brochure “Partizanski spomenik u Mostaru” (1980)
book “Spomenica Mostara 1941-1945.”
another document or proof of the memorial stone (e.g., a photograph).
Rade A. BITANGA
RADOSLAV RADE BITANGA, son of ANDRIJA, born on January 16, 1891, in Mostar. Graphic worker. A hardened pre-war communist, trade unionist, and fighter for workers’ rights, founder of the Typographic Workers Union, and a close associate of Gojko Vuković, the founder of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ) in Mostar and the husband of Zlatka Vuković. He became a member and official of the KPJ from its establishment. He came from a Croat family originating from the village of Rakitna in the Posušje region and became an orphan at the age of 9. He was raised by innkeeper Kramer, who sent him to learn the typographic trade in Mostar. According to M. Konjhodžić, “as a very young man, he joined the struggle of workers for a better life.” In the parliamentary elections of 1938, he was the list leader of the People’s Work Party for the whole of Herzegovina. He was arrested several times (he served three years in Sremska Mitrovica with Gojko Vuković as his mentor), and for the last time on September 2, 1940, due to a protest general strike in Mostar in which over 2,000 workers, all companies, artisan workshops, and the brown coal mine participated. The strike was provoked by the ban on the activities of “Velež” as a gathering place of progressive ideas. He was sent to Lepoglava prison. In the same group, other members of the Mostar party organization were arrested: Nikola Abramović Bjelica, Mustafa Bjelavac, Mustafa Alajbegović, Smajo Brkić, Hasan Kreso, Slavko Balać, Luka Knežić. In the second group, Mustafa Humo, Velija Hujdur, Vasilije Tošić, Mile Ćećez, Ljubo Ajvaz, Rade Majstorović, and Rudolf Hrozniček. He was killed by the Ustaše in 1941.
Husband of Darinka Bitanga, father of Neđo and Neda Bitanga. Remembered as “a big man, (…) pure goodness, a comrade whom people loved, and he loved people in return.”
After the war, a graphic design institute in Mostar was named after Rade Bitanga. In 1965, a bust of Rade Bitanga was unveiled. The current fate of the bust is unknown.
grupa autora (1986): Hercegovina u NOB 2. dio, Beograd; Seferović, Mensur (1957): „Tajna partijske ćelije“, Sarajevo; 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: Spomenica Mostara 1941-1945.
Photo of the memorial plaque: S. Demirović, photo of the fallen fighter: archives of K.D.Miletić, A. Zagorčić (from the book “Gojko Vuković”
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