Death to fascism, freedom to the people

Croatian partisan fighter Stjepan Filipović shouting "Death to fascism, freedom to the People!" seconds before his execution by a Serbian State Guard (local collaborator) unit in Valjevo, occupied Yugoslavia.

The slogan written on a wall in Split, September 1943

The slogan Death to fascism, freedom to the people! (Serbo-Croatian: Smrt fašizmu, sloboda narodu!, Slovene: Smrt fašizmu, svoboda narodu!) was a Yugoslav Partisan motto, afterward accepted as the official slogan of the entire resistance movement, and was often quoted in post-war Yugoslavia.^[1] It was also used as a greeting formulation among the movement members both in official and unofficial correspondence during the war and for a few subsequent years, often abbreviated as "SFSN!" when written and accompanied by the clenched fist salute when spoken (one person usually saying "Smrt fašizmu!", the other responding with "Sloboda narodu!".

The slogan became popular after death of Croatian Partisan Stjepan Filipović. As the rope was put around his neck on 22 May 1942, Filipović defiantly thrust his hands out and denounced the Germans and their Axis allies as murderers, shouting "Death to fascism, freedom to the people!". At this moment, a subsequently-famous photograph was taken from which a statue was cast.^[2]

The August 1941 edition of the Croatian daily newspaper Vjesnik, then the primary media publication of the Partisan resistance movement, featured the statement "Smrt fašizmu, sloboda narodu".

See also

• Yugoslav Partisans
• League of Communists of Croatia

References

1. ^ imdb: Biography for Josip Broz Tito
2. ^ Sinclair, Upton; Sagarin, Edward; Teichnerhe, Albert; Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest p. 438; L. Stuart, 1963.