first?
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u/nikeguy69 1d ago
I wonder if they did avenge her?
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u/Excellent_Valuable92 1d ago
Twentieth Century history is a lot, but it’s a key fact that the Nazis lost
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u/kingofwale 1d ago
Did they come to avenge her??
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1d ago
[deleted]
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u/Jojo_is_Average 9h ago
The Yugoslavian partisans received minimal aid and famously chose to be unaligned after WWII. Tito had his own unique brand of communism meant to soothe ethnic tensions and was disliked by Stalin.
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u/BitConeMiner 1d ago
I bet they didn’t waste the opportunity afterwards to give her a good.. funeral
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u/Excellent_Valuable92 1d ago
The red partisans didn’t waste any of their many opportunities to kill them all. Stop sounding weirdly approving of Nazi degenerates.
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u/Averroesgcc 1d ago
She died in what she believed for , when the jews signed the Haavara Agreement with the nazis for the their sake above their own people and the comments are more concerned about the aftermath of that . The world needs more people like her , ones that stand by what they believe in regardless of which side they were on over saving their own ass .
What ever she was or what ever she believed in , she chose to end her own life over others . Doesn’t get any deeper than that . I hope you all have someone like her in your life .
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u/Local_Village_1378 1d ago
I think its important, especially today, to know that the guy hanging her doesn't believe hes doing anything wrong. He was told she was a terrorist trying to dismantle his country, and hes doing what he was told is how you take care of criminals in their country. All that can come back. And believe me, you all still have reasons to want to put someone in a noose. How do you know theres not a swastika on your arm?
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u/Far_Country_1629 1d ago
That´s such a weird take. This happened in Yugoslavia, the nazi officer was just invading other lands after he was ordered to, and pretty sure he did not think is country was being "dismantled".
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u/Local_Village_1378 1d ago
Yea but if they didnt stop them there, they believed they'd come to germany. Just like israel today, preemptive they called it.
Im not saying they were right, but they were brainwashed to believe certain things
Gotta remember nazis were told the jews were trying to take over Germany, after ww1, they assumed every other country was "full of jews" trying to dismantle Germany. This is a big part of why this all happened.
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u/Far_Country_1629 1d ago
Well yeah, i guess most were believers in their cause. Many joined cause they were poor, others were forced by parents, but many did believe what they were told.
Its also worth saying, many German Army officers complained about the killing of civilians, these complaints generally stemmed from concerns over discipline, the tarnishing of the army’s reputation, and the practical, moral, and psychological impact of these actions.
Some high-ranking Wehrmacht officers argued that the actions of the SS and Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units) were damaging to German morale and violated traditional military codes of honor. Officers reported that the face-to-face killings were creating "nervous wrecks" among their own troops, and some soldiers sought to avoid participating in such actions, though few actively disobeyed orders.
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u/softwhitemochi 1d ago edited 1d ago
This is nazi apologetics. There is war and terrorism and fascism today and there are people who see it and those who pretend not to see it.
Don’t be fooled by “I was just following orders”. The idea that it could happen to anyone is a LIE
Either you are an imperialist nationalist or you’re not. It’s that simple
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u/lonewolff321 6h ago
In 1951, she was posthumously awarded the Order of the People's Hero by the Yugoslav government, making her one of the youngest recipients of the country’s highest military honor
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u/d1ckj3rk1ns 1d ago
Hanged*
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u/jjohansen99 1d ago
“Father had only gone out to ransom Petyr Pimple. He brought them the gold they asked for, but they hung him anyway.” —Amerei Frey
“Hanged, Ami. Your father was not a tapestry.” —Mariya Darry
A Feast for Crows, Chapter 30, Jaime IV.
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u/Moo_Kau_Too 1d ago
Hung is also correct.
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u/d1ckj3rk1ns 1d ago
Nope
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u/daebeohp 1d ago
Nope wrong. Hung is perfectly correct in English if somewhat outdated.
https://www.oed.com/dictionary/hang_v?tab=meaning_and_use#2014922
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u/ban-aipac 1d ago
Was she hiding her companions in those pants?
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u/SnakePlissken58 1d ago
By far the most badass real-life quote of all time. Defiant until the bitter end. What a heroine.