Fahira A. ĆIŠIĆ

FAHIRA ĆIŠIĆ, born ORMAN, daughter of ALIJA, born on December 10, 1911, in Ljubuški. She lived in Mostar and worked as a teacher. She was an activist of the National Liberation War. Arrested by the NDH police in March 1944, she was first taken to Stara Gradiška and then to the Jasenovac concentration camp, where she was killed. From a Ustasha document, we learn that “Fahira, daughter of Alija and Hatidža (…) was sent to the camp upon the recommendation of the Ž.R.O. in Mostar for a period of 3 years; she was a member of the communist organization, collected funds for ‘people’s aid,’ attended meetings of the local committee in Mostar, and hid Partisans.”

On May 29, 1945, after liberation, a “Minutes of the City Commission for the Investigation of War Crimes by Occupiers and Their Collaborators” was made regarding the arrest of Mostar resident Omer Mesihović, which also makes a reference to Fahira Ćišić:

“Perpetrators: Cvitanović, a police agent, with unknown details of his physical appearance and financial status. Jakupović, chief of agents, a Muslim, tall, slim, a barber by profession from Sarajevo. Hadrović, a police agent, a Roman Catholic, around 30 years old, of average height, with other unknown details of his physical appearance and financial status.

Victim of the crime: Omer Mesihović, approximately 35-40 years old, a Muslim, a technician, unmarried, from Ljubuški, residing in Mostar, son of the late Mehmed.

Testimony of witness Zulfa Dugalić, deceased Hamidaga’s, and Omer’s brother Hasan Mesihović, 35 years old, a Muslim, a carpenter by profession.”

Dana 7-17-1944 oko 3 sata poslije podne moj brat Omer nalazio se na poslu na izgradnji bunkera u Brankovcu. Tada mu je prišao agent Cvitanović i uhapsio ga i odveo u zgradu vladikine kuće gdje se nalazio Gestapo. Po pričanju jedne drugarice, koja je takođe bila s Omerom zatvorena, a koja je puštena, pričala mi je da su Omera odmah zvali navodno na saslušanje, a da su se do nekoliko minuta čuli mukli jauci i zapomaganje Omerovo. Sigurno su ga nešto pitali da prizna, a on to nije htio da učini. Hranu sam mu slao redovno, da li je dobijao ja ne znam, pošto nisam imao nikakve veze s njim.

On April 24 of the same year, Omer sent me a letter from Mostar station, in which he wrote that they were being taken somewhere, but he didn’t know where or in which direction. I know that they were bound when they were forced into the 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, and from there by freight train to Slavonski Brod, then to the concentration camp in Okučani, and finally 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 Nova in the camp where they were together, it was terrible. Osman told me that my brother Omer stayed alive behind him in the concentration camp in Lepoglava. From the Lepoglava camp, another comrade came, who managed to escape when they were being led in an unknown direction in Lika. This comrade said that Omer, along with five hundred or perhaps more prisoners, was transported the night before him, supposedly, as he heard, to Jasenovac.”

Omer Šapuh, the brother of the Jasenovac victim Safet Šapuh, gave a statement about Safet’s arrest after the war, on October 19, 1945. The statement was published as the “Minutes of the City Commission for the Investigation of War Crimes by Occupiers and Their Collaborators.” Fahira Ćišić is also mentioned in that statement.

“On March 24, 1944, in Mostar, there was a Ustasha protective police force from Sarajevo that, in collaboration with the Mostar police, carried out a series of arrests. Around midnight that day, they broke into my house through the garden and arrested my brother Safet, and then they arrested me when I tried to ask them the reason for my brother’s arrest and requested an arrest warrant. After a long explanation with them, they released me, and they took my brother to the police. I went with them to see what would happen to my brother. However, the agents took my brother to the Gestapo prison along with little Sulemanović Hamdija, who was also arrested at that time. But he was released after 4-5 days. These arrests were carried out by agents, namely, Jakupović, the chief of the protective police force from Sarajevo, agent Hafizović, Sušić Pavo (illegible), and agent Cvitanović from the Mostar police. This Sušić Pavo, in particular, was very cruel, and the others were more or less the same. I think all the agents are now in hiding. In Mostar, they kept several arrested individuals in prison for another month, where they were subjected to horrendous torture and terror. They were subjected to three days of starvation, given salt, beaten with fists, feet, and truncheons, and thrown into the so-called ‘tramvaj,’ and after a month, they were transported to Stara Gradiška, a large penitentiary. In the group of twelve men and four women from Mostar were Professor Alikalfić Mustafa, Zajko Mehić, Omer Mesihović, Lazo Radišić, Hadžiselimović Arif Sabitage, Čulajević Dušan, Bučuk, Osman Novo, my brother Safet. I cannot recall the names of the others at the moment. Among the women were Fatima Balta, Fahira Ćišić, Dika Hadžić, and Bera Ćemalović. Only Hasan Novo, among the men, returned alive; he was exchanged with a German soldier. None of the women returned. Osman Novo told me that he witnessed with his own eyes when the Ustashe hanged my brother in Stara Gradiška as retaliation for some comrades escaping from the camp. Osman Novo was in the same cell with my brother. Safet, born in 1923, was an electro-mechanic by profession. He had been working in the National Liberation Movement for over 4 years.”