Vidovich, Maria

Born on February 6, 1924 in Novsk in a poor peasant family. Her parents moved from Nizhny Kuchan to Novsk in 1919. Father Ivan, an invalid of the First World War, died when Mary was not even one year old, and her mother was left alone with four children. After graduating from elementary school in Novsk, Maria went to work in the rural market. Like other children, she worked long and hard. Tired of working, she was forced to leave her workplace. In 1938, her mother died, and Mary took on all the housework.

In 1939 she joined the labor movement, became a member of the Union of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia. Her three brothers also entered there and began to engage in active propaganda activities. Shortly before the war, Maria temporarily left first for Zagreb and then for Karlovac, where she worked in factories. Upon returning to Novska, she began putting up campaign signs, raising funds for charity, holding youth meetings, issuing communist literature, and so on.

When the war began, the party instructed Mary to contact the partisans in Posavin. As a courier, Maria went to Posavina several times, instructing the partisans. Initially, the party leadership had no doubt that the girl would easily deliver leaflets calling for armed resistance to the Germans. In September 1941, Maria and her younger brother were arrested by the Ustashi and ended up in prison, where they were tortured for several days. However, having achieved nothing, the Ustashi released Mary and her brother. Both continued their activities. Secretly, the younger brother was delivering food to the captives, and once, on assignment, he even brought a pistol and two bombs. On October 2, 1941, Mary and her brother blew up the prison and helped release all the anti-fascist prisoners.

At the end of October 1941, Maria's elder brother joined the partisan detachment, and the girl immediately followed him, but after much persuasion, she was forced to stay with her relatives for a while (first in Zagreb, then in Varazdin). From there, at the end of March 1942, the Kalnitsky partisan detachment, to which Maria was enrolled, went on his military campaigns. At the end of April 1942, Nazi troops launched an attack on the city. Bloody battles went on for three days: 56 partisans repelled the attack of 3 thousand German soldiers, armed to the teeth. With heavy losses, the partisans broke out of the encirclement. Maria with four friends escaped to Varadzhin, from where, after a long journey, she arrived at a house in the village of Yalkovets. There, her company settled down on vacation, not expecting an attack from either side. One ustash noticed Maria associates and reported this to his accomplices. In the early morning of April 29, 1942, the Ustashi surrounded the house and demanded that the partisans surrender, to which they responded with heavy fire. After three hours of shooting, Maria remained the only living person. In order not to be captured, she committed suicide.

By decree of Josip Broz Tito, on November 27, 1953, she was posthumously awarded the title of People's Hero of Yugoslavia.

• Folk Heroes of Ugoslavia . "Mladost", Belgrade, 1975.
• Heroine Јugoslavia . The Spectar, Zagreb, 1980.