Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya on the way to the hanging scaffold where she was hanged by the Nazi army, 1941. Photograph taken by a Nazi officer

Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya on the way to the hanging scaffold where she was hanged by the Nazi army, 1941. Photograph taken by a Nazi officer.

In 1941, after the German invasion and at the age of 18, Zoya volunteered to join a group of partisans carrying out sabotage missions. On November 27, 1941, Zoya's group arrived in the village of Petrischevo where a German regiment was quartered. The young woman set fire to several blocks and two houses occupied by them. A Russian collaborator denounced her (his reward was a bottle of vodka) and she was captured.

Subjected to all kinds of torture and humiliation to get her to inform on her comrades, Zoya said nothing. On the morning of November 29, she was paraded with a sign around her neck reading "Incendiary of Homes" (the sign in the photo) to the center of town where the gallows awaited her. As she was about to be executed, one of the German officers ordered her to wait until his camera was ready, a moment Zoya took advantage of to shout, "Comrades, why are you here?

Comrades, why are you so sad? I am not afraid to die, I am happy to die for my people [...] You are going to hang me, but I am not the only one. There are more than 200 million of us, you can't hang us all. My comrades will avenge my death. Germans, surrender before it is too late. Victory is ours.

Her body was hung for a month until a group of soldiers desecrated her body and the officers decided to bury her.

The following year the village of Petrischevo was liberated by the Russian army, the Russian collaborator executed and Zoya was posthumously awarded Hero of the Soviet Union. The German officer who took the photos was killed in combat and in one of his pockets the execution photos were found.