Filimon Sârbu

Filimon Sârbu (August 10, 1916 – July 19, 1941) was a Romanian communist activist and anti-fascist militant executed by the pro-Nazi authorities during World War II. After the war, he was acclaimed as a hero by the communist government.

Born into a family of workers in Herepea, Transylvania, Sârbu started in 1930 as an apprentice lathe operator at the Workshops of the Directorate of Maritime Ports in Constanţa. After joining the illegal Communist Party of Romania in 1941, he received the task to organize sabotage acts against the fascist forces in the city and in the port. He also became the Secretary of the county organization of the Union of Communist Youth.

According to Vartan Arachelian and Corneliu Coposu, Sârbu was part of a group who set fire to a German military depot in Constanţa, and signaled Soviet warplanes at night. On June 22, 1941 (the day Operation Barbarossa was launched), Sârbu was arrested along four other anti-fascist militants by the Siguranţa Statului (Romania's secret police), during a clandestine meeting on the "Pescărie" beach, in Mamaia. The purpose of the meeting was described by the official indictment as "instigation to sabotage acts against the state order". After a summary trial by the Court Martial of the Bucharest Territorial High Command, he was sentenced to death on July 4. On the evening of July 19, he was executed by firing squad at Jilava prison, in a place named "Valea Piersicilor" (Valley of the Peaches). Sârbu was the only one to be executed, the other 4 activists tried in the same case being sentenced to prison.

References

*B. I. Gheorghe, "Filimon Sîrbu", in "Anale de istorie, year XV", no. 4, Bucharest, Institutul de Studii Istorice și Social-Politice de pe lîngă C.C. al P.C.R, 1969, pp. 153-156
* Vartan Arachelian, [http://www.scribd.com/doc/36555/Vartan-Arachelian-Dialoguri-cu-Corneliu-Coposu "Dialoguri cu Corneliu Coposu"]

External links

* [http://home.no.net/bhb2/ro0852.jpgStamp honouring Filimon Sârbu]