On February 8, 1943, Bosnian member of Yugoslav partisans, Lepa Svetozara Radić was executed at the age of 17 by the Nazis during World War II. She was part of the 7th partisan company of the 2nd Krajiški Detachment, and took part in Kozara Offensive and Battle of Neretva before she was captured by the Nazis. After failing to extract any information from her about the partisans, she was sentenced to death by hanging.
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!”
Nazi troops 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 they would reveal themselves when they avenged her death.
She was posthumously awarded the Order of the People’s Hero on 20 December 1951, for her role in the resistance movement against the Axis powers—becoming the youngest recipient at the time.
