Great Daring Moments From History

1. Daring Defiance in the Face of Death

Stjepan Filipovic was captured by the Nazis in February, 1942, and was sentenced to be publicly hanged in Valjevo’s town square. At death’s door, Stjepan Filipovic had the courage and presence of mind to seize the moment and defy his captors during his last seconds on earth. Mounting the gallows, and with the hangman’s noose around his neck, he daringly thrust his hands in the air and struck a dramatic pose that was captured on camera.

Urging the gathered crowd to continue the struggle against the Nazi oppressors and their Yugoslav collaborators, he cried out just before he was hanged: “Death to fascism, freedom to the people!” – a preexisting partisan slogan that Filipovic’s martyrdom helped popularize. After the war, Filipovic was designated a national hero of Yugoslavia. A monumental statue was erected in Valjevo in his honor, replicating his Y shaped pose in an artistically classic rendition reminiscent of a Goya painting.

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Where Did We Find This Stuff? Some Sources and Further Reading

Air Force Magazine, February 1^st, 1995 – Valor: Thanks, Luftwaffe

Aviation Geek Club – The Story of Bruce Carr, the P-51D Pilot Who Left on a Mission Flying a Mustang and Returned to Base Flying a Luftwaffe FW190

Aviationist – Operation Opera: The Israeli Air Strike on an Iraqi Nuclear Reactor

Beckwith, Christopher I. – Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Asia From the Bronze Age to the Present (2009)

Bonds, Russell S. – Stealing the General: The Great Locomotive Chase and the First Medal of Honor (2006)

British Museum – Furst Karl Joseph Franz von Auesperg

De Crespingy, Rafe – A Biographical Dictionary of the Later Han to the Three Kingdoms: Zhuge Liang (2007)

Encyclopedia Britannica – Entebbe Raid

Encyclopedia Britannica – Hugh Latimer, English Protestant

Encyclopedia Britannica – Raid on the Medway