Mustafa A. BALIĆ 

MUSTAFA MUJA BALIĆ, son of ABDULAH, born in 1922 in Mostar, a student at the Gymnasium. He is the older brother of the well-known Mostar bridge diver Emir Balić and the younger brother of Mirza Balić. He became a member of the League of Communist Youth (SKOJ) in 1940 and joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ) in 1941, participating in the illegal resistance movement in Mostar from 1941. In one operation, “Mustafa-Mujo Balić and Mehmed-Meho Husnić brought a suitcase full of bombs and ammunition from the western camp, dug a trench, and hid the weapons and ammunition.” On another occasion, he was part of a group of young people who distributed food and clothing taken from a military warehouse to impoverished families in the street.

He joined the People’s Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments in March 1942 in eastern Herzegovina, working in the agitprop department of the Operational Staff and later in the 2nd Assault Battalion, where he served as a party leader. According to Enver Ćemalović, he was sent back to Mostar “due to night blindness.” In Mostar, he continued his illegal activities and was assigned to party work in Sarajevo.

He was arrested by the Ustaše in Sarajevo in 1942 during a breach among the illegal activists. Gestapo agents and Ustaše recognized him in the city. According to one source, he was arrested on August 16, 1942, along with Seid Bukovac (sources disagree about the location, as the arrest is mentioned to have taken place at his older brother Mirza’s apartment, on the street, or in a city café). He was taken to the infamous Beledija prison, where he was tortured and mistreated. In the same year, he was taken to Jasenovac. Emir Balić remembered that when his brother visited him with their mother in the prison in Sarajevo when he was six years old, he “didn’t have a single fingernail on his hands.” According to a Ustaše document, we learn that Mustafa was “born in 1922 in Mostar, son of Abdulah and Zahida née Ćemalović, unmarried, student, sent to the camp for a period of 3 years on the proposal of the Protective Order Service for the city of Sarajevo and v.ž. Vrhbosna; an active member of the Communist organization SKOJ.” The family learned about Mustafa’s death as follows: “according to the account of the late Emerik Blum (also a prisoner, ed.), he was in good health so that in 1945, during the breakout of the remaining prisoners of Jasenovac, he couldn’t participate because he was seriously ill. According to some information, all the sick were killed, including our Mustafa.”

From Beledija, on October 27, 1942, Mustafa wrote a letter to his brother Mirza, which Mirza never received because he was also arrested.

“Dear my brother, (…) The time of my departure from Sarajevo is approaching, and at the same time, the end of my life… Inform Husnija that his brother has passed away, giving his blood, life, and youth, and that I loved him very much. Thousands of kisses to my sisters Mirzija and Silvija – may they remember me sometimes when everyone else has forgotten me. I send my last kisses to Bekica, Širas, and Emir. Greetings from a pained heart to Hiba and Auntie. I could hardly cry before, but now I cry as I write this letter. I don’t pity myself at all; it had to be this way… Farewell, I love you all very much, your Mujo.”

He was taken to the Jasenovac camp where he was killed in 1945. According to tradition, the two brothers met in Jasenovac on the day they were killed (“both disappeared in the fire on the same day”).

Regarding Mujo’s arrest, the following is recorded from the statement of Munib Bukovac, the father of Seid Bukovac, on June 28, 1945, published as “Report of the City Commission for the Investigation of War Crimes No. 360”:

“Mr. Munib Bukovac, son of the late Saliha, aged 59, Muslim, postman, born in Ljubuški, residing in Mostar, father of four children, provides the following statement for the record:

I had a son named Seid, born in 1922, who graduated from the Teachers’ School in Mostar and lived with me until June 1942. He was appointed as an official of the Cooperative Union in Sarajevo. Since 1935, he had been working for the cause of the movement. Because of that, he was arrested several times by the police authorities of the Ustasha regime in 1941 and 1942 until he was finally arrested on August 16, 1942, by the Sarajevo police. I visited him in prison, and on that occasion, he told me that he strongly believed that Zahida Sefićeva Ozerova had reported him to the Sarajevo police. According to him, at the time of his arrest, when he was walking with Mujo Balić, Mirza Bašagić, Salko Hadžiosmanović, Ragib Lizdar, and Huso Teperić, Zahida encountered them and immediately signaled to some agents who approached them and arrested my son Seid and Mujo Balić, while the other three managed to escape immediately. During this incident, Zahida disappeared somewhere. Based on this, I suspect Zahida, and I can testify to the mentioned individuals, of whom only Salko Hadžiosmanović is currently in Mostar, while Huso Teperić is in Sarajevo, and Bašagić is somewhere in the People’s Liberation War. The whereabouts of Mujo Balić are unknown, and Ragib Dizdar resides in Stolac.”

Mustafa’s name was recorded on a memorial plaque at Mostar Gymnasium after the war. The plaque disappeared without a trace during the war events of 1992-1995.