Mihajlo E. KON 

MIHAJLO MIŠO KON, son of EMIL and Marija née Bergman, a philologist, and nephew of the murdered Dr. Berta Bergman, was born in Mostar on January 2, 1924. He lived and studied in Sarajevo. A student of the Gymnasium, a member of SKOJ (League of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia) and the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ). He escaped from Sarajevo to Mostar in 1941 and fled to Dubrovnik, where he was interned by the Italians in early November 1942 at the Kupari camp. In early June 1943, he was taken to the camp on the island of Rab. After the capitulation of Italy and his release from the camp, he joined the NOV (National Liberation Army) on November 9, 1943, in the 1st Banija Brigade. He fought in the Jewish Rapska Battalion, serving as a commissar in the “Vasilije Gaćeša” battalion and later as the battalion commissar of the 3rd Brigade of the 7th Banija Division. He died on March 25, 1945, near the village of Vrsta (Bihać). At the time of his death, he held the rank of major.

Mihajlo’s mother, Dr. Marija Bergman Kon, sister of Dr. Berta Bergman, became the first woman in Bosnia and Herzegovina with a phD degree. At the beginning of the war, she was dismissed from her job and sent to the concentration camp on Rab. After the capitulation of Italy, she reached the liberated territory. Mihajlo’s sister, Mirjana, was captured on Mount Igman and taken to the Ravensbrück concentration camp. Both Marija and Mirjana survived the war and continued their work. Uncle Alfred Bergman (1901-1941) was a well-known anti-fascist who was executed in 1941. Another aunt, Lujza Krčmar-Bergman, was in exile in Dubrovnik and joined the partisans in 1944. Her daughter, Mihajlo’s cousin Radojka Krčmar, was killed in the Slovenian partisan forces.

The Partisan Memorial Cemetery in Mostar has plaques dedicated to three members of this family: Dr. Berta Bergman, Mihajlo Kon, and Radojka Krčmar. In 1999, a Holocaust memorial was erected in the Jewish cemetery in Mostar, which includes Mihajlo’s name.