Filip "Fića" Kljajić ( sr-Cyrl, Филип Фића Кљајић; 2 May 1913 – 5 July 1943) was a

Yugoslav Partisan The Yugoslav Partisans, Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, Slovene: , or the National Liberation Army, sh-Latn-Cyrl, Narodnooslobodilačka vojska (NOV), Народноослободилачка војска (НОВ); mk, Народноослобод ...

fighter during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

and political commissar of the

1st Proletarian Brigade The 1st Proletarian Brigade, later the 1st Proletarian Division, was the first brigade-size formation raised by the Yugoslav Partisans during World War II. The unit was one of the elite formations of the National Liberation Army of Yugoslavia. It ...

. Kljajić was killed during the

Battle of Zvornik The Battle of Zvornik ( bs, Bitka u Zvorniku) was the 1943 capture by the 1st Proletarian Brigade of the occupied Bosnian town Zvornik from the Wehrmacht and the Ustasha troops of the occupying Independent State of Croatia. Operation Preparatio ...

and posthumously awarded the

Order of the People's Hero The Order of the People's Hero or the Order of the National Hero ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Orden narodnog heroja, Oрден народног хероја; sl, Red narodnega heroja, mk, Oрден на народен херој, Orden na ...

on 25 September 1944.

Biography

Kljajić was born in the village of Tremušnjak, in the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, near the town of

Petrinja Petrinja () is a town in central Croatia near Sisak in the historic region of Banovina. It is administratively located in Sisak-Moslavina County. On December 29, 2020, the town was hit by a strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6.4 , causing ...

, to a

Croatian Serb The Serbs of Croatia ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, separator=" / ", Срби у Хрватској, Srbi u Hrvatskoj) or Croatian Serbs ( sh-Cyrl-Latn, separator=" / ", хрватски Срби, hrvatski Srbi) constitute the largest national minority in Croa ...

family. Prior to the outbreak of the war, Kljajić was a shoemaker.

World War 2

Tito predaje zastavu Prvoj proleterskoj brigadi

In early July 1943, the

, with Kljajić serving as their political commissar (since 21 December 1941), attempted to liberate the occupied Bosnian town

Zvornik Zvornik ( sr-cyrl, Зворник, ) is a city in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is located in Republika Srpska, on the left bank of the Drina river. In 2013, it had a population of 58,856 inhabitants. The town of Mali Zvornik ("Little Zvornik") lies ...

from the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...

and the troops of the

Axis An axis (plural ''axes'') is an imaginary line around which an object rotates or is symmetrical. Axis may also refer to: Mathematics * Axis of rotation: see rotation around a fixed axis * Axis (mathematics), a designator for a Cartesian-coordinat ...

puppet state A puppet state, puppet régime, puppet government or dummy government, is a state that is ''de jure'' independent but ''de facto'' completely dependent upon an outside power and subject to its orders.Compare: Puppet states have nominal sove ...

, the

Independent State of Croatia The Independent State of Croatia ( sh, Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, NDH; german: Unabhängiger Staat Kroatien; it, Stato indipendente di Croazia) was a World War II-era puppet state of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. It was established in p ...

. During the withdrawal Kljajić died of an accidental gunshot wound, on a hill on the outskirts of Zvornik. His body was taken to the Bosniak village of Liplje, on a mountain near Zvornik and buried. Kljajić's body was later taken from that spot by his family and reburied in a family plot elsewhere. A memorial was erected on the spot where his body was originally buried. Following the ethnic cleansing of Liplje in 1992 at the start of the Bosnian War, the memorial suffered and became overgrown with shrubbery. Kljajić's family suffered several losses during World War II. His wife Đurđelina Dinić (born 9 November 1914) was killed 25 May 1943. Filip's brother-in-law and nephew were killed in 1941. On 22 January 1943, Filip's niece Milanka (born 1924), also a Partisan, was killed.

References

Books

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kljajic, Filip 1913 births 1943 deaths People from Petrinja Serbs of Croatia Yugoslav Partisans members History of Zvornik