Ștefan Plavăț

Plavăț returned to Timișoara in the first years of World War II, rejoining the Workshops, and becoming a leading member of the local clandestine organisation of the Romanian Communist Party (PCR).

As Romania's dictator Ion Antonescu had joined Nazi Germany's Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union, Plavăț and others participated in the sabotage of the war production of the Axis.

In May 1944, as the tide of war had turned against the Axis, the Communist Party's Banat chapter, led by Leontin Sălăjan, decided to organise a group of partisans in the mountainous area of the region.

The headquarters was established on the Semenic Mountain, and the main actions of the partisan detachment involved sabotaging of the rail line linking Timișoara with Reșița, an important industrial centre controlled by the Germans, and Bucharest, Romania's capital.

After the dictatorship of Ion Antonescu was overthrown in the August 1944 coup d'état, and especially after the Communist Party gained power in Romania, Plavăț was one of the several anti-fascist fighters acclaimed as heroes by the official propaganda.