Boro N. BALAĆ 

BORIS BORO BALAĆ, son of NIKOLA, born on February 22, 1915, in Kistanje near Knin. He lived and worked in Mostar as a tailor. He was a member of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ) since 1938 and a member of the Local Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia in Mostar. He was arrested after the September demonstrations in 1940 in Mostar. At the beginning of the war, he participated in numerous underground actions in Mostar, such as acquiring weapons from abandoned barracks of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia’s army. He was a veteran fighter and joined the unit in mid-August 1941, tasked with raising an uprising in eastern Herzegovina. He occasionally served as a courier. He survived the offensives at the Neretva and Sutjeska rivers. He was the deputy political commissar of the company. He was killed on November 16, 1943, in the village of Doli near Sitnica in a battle against the Chetniks. In the same battle, DRAGO KNEŽIĆ, a student from Mostar, and MUHAMED LJUBOVIĆ, a worker from Mostar, were also killed. Later on, EŠREFA BILIĆ, a worker from Mostar, was also killed. Boro was described as an “uncompromising fighter for workers’ rights.”

Pavle Neimarović, the brother of Boris’s comrade Života Neimarović, described how the young men experienced the arrival of the occupiers after the capitulation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia:

“The day after our re-entry into the barracks of the division, the capitulation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia was announced, and the army really dispersed, leaving their positions. Even the guard in front of the division building had disappeared. At dusk, Savo Medan, Boro Balać, Života, Todor, and I sat on Medan’s meadow above our house and watched the entry of the Italian army into Mostar. The column descended from Široki Brijeg and Lištice. At first, we counted the vehicles, or rather their lights, but as the lights were dim and the column continued to enter for hours, we got tired of counting.”

“The arrival of the occupiers was difficult for every patriot and honest person, not to mention how hard it was for us, progressive youth and all organized individuals. The younger and angrier among us disregarded the occupiers’ measures at every step and sabotaged their demands in an attempt to impose discipline and terror (…) Meanwhile, Života and Sava held meetings almost every day with Jusuf Čevro, Miro Popara, Mladen Vuković, Temim Mustafa Turk, and many others who came, most of whom we knew. From our street, the Balać brothers, Boro and Đole, and Boro Radan would often come.”

Three brothers of Boro, Natko Balać, Đorđo Balać, and Slavko Balać, were killed in the People’s Liberation War (NOB). A street in Mostar is named after the Balać brothers.