Omer A. ŠEVA 

OMER ŠEVA, son of ALIJA, born on February 12, 1913, in Mostar. A locomotive driver. A member of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ) since 1939, serving as the secretary of the KPJ cell in the railway. A meeting of the Local Committee of the KPJ for Mostar was held in his house in Cernica on June 22, 1941, where discussions took place regarding reports and wartime preparations. Arrested by the Ustaše on June 26, 1941, they “brutally attempted to extract confessions about all those present at the meeting, but he remained silent to all questions.” He was thrown into a pit near Čitluk along with a group of sixty communists.

EXCERPT FROM LITERATURE, “Mostar Women” by Mahmud Konjhodžić:

“…many citizens of Mostar found themselves in prisons that sprouted in schools, barracks, and basements. Neighbors saved their friends and comrades. Only a few individuals who managed to escape from pits told chilling stories of Ustaše crimes. Communists from the police prison and many of their comrades were thrown alive into the pit. Regarding the fate of sixty imprisoned comrades from the basement of the former gendarmerie station, taken away on a June night, only one part of their tragic story could be told by the sole survivor of that group, Esad Fejić, already known in the city as an unusually brave and resourceful young man.”

That night, the Ustaše tied the hands of their victims with wire and stuffed them (…) into a cart called “Marica.” Accompanied by a truck carrying around twenty Ustaše, the “marica” climbed the road towards Čitluk – towards the pit where many innocent people lay.

“Untie me, Omer!” Esad asked the worker, communist Ševa, for help, as it was evident that they were heading towards certain death. Ševa attempted to free his comrade’s hands, who had his back turned, but time was quickly running out.

“Wait, I’ll untie you first!” Esad was impatient and, although he stained his comrade with blood, soon he himself had his hands free. Skillfully, without making noise, he smashed the small window on the entrance door of “Marica” at the first bend just moments before the Ustaše truck approached. Esad jumped out, shouting again to his comrades:

“Run away… They will throw you into the pit…”

But no one escaped from “Marica.” Perhaps they believed that there was still hope of being saved, that the Ustaše wouldn’t brutally kill them “by God’s justice”; like many others on all sides that night, they had lost their heads.

Omer’s brother Ahmet Ševa and sister Fatima Ševa also died in the People’s Liberation War (NOB). A street in Mostar is named after the Ševa brothers.