Žikica Jovanović Španac

Živorad "Žikica" Jovanović (1914 – March 12, 1942), better known as Žikica Jovanović Španac is credited for starting the anti-fascist struggle in Yugoslavia during World War II.

Jovanović was born in Valjevo, Central Serbia, related to an extended Family of Landowners and merchants he graduated from high school there, entering the faculty of Philosophy at the University of Belgrade. However, before completing his studies, Zikica, like so many other idealists across Europe, volunteered to help the Spanish Republic rebuff a Fascist Coup launched in the Summer of 1936. Whilst in Spain he fought with some distinction in the Spanish Civil War, and became a highly respected guerilla warfare specialist and combatant of the Madrid University City Battle between the Republican volunteers and the Spanish Army of Africa. He stayed on fighting at the head of the Balkan Volunteer Brigade in a number of campaigns such as Ebro, and Teruel until the fall of Barcelona in 1939, with the tragic collapse of the Republic.

Named ' The Spaniard '

Among his compatriots and fellow brigadeers, he was later nicknamed "Španac" (the Spaniard) for this time spent in struggle with the Spanish people with whom he had developed a tremendous affinity. He was one of the few remaining International Brigades Volunteers who fled over the frontier with France, only to be interned by the Ghestapo as an 'enemy alien' following the Nazi invasion.

Retreat Through Europe

It is believed that along with others he affected an escape via Marseilles, and walked much of the way home after landing in Italy.

Yugoslavia Dismembered

In April 1941 following the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece, Jovanovic wanted to join the army, but was rejected under suspicion of anti-state activities having been a Revolutionary suspect in the so called ' White Terror' of King Alexander during the 1930s, and later the pro Nazi, Prince Regent Pavle.

Two Shots that started an Uprising

Three months later, after joining the Partisan movement led by Josip Broz Tito, he is reputed to have started the war against fascist occupiers. On July 7, 1941, he shot two members of the Quisling Serbian State Police, or gendarmerie, at a fair in Bela Crkva, a town whose name translates to ' White Church'.

Then, mounting the steps of the Local Town Hall, he fired into the air to summon the crowd with his two trade mark Webley Revolvers, giving a rousing speech that called upon the Proletarian Class of Yugoslavia to destroy the Beasts of Fascism, uttering the legendary words that became the rallying cry of the Yugoslav Communist Party.." Death to Fascism, Freedom for the People". Whether the actual Revolt began in relation to these events, or indeed began as a result of simultaneously localised acts of sabotage organised across many districts cells of the Central Committee of the Yugoslav Communist Party is unclear. The official mythology of the Communist State regards the actions of Jovanović as the beginning of the anti-fascist war in Yugoslavia, and is a National Holiday referred to in all State matters as " Republic Day".

In the days and weeks that followed, a massive privincial revolt grew which is referred to as the ' Ustanak' , or Uprising, that co incided with the Yugoslav Communist Parties' instruction from the Comintern to light the fires of revolt across Europe following the Axis invasion of the USSR.

Fascist Retribution

Terrible reprisals and counter terror occurred with the Axis executing entire towns in retribution for ' Bandit Acts' , so called Partisan actions. The German Military Ruling being 100 Yugoslav lives for every German. One such typical atrocity of the Axis Occupation was the infamous Kragujevac Massacre, of October 20-21, 1941.

Kragujevac is a sizeable township located at the political, and cultural center of Serbia known as Šumadija, on the Lepenica river, a tributary of the Morava. In 1941, it had a population of 27, 249.

On October 15, Resistance forces captured a German platoon. The next day, the commander of the 920th German regiment in Kragujevac sent his third battalion to free the platoon. The relief force was ambushed by resistance forces. Ten German soldiers were killed and 26 wounded. The Wehrmacht then began reprisal against the largely Serbian civilian population.

On October 19, 300 civilians were executed in three surrounding villages. All roads leading out of Kragujevac were blocked. All houses were searched. All males between 16 and 60 were taken to district military headquarters for identification, then to cabins overlooking the town. Civil servants were rounded up from offices, while 300 students over 16 were taken from the high school, along with 18 teachers. The roundup continued into the afternoon, with a total of 10,000 assembled.

100 men were shot early on October 20. According to the official report by Gen. Boehme, 2,300 were executed altogether.

Among them was Laza Pantelić, headmaster of the First Boys High School (Prva muśka gimnazija). When he saw 35 of his students being led away, he asked the German soldier:

"Where are they being taken?"

"To be shot" answered the soldier.

"I'm their headmaster. Let them go, and take me instead."

"That's impossible", replied the German soldier.

"My place is not here – it's with my boys."

He joined the students. They embraced and faced the firing squad together.

Laza instructed the killers to fire with the words..

"Shoot, I am still in class."

Students from the Kragujevac high school were reported to have said: "We are loyal Yugoslav children. Shoot."

Throughout October 20 and 21, German firing squads executed civilians from Kragujevac. German troopers faced exhaustion, and some soldiers were reported to have broken down from the mental and emotional strain of mass murder.

There was for many years an un supported urban legend of a ' Private Schultz who refused to kill civilians and was shot by his own forces for insubordination. It is probably likely that it was a case of battle fatigue.

The Germans reportedly spared a few hundred people who actually witnessed the school killings so that word of the horror could spread to cow the population. Approximately 600 were kept at the execution site in Šumarica, where they buried the dead for the next 4 days. The bodies were buried in shallow graves, which allowed dogs and wolves to dig up the bodies and eat the remains. Either way, Kragujevac became a watershed of rebellion, and its legend, and the barbaric treatment of all who defied the Axis within occupied Europe, a rallying point for the growing Resistance Movement, which by the close of the War in Yugoslavia had declared hundreds of square miles of free territory, a Provisional Government, and with Allied assistance and materiel help, held up to 500,000 men and women under arms in what became the Yugoslav Peoples' Army.

The Death of the Spaniard

As for Zikica Jovanovic ' Španac ', well his fate was to die in battle sacrificing his life for others like thousands of other resistance fighters.

He died in the village of Radovnica on March 12, 1942, in a battle against the Chetniks, Serbian Nationalists, and German Police Battalion after having covered the retreat of a group of Partisans whose positions had been betrayed by their fellow Countrymen.

He was proclaimed a Yugoslav national hero on July 6, 1945.

Today Spanac is best remembered in popular songs of Yugoslav Rock Group Riblja Corba, and has a number of schools and a hospital in Valjevo named after him.

Before the 1990s, the Yugoslav regime often cited him as a model influence, regularly celebrated his life by dedicating monuments and public venues to the ' Warrior of the Spanish Revolution '.