brochure “Partizanski spomenik u Mostaru” (1980)
book “Spomenica Mostara 1941-1945.”
another document or proof of the memorial stone (e.g., a photograph).
Nijaza A. BAJAT
NIJAZA NADA BAJAT, daughter of ADEM, born on August 15, 1925, in Mostar. Student of the Civil School, member of the League of Communist Youth (SKOJ) since 1941 and Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ) since 1943. She briefly worked at the Tobacco Factory. She participated in women’s demonstrations called “Viktorija” and led a group of young women from Brankovac and Mazoljice. Before joining the Battalion in January 1942, she worked as an underground activist for the People’s Liberation War. She attended medical courses taught by doctors from Mostar, preparing numerous young women from Mostar for the roles of nurses in the unit. Later, the medical courses were also held at her house. She was a fighter, nurse, and bomber – “she was petite, and they wanted to protect her, assigning her to work at the headquarters of the unit. But she didn’t want that. She volunteered for the so-called ‘death squad,’ as they called the special unit that carried out the most difficult tasks. She was fearless and specialized in bunker attacks.” She survived the offensives at Neretva and Sutjeska and was part of the group of exhausted fighters who returned to Mostar for recovery after Sutjeska. She then joined the Ramski Detachment and the 1st Battalion of the 17th Krajina Brigade. Secretary of the battalion’s SKOJ committee. She was killed in Lisicici near Konjic in 1944 during an attack on an Ustasha stronghold. Her comrade Džemil Šarac wrote many years later, “We couldn’t retrieve her body. Many of us, her comrades in war, still feel the pain today.” She was described as a “spirited and beloved SKOJ leader.”
Mahmud Konjhodžić provided a brief biography of Nada.
“Nada Bajat died at the age of nineteen. She led a group of bombers across an open field near the village of Lisičići, near Konjic. Their mission was to break through enemy fire and capture the bunkers. However, a bullet stopped her near a walnut tree in that open area. The wounded Nada was killed by the Ustaše there, by the walnut tree… Nada was a student and at that time, a tobacco factory worker. She was a member and leader of the SKOJ (League of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia) in the Brankovac neighborhood, a well-known courier in the city. She tirelessly delivered weapons and medical supplies to the fighters, distributed leaflets, and participated in medical courses. Among the first girls, she joined the Partisans at the end of 1941. She served as the leader of SKOJ in the First Battalion of the Seventeenth Krajina Brigade, in the unit that fought in the Prozor area. She fell on May 14, 1944.”
According to the archives of Radmilo Braca Andrić, the remains of Nijaza Bajat were transferred and buried in the Partisan Memorial Cemetery in Mostar.
In the NOB, Nijaz’s brother Nijaz Bajat was killed. After 1945, a street in Mostar was named Bajatova in their honor.
Ćemalović, Enver (1986): Mostarski bataljon, Mostar; Konjhodžić, Mahmud (1981): “Mostarke”: fragmenti o revolucionarnoj djelatnosti i patriotskoj opredjeljenosti žena Mostara, o njihovoj borbi za slobodu i socijalizam, Opštinski odbor SUBNOR-a Mostar; Džemil Šarac, članak „Sa Mostarcima“, Hercegovina br 9, Mostar, 1997, str 221; grupa autora (1986): Hercegovina u NOB 4. dio, Beograd ; grupa autora: Spomenica Mostara 1941-1945.; članak “Bajatova ulica”, Šefik Pašić (CIDOM).
Photo of the memorial plaque: S. Demirović
Fighter photo: from the book “Partizanski spomenik u Mostaru”, recognized by niece N. Bajat Jovanović.
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