Anti-Fascist Struggle Day 2023: Date, History, Facts about Croatia

Anti-Fascist Struggle Day is a Croatian public holiday observed annually on June 22. This day commemorates the commencement of the Yugoslavian uprisings during World War II against the invading German and Italian forces. Germany and its allies, including Italy and Bulgaria, quickly seized control of the Yugoslavian Empire. The Imperial army’s surrender shocked the Yugoslavian population to its core. However, they eventually managed to awaken and initiated armed uprisings in various locations, beginning with the formation of the historic Partisan near Sisak in the Brezovica Forest.

The background of Anti-Fascist Struggle Day

In 1991, the Croatian Parliament established Anti-Fascist Struggle Day. The day began in the Brezovica forests near the city of Sisak in central Croatia. Following the formation of the First Partisan Detachment, which vowed to oppose German and Italian authority in the then-Yugoslavian Empire, this event occurs. This guerilla unit, commonly known as the First Sisak Partisan Detachment, marked the beginning of other uprisings in 1941, which launched a succession of guerilla attacks to overthrow Nazi rule in Yugoslavia.

When Germany and its allies overtook the Empire, the Yugoslavians were unprepared to fight. However, a few months later in 1941, when they realised how dangerous their communities were becoming, some courageous Yugoslavs fled to the Brezovica forests near the city of Sisak. On June 22, they gathered 77 men, the majority of whom were Croats, to establish the First Sisak Partisan Detachment. This was the first of many future communist-led guerilla units that in 1944 constituted the largest resistance force in occupied Europe.

With the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, Yugoslavs gained their independence. A few years prior, the number of occupying forces had already begun to decrease. The Italians retreated from the Empire in 1943, while the Hungarians did so a year earlier. Only 38 of the 77 members of the First Sisak Partisan Detachment survived. In Sisak, the deceased were interred in a memorial plaza.

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