Nevena Georgieva

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Nevena Georgieva-Dunja (Macedonian: Невена Георгиева-Дуња; August 25, 1925 – December 16, 1942) was a Macedonian Yugoslav Partisan during World War II. At 16 she was the youngest fighter in the Macedonian partisan units and the first woman to serve as a Macedonian partisan fighter. She was born in Skopje, then part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and joined the Skopje Partisan Detachment when it formed on August 22, 1941. After a reorganization in November 1941 she went to Veles and then Strumica, helping to form the Strumica Partisan Detachment in the summer of 1942. In May 1942 the occupying powers sentenced her in absentia to seven years in prison. In September 1942 she joined the Veles Partisan Detachment named after the politician Dimitar Vlahov. She was killed on December 16, 1942 in Nežilovo, Čaška, while helping her comrades escape from the enemy. Her death became a symbol of resistance, and she is honored as a national hero in North Macedonia. She is celebrated in songs and has two elementary schools named after her—Kisela Voda and Nejilovo—as well as a student dormitory in Skopje. There are busts of her in Kisela Voda and Skopje, and memorial plaques in Women Fighters Park in Skopje and in Nejilovo (unveiled 2013).