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Killing fucking Nazis. Even a child could do it. And many did. Teens were often members of resistance groups against the Nazis, and many of them sent their enemies off to Nazi hell. Many of them were female. Many of them lost their lives fighting. This is the story of Lepa Radić.
--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: February 8, 1943--
I don’t want those introductory sentences to downplay the courage of those young people who risked and even gave their lives to fight Nazism. When faced with the most vicious and inhumane of enemies invading their homelands, they did not cower, but fought.
Lepa Radić, a Bosnian Serb, was born in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1925. When she was 15, the fucking Nazis invaded, as the region was strategically important to Hitler to protect the southern flank for the forthcoming invasion of the Soviet Union. Lepa didn’t know any of that. She was just a young girl, a good student who loved to read. But when the fucking Nazis came goosestepping in, her entire family was arrested for having ties to the local communist group. A few weeks into their imprisonment they were broken out by the Yugoslav Partisans, a communist resistance group led by Josip Tito, who would eventually become president of Yugoslavia. Lepa and her sister Dara said hey these folks are cool, and joined up. Continues below …
I’ll be honest. Joining up to my Substack isn’t near as cool as joining the resistance to kill Nazis. Not even close. But at least you get to read about killing Nazis.
Her primary roles in the resistance were to transport wounded from the battlefield and help people flee the fucking Nazi occupation. This is where you will come to understand what true courage is. This is what an angry 17-year-old girl is capable of.
Lepa was helping approximately 150 women and children escape the Battle of Neretva. The fucking Nazis were in pursuit, and to give people time to escape she took up a defensive position to cover their exodus, firing upon the advancing SS. Yeah, SS. That means literal fucking Nazis. Lepa fired until she was out of ammunition and was taken captive. She was tortured for days to extract information but gave nothing. We know what happened next because the fucking Nazis decided to publicly execute her on February 8, 1943, and Lepa made the most of it. Rather than cry or beg for mercy, she shouted defiantly to the assembled crowd, “Fight, people, for your freedom! Do not surrender to the evildoers! I will be killed, but there are those who will avenge me!”
This was not going the way the fucking Nazis planned, so moments before hanging her they offered to spare her life in exchange for the names of the resistance leaders. “I am not a traitor of my people,” she shouted. “Those whom you are asking about will reveal themselves when they have succeeded in wiping out all you evildoers, to the last man.”
Lepa’s words were prophetic. The Yugoslav Partisans are considered the most effective resistance to the fucking Nazis during the war, because of brave fighters like Lepa Radić. They had help from the Soviets, but their role in liberating their homeland cannot be overstated.
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Badass and brave beyond her years. Wow! I love reading your posts all the time, but especially when you humanize horrendous situations with one person's story. Rather than writing about the Yugoslav Partisans and what they accomplished, you tell us about one angry, courageous, 17 year old girl. This, along with all of the swearing, is what makes the young people who are exposed to your book so interested in learning about history. Thanks!
to have a but a bit of that courage...