brochure “Partizanski spomenik u Mostaru” (1980)
book “Spomenica Mostara 1941-1945.”
another document or proof of the memorial stone (e.g., a photograph).
Natko N. BALAĆ
NATKO BALAĆ, son of NIKOLA, born on December 16, 1912, in Kistanje near Knin, the oldest of the four sons who died in the Balać family. He lived with his family in Mostar, where he completed high school and studied law at the University of Belgrade. He was a pre-war member of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ). He worked as a lawyer at the Main Post Office in Belgrade, where, after the occupation, he worked on connecting displaced members of the KPJ from Mostar with party organizations in Serbia and sending Mostar residents and other fighters to partisan units. He was killed in combat with the Bulgarians in 1943 near Niš (in Blace near Prokuplje).
EXCERPTS FROM LITERATURE:
“Ilinka already learned during the war that her three sons had died, but she held out hope for Natko when the war ended, even though she hadn’t heard anything about him for four years of war. And one day, news spread that Natko had made contact. When his mother heard that, she was overjoyed. But one day, Slava received a message from Ilinka to come home immediately. When she arrived, she found a desperate mother with disheveled hair, pulling at it and crying. She showed her daughter a letter in which it was reported from Belgrade that Natko had been killed.” (Mahmud Konjhodžić, Mostarke, page 245)
From the recollection of Pavle Neimarović, a refugee in Belgrade in 1941:
“As soon as we settled, Natko Balać, a lawyer who had lived in Belgrade before the war, visited us the same afternoon. He was the eldest brother of the Balać family from Mostar and our neighbor from the same street (he was killed near Niš in 1943 as the last of the four Balać brothers who fell in the National Liberation War). He ordered me and Vasa to come to his office at the Main Post Office in Belgrade for a meeting the following Sunday morning. He gave us the room number and floor. He knew we were members of SKOJ (Communist Youth Union) and didn’t mention why he called us (…)”
Three brothers of Natko died in the National Liberation War: Slavko Balać, Đorđo Balać, and Boro Balać. A street in Mostar is named after the Balać brothers.
*Information from the book “Spomenica Mostara 1941-1945.”
Konjhodžić, Mahmud (1981): “Mostarke”: fragmenti o revolucionarnoj djelatnosti i patriotskoj opredjeljenosti žena Mostara, o njihovoj borbi za slobodu i socijalizam, Opštinski odbor SUBNOR-a Mostar; grupa autora (1986): Hercegovina u NOB 2. dio, Beograd; grupa autora: Spomenica Mostara 1941-1945
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