Remembering Freedom Fighter Lepa Radić

Lepa Radić, born 19 December 1925, was a Yugoslav Partisan of Serb origin who fought for the resistance against the Germans occupying her country during World War II. She joined the Communist Party at age 15, and after being captured then escaping secret police custofy she joined the 7th company, 2nd Krajiški Detachment fighting an unconventional war against the German's and their quisling allies.

She was captured again while transporting wounded partisans and tourtured for information. Apparently the German's exploitation of her in captivity was fruitless. She was executed on 8 Februaury 1943 at the age of 17 for the "crime" of shooting at German troops. As her captors tied the noose around her neck, they offered her a way out of the gallows by revealing her comrades' and leaders' identities. She responded that she was not a traitor and that her comrades would reveal themselves when they avenged her death.

Reportedly, with the noose around her neck, she cried out: "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!" In her last moments at the scaffold, the Germans offered to spare her life, in return for the names of the Communist Party leaders and members in the shelter, but she refused their offer with the words: "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."

Lepa Radić was 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. Even though she was an avowed communicst, one was marvel at the courage and conviction of anyone let alone a young teenage girl when facing a horrific death by hanging.