Jusuf M. ČEVRO, national hero

JUSUF ČEVRO, son of MUSTAFA, born on February 15, 1914, in Mostar. A tailor and a player for FC “Velež”. As a young tailor worker, he early joined the work of the revolutionary workers’ youth in Mostar and the trade union branch of textile tailors. A member of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ) since 1936, he served as the Secretary of the City Committee of KPJ for Mostar from August 1940 and a member of the Regional Committee of KPJ for Herzegovina.

He was among the first young members who came to the Workers’ Home and, as directed by the party leadership, worked on taking over and stabilizing the Home, as well as revitalizing trade union organizations. As the president of the trade union branch of textile tailors, he organized a month-long strike of tailors in 1936. He supported strikes of miners, construction workers, butchers, and actively participated in them.

Following the directive of KPJ, he traveled to Konjic, Stolac, Trebinje, and Sarajevo, working on establishing connections and revitalizing party organizations. His house served as the location for the party equipment of the Regional Committee of KPJ for Herzegovina, which he led. At the end of June 1940, a party conference was held in Mostar, forming the Local Committee of KPJ for Mostar, with him being elected as the first secretary. He was also elected as a member of the Regional Committee of KPJ for Herzegovina in the same year.

During the April War in 1941, a meeting of the Local Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ) for Mostar was held in his house to discuss the wartime situation and the activities of fifth columnists. It was decided during the meeting that a delegation would be sent on behalf of the Local Committee of KPJ to the Army Commander to draw attention to the enemy’s actions.

In the house of Zlatka Vuković, the wife of the renowned deceased revolutionary Gojko Vuković, Jusuf held a meeting with a group of communists on July 31, where party tasks related to armed struggle were discussed. The meeting location was discovered by the Ustaše (Croatian fascist organization) who launched an attack. The group resisted, and Jusuf managed to escape by swimming across the Neretva River and went into hiding. According to one testimony, the Ustaše eventually succeeded in arresting him.

“Čevro was arrested by the police the next day while transferring from one house to another in the lower neighborhood. Why he dressed in women’s Muslim attire with a veil, I do not understand. Perhaps he thought that by disguising himself in this way, he would be able to safely move to another apartment. However, he forgot to change his men’s shoes and his somewhat clumsy masculine gait. The children on the street noticed him and found him amusing. One little boy exclaimed loudly, ‘Look, Mujo is wearing his wife’s veil and walking like a fool! Let’s follow him!’ At that moment, two agents who were monitoring the neighborhood happened to be there. They quickly responded to the children’s cries and chased after the person in the veil. That’s how they caught Čevro and took him to the Ustaše police.”

Čevro’s arrest was a severe blow to the party: “It was the heaviest blow to the party organization thus far, as he knew almost the entire party organization, all the people in the Party and around it. He was a very skillful and capable secretary, and furthermore, not heavily compromised, so he could move around Mostar legally. Much depended on him in terms of the pace at which the entire ongoing reorganization of the Party would be completed and consolidated under wartime conditions.”

In the Ustaše prison in Mostar, he was subjected to horrendous torture – they hung him by his legs, beat him with sticks, hurt him with knives, kept him without food, giving him only salt water to drink. Even so, the Ustashas did not manage to extort any information from Jusuf about the party organization in Mostar and its work. Completely physically destroyed and tortured, the Ustashas shot him, together with Slobodan Vuković, the son of the revolutionary Gojko Vuković, in Ovojci, near the village of Pologa, near Mostar, on August 1, 1941. On the same day, posters about their execution were displayed around Mostar: “Ustasha Battalion Command, Hum and Dubrava County, PROGLAS, captured communists Slobodan Vuković, graduate technician, 22 years old, Orthodox from Mostar, Jusuf Čevro, tailor’s assistant, 27 years old, Muslim from Mostar, participated in the attack on the Ustaša patrol. THEY WERE SHOT. Ready for home, Mostar on August 1, 1941.”

By a decree of the Presidium of the People’s Assembly of the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia, on July 23, 1952, he was declared a national hero. In 1965, his mortal remains were transferred and buried at the Partisan Cemetery in Mostar. A monument was erected at Ovojci in honor of those who were executed, with their names engraved on it. In Mostar, there was a bust of Jusuf Čevro in a small park.