Death
On the evening of December 23, 1942, Filippov's parents were told by their neighbors that their son had been arrested by the Germans; Mr. and Mrs. Filippov had apparently been anticipating this event for several weeks. The Germans had discovered his spying activities and had sentenced him to death for espionage.
His mother rushed out of their house to see her son being led barefoot by a German platoon through the falling snow, accompanied by two other young persons, one of them a girl. Sasha's mother passed him some food, apparently with the thought that her son was being led off into captivity. However, the procession was marched to a grove of peashrub trees on Bryanskaya street, where Sasha and two other youngsters were hanged in view of neighbors and his parents. Mr. Filippov was unable to witness the actual execution of his son and left before this order was given, while Sasha's mom remained alone with the body of her son (and the other guy and girl) after the soldiers had marched off.
Early in 1980s the researchers have revealed the name of the woman hanged together with Sasha: it was 22-year-old Maria "Masha" Uskova, a single mother, an inhabitant of the nearby urban-type settlement Katrichevo. The other hanged man's name still remains unknown.
Read more about this topic: Sasha Filippov
Famous quotes containing the word death:
“One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
And Death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die!”
—John Donne (c. 1572–1631)
“I cannot think this creature died
By storm or fish or sea-fowl harmed
Walking the sea so heavily armed;
Or does it make for death to be
Oneself a living armoury?”
—Andrew Young (1885–1971)
“The only way out is the way through, just as you cannot escape from death except by dying. Being unable to write, you must examine in writing this being unable, which becomes for the present—henceforth?—the subject to which you are condemned.”
—Howard Nemerov (1920–1991)