Ahmet M. BRKIĆ 

AHMET BRKIĆ LEBRO, son of MUHAMED, born on August 4, 1923, in Mostar, a student at the Gymnasium, a football player for “Velež”, member of the League of Communist Youth (SKOJ) since 1940, and Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ) since 1942, the leader of SKOJ at school. Younger brother of Hamdija Brkić, Hivzija, Osman, and Fatima Brkić Velika. Joined the Battalion in early 1942, together with his brother Hamdija when he had to leave Mostar. Fighter of the 4th Battalion. After the Fifth Offensive at Sutjeska, he was part of a group of fighters who returned to Mostar for a one-month recovery. Family members say he was very exhausted, and his shoes had no soles at all. He couldn’t sleep on a mattress, but lay down on the floor and fell asleep like that. Arrested by the Germans in Mostar and taken to a camp in Austria. Escaped from the camp in the summer of 1944 and joined the 4th Battalion of the 14th Herzegovina Brigade. Youth leader. Died in combat near the village of Lakat (Nevesinje) on November 28, 1944.

About Ahmet’s death and burial:

“The example of care for the burial of fallen fighters is given by the political commissar of the 4th Battalion, Risto Rašević. ‘In the battles near the village of Lakat in the Nevesinje region on November 27 and 28, 1944, we fought against superior German units. In that battle, 7 comrades were killed. We couldn’t bury them that day because we were forced to retreat, so on December 2, we returned with a group of fighters from the battalion to bury them. We stopped by the village of Kljuna to pick up some tools to dig graves. We encountered a local farmer named Osman and told him why we had come. Immediately, he gathered a few picks and shovels and joined us. We told him that Ahmet Brkić had been killed, whom he knew from before when the battalion was stationed in their village. On the position above the village of Lakat, we found the fallen comrades and Nikola Vulešević, who had been killed a bit farther from them. We carried him down for a joint burial. We dug the graves, placed the fallen comrades in them, and paid our respects. At that moment, I wrote down the names of the fallen in my notebook, from left to right as we buried them: Ahmed Brkić, Ekrem Bekić, Ismet Agbabić, Božo Ninković, Stevo Miljković, Nikola Vulešević, Doro Ožbolt. I tore out the page from the notebook and gave it to Osman to keep – for when the families would come to transfer the remains and he could show them where they were buried. I remember being pleasantly surprised when Božo Ninković’s family told me how well Osman received them and helped them find where Božo was buried. I also directed some other families to Osman.”

According to the archives of Radmilo Braca Andrić, the remains of Ahmet Brkić were transferred and buried in the Partisan Memorial Cemetery in Mostar.

Ahmet’s name was recorded on the memorial plaque at the Mostar Gymnasium after the war. The plaque disappeared without a trace during the events of the war from 1992 to 1995.

In the People’s Liberation War, Ahmet’s brothers and sister were killed: Hamdija Brkić, Hivzija Brkić, and Fatima Brkić Velika. A street in Mostar is named after the brothers Brkić.