brochure “Partizanski spomenik u Mostaru” (1980)
book “Spomenica Mostara 1941-1945.”
another document or proof of the memorial stone (e.g., a photograph).
Omer M. MESIHOVIĆ
OMER MESIHOVIĆ, born in Ljubuški in 1906*, son of MEHMED and ZUHRA (née Sadiković). Construction technician, worked as a construction contractor in Mostar. Activist of the NOP in Mostar. Arrested by the Ustaše at his workplace in April 1944, taken to the Jasenovac concentration camp, and killed. According to an Ustaše document, he was “sentenced to the camp upon the proposal of the Ž.R.O. in Mostar for a period of 3 years; member of the Communist Party and a member of the local committee in Mostar.”
On May 29, 1945, after the liberation, a “Record of the City Commission for Investigating War Crimes of the Occupiers and Their Collaborators” was made regarding the arrest of Omer Mesihović, with the following content:
“Criminal: Cvitanović, police agent, details of identity and property unknown. Jakupović, chief agent, Muslim, tall, thin, barber by profession from Sarajevo. Hadrović, police agent, Roman Catholic, around 30 years old, of medium height, other details of identity and property unknown.
Victim of the crime: Omer Mesihović, around 35-40 years old, Muslim, technician, unmarried, from Ljubuški, residing in Mostar, son of the late Mehmed.
Statement of witness Zulfa Dugalić, daughter of Hamidaga, and Omer’s brother Hasan Mesihović, 35 years old, Muslim, carpenter by profession.
On July 17, 1944, around 3 o’clock in the afternoon, my brother Omer was at work building bunkers in Brankovac. At that time, agent Cvitanović approached him and arrested him, taking him to the building of the Bishop’s House where the Gestapo was located. According to the story of a fellow inmate, who was also imprisoned with Omer but was released, she told me that Omer was immediately called for questioning and for several minutes, muffled groans and cries for help from Omer were heard. They must have asked him something to confess, but he refused to do so. I regularly sent him food, but I don’t know if he received it as I had no contact with him.”
On April 24th of the same year, Omer sent me a letter from the Mostar station, in which he wrote that they were being taken somewhere, where and in what direction he didn’t know. I know that they were tied up when they were loaded into a truck, and all of them were tied up in the trucks, including Zaim Šehić, Mustafa Alikalfić, Fahira Ćišić, and many others. They went to Drežnica, from there by freight train to Slavonski Brod, and then to the concentration camp in Gradiška. After a month, he contacted me from Gradiška, and in the letter, he wrote that he was alive and asked me to prepare food for him. As I heard from Osman Novo, who was in the same camp with him, it was terrible. Osman told me that my brother Omer remained alive behind him in the concentration camp in Lepoglava. From the Lepoglava camp, one comrade came, who managed to escape when they were being led in an unknown direction in Lika. That comrade said that Omer, along with five hundred or maybe more prisoners, was transported somewhere the night before him, allegedly as he heard, to Jasenovac.”
* According to the book “Spomenica Mostara 1941-1945,” he was born in 1905, but according to one Ustasha document, he was born in 1904.
Halilbegović, Nihad (2006): Bošnjaci u jasenovačkom logoru, Sarajevo; Miletić, Antun: “Koncentracioni logor Jasenovac 1941-1945. Dokumenta“, knj. I-II, 1986, knj. III, 1987, knj. IV, 2007, str. 2500, Narodna knjiga, Gambit, Belgrade, Jagodina; grupa autora: Spomenica Mostara 1941-1945.
Photo of the memorial plaque: S. Demirović.
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