Mubera M. ĆEMALOVIĆ 

MUBERA BERA ĆEMALOVIĆ, daughter of MUHAMED, born on February 25, 1920, in Mostar. An employee and a member of the League of Communist Youth (SKOJ) since 1941. As an underground activist, she participated in numerous actions. Following directives, she took a job at the Župa Police Department in Mostar as an office clerk, carrying out “significant tasks for the National Liberation War.” During this time, she endured cold treatment from her comrades: “Her closest friends would turn their heads away when they encountered her. No one wanted to pass by her on the street or speak a word with her… It was as if everything had fallen silent.” Discovered and arrested by the Ustaše on March 23, 1944, she was taken to the Stara Gradiška concentration camp and then to Jasenovac concentration camp, where she was killed in March 1945*. Documentation states that Mubera, “the daughter of Muhamed and Ajnija (born Kalajdžić), a state official, was sent to the camp for a period of 2 years upon the proposal of the Ž.R.O. (Župa Regional Committee) in Mostar,” and that she was “the leader of the communist organization in Mostar, collecting money and various materials for ‘people’s aid.’” One source mentions that “her comrades had long suspected that she was the one who had betrayed the secret work. Only after liberation, a document was found revealing that one of her neighbors had betrayed her, the organization, and even himself, as he was also killed.” Bera was described as an “extremely beautiful girl” who provided “exceptional assistance as an intelligence operative.”

From a statement given by Sana Mujić, Mubera Ćemalović’s neighbor, we learn about Mubera’s arrest:

“On March 23, 1944, German Gestapo agents started arresting young men and women in my neighborhood after midnight. Four of them came to my house, but I managed to escape in time. However, my neighbor and friend Mubera Ćemalović, daughter of Muhamed, a 24-year-old graduate of the gymnasium, was arrested the same evening. They held her in the Gestapo prison in Vladičin Dom for 17 days, where she was together with Arif Hadžiselimović, Osman Novo, Hasan Karić, and several other young people. They all endured severe torture, hunger, thirst, sleep deprivation for three nights, and (illegible) beatings. After 17 days, she was sent with the others to Stara Gradiška, to the penitentiary, where she reported from the partway. From Stara Gradiška, she was transferred to Jasenovac when the partisans approached Nova Gradiška. There in Jasenovac, all traces of her were lost. As known from the press and the accounts of surviving detainees from Jasenovac, all the remaining detainees in Jasenovac were killed by the Ustaše before the arrival of the partisans, so it is believed that Mubera met the same fate. I must emphasize that Mubera was the sole provider for her mother, as she was employed as an official in various offices during the war and supported her mother.”

Regarding Mubera’s contribution as a member of SKOJ, the following is recorded:

“Bera willingly carried out everything asked of her in the street. – Ahmed (brother of Dr. Safet Mujić) tells me – she suddenly helped me when I was in trouble. It was when we received pictures of Comrade Tito for the first time and proclamations to paste them on the walls of each neighborhood. A girl was supposed to come to our area to do it, but her mother forbade her. I turned to Bera. She eagerly took on the dangerous task; she was burning with the desire to do it, and our whole neighborhood woke up with Tito’s pictures on the walls.”

*One source states March 1945 as the time of death.