In 1941 the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was attacked by the Germans and its alliances in World War Two.
These were called “The Axis Powers”.
After Adolf Hitler announced his plans to annex Yugoslavia, the government that was pro-axis was overthrown in a coup.
Yugoslavia was attacked from all sides of the country and didn’t have enough armory to stand a chance against the German military — this was mainly due to the lack of equipment and no proper training for the Yugoslavian soldiers.
Lepa Radić’s Early Life
Lepa Radić was a girl that was born in what we now call Serbia (Yugoslavia).
After she was born in 1925, she went to school like any other girl at the time, but when she was around 14/15 years old, she joined a Communist organization in Yugoslavia called: League of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia and eventually ended up in the national Communist party of Yugoslavia.
It’s no secret that the Nazis hated communists, Lepa and her family as being communists had a lot to fear at the time the Nazis invaded Yugoslavia.
Lepa’s Imprisonment and Escape
In November of that same year (1941), Lepa and her family got arrested by the Germans and put into prison — but she escaped and naturally joined the resistance in what now was called: the State of Croatia.
Lepa served in many organizations to help her fellow citizens and other people that were captured in the war.
In 1943, on a cold day in February, Lepa and the other resistance members were surrounded by many German soldiers of the 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division — it was to surrender or die.
She didn’t surrender, she fired shots at the soldiers.
When they captured her, she was sentenced to death at 17 years old after they have tortured her for days and after refusing to betray her fellow resistance members she was hung.
Originally Published on Medium by me (Bryan Dijkhuizen)
Sources & References
- Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, March 23). Lepa Radić. Wikipedia. Retrieved May 23, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lepa_Radi%C4%87
