Nikola Hećimović

Nikola Hećimović

Nikola "Niko" Hećimović, also Nicholas Hećimovića (26 November 1900 – 25 April 1929) was a Croatian communist organizer and secretary of the Yugoslav branch of International Red Aid.

Hećimović was born to a middle-class family in Zagreb; his father was a school administrator. In 1919 Hećimović completed his education at the National Business Academy (Državnu Trgovačku Akademiju) in Zagreb. While in school he was attracted to the egalitarianism of communist doctrine, and became one of the early members of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. In 1919 he founded the newspaper Iskra which provided communist perspective on the news as well doctrinal education. He helped found the League of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia (SKOJ).^[1] In 1920 he went to Prague to study, but he returned to Zagreb the following year and resumed work in the SKOJ. Taken with the idea of creating a "red cross" type of organization to help political prisoners and their families, he joined the Central Committee of the International Labour Assistance organization which in 1922 morphed into International Red Aid. In 1928 he was elected Secretary of the Yugoslav branch.

In 1929 the Communist Party was outlawed, communist newspapers were suppressed, and Hećimović came under suspicion of sedition. He was arrested on 20 April 1929 and after several days of intense questioning by police^[2] he and Đuro Đaković allegedly escaped and attempted to flee to Austria.^[3] The official, post World War II, version is that they were taken into the countryside by the police and then executed.^[4][5] Đaković and Hećimović were shot on 25 April in the Šele Ravine (Slovene: Šelova graba) in the hamlet of Šelovo in the northern part of the village of Veliki Boč.^[6]

Legacy

"Niko Hećimović" on right tomb panel

In 1968 Hećimović's body was reinterred in the Tomb of the People's Heroes in the Mirogoj Cemetery of Zagreb.

The 1976 film Četiri dana do smrti (Four days until death) by Miroslav Jokic features the arrest and execution of Đaković and Hećimović.^[7]

A street, in the Zagreb neighborhood of Srednjaci, was named after Hećimović.

In 1979 the Yugoslav Post issued a stamp commemorating fifty years since the assassination of Đaković and Hećimović.^[8]

Notes and references

1. Plenča, Dušan (1969). The Yugoslav Youth Movement, 1919-1969. Belgrade: Mladost. p. 10. OCLC 549459.
2. Some sources indicate that he was tortured. Kolar-Dimitrijevic, Mira, ed. (1991). "Trnje u organizaciji i djelatnosti KPJ u Zagrebu u razdoblju između dva rata". Zagrebačka općina Trnje u radničkom komunističkom pokretu i socijalističkoj revoluciji (PDF) (in Croatian). Zagreb: Instituta za historiju radničkog pokreta Hrvatske. p. 87.
3. Ministarstvo unutrašnjih poslova šalje Velikom županu Zagreb izvještaj o hapšenju Đ. Đakovića i N. Hećimovića i njihovom pokušaju bijega u Austriju kojom prilikom su ustrijeljeni [The Ministry of the Interior sent the Great Mayor Zagreb report about the arrest of Đ. Đakovića and N. Hećimovića and their attempt to escape to Austria during which they were shot], Croatian State Archives, 1929 Indexed in Istaknute Osobe Radničkog i Komunističkog Pokreta Dvadesetog Stoljeća
4. Pavličević, Dragutin (1996). "Persecution and Liquidation of Croats on Croatian Territory from 1903 to 1941". In Ravlic, Aleksander Aco. Međunarodni znanstveni skup "Jugoistočna Europa 1918-1995" = "Southeastern Europe 1918-1995", an international symposium. Zagreb: Croatian Heritage Foundation. ISBN 978-953-6525-05-8.
5. "Hećimović, Nikola". Enciklopedija Jugoslavije IV (in Croatian) (2nd edition). Zagreb: Jugoslavenski leksikografski zavod. 1986.
6. Savnik, Roman, ed. 1980. Krajevni leksikon Slovenije, vol. 4. Ljubljana: Državna založba Slovenije, p. 257.
7. Fountain, Clarke. "Cetiri Dana Do Smrti (1976)". The New York Times.
8. Scott #1454 - Scott (2008) "Yugoslavia: General Issues" Scott 2009 Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue Volume 6 (165th edition) Scott Publishing Co., Sidney, Ohio, page 1116. ISBN 978-0-89487-422-2