LEO BRUK, son of FRANJO, born on September 29, 1910, in Rijeka Dubrova\u010dka, in a family of teachers. After the end of World War I, his family moved to Mostar. He learned the trade of a waiter and as a young worker, he joined the revolutionary movement and became a sympathizer of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ) in the years leading up to the start of World War II.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the April War in 1941, as assigned by the KPJ, he, as a Croat, joined the “Ma\u010dek’s Protection” units, where he worked on specific tasks. It was during this time that Mostar fell into the hands of the Usta\u0161e, mostly peasants led by Usta\u0161e Frankists, who disarmed and arrested Yugoslav soldiers, Serbs, and Communists at the city’s approaches, barracks, and railway station. During those days, waiter Leo Bruk, wearing an Usta\u0161e emblem on his cap and armed, awaited and “arrested” Communists at city intersections, leading them to safe hideouts. This was Leo’s partisan duty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He worked on gathering weapons and equipment left behind by the Yugoslav army, part of which he hid in a base behind his house and later handed over to members of the National Liberation Army (NOP). He actively participated in NOP actions in occupied Mostar, and in 1941, he became a member of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. In December 1941, together with two comrades, he distributed party leaflets throughout the city and fell into a police ambush. Leo managed to overpower one of the policemen, take his pistol, and escape. After this incident, Leo could no longer stay in the city and had to join the partisans in the Konjic Battalion (later named Mostar Battalion), which operated in the upper course of the Neretva River.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Already in the early battles, at the beginning of 1942, he distinguished himself as a brave and capable fighter, which soon led to his appointment as the commander of the Third Company. He was also entrusted with the most difficult and responsible tasks. After the Third enemy offensive in July 1942, the battalion headquarters sent him, along with two fighters, as a courier to the Supreme Headquarters of the National Liberation Army and Partisan Detachments, where he had the opportunity to personally meet Tito and encounter fighters from the First Proletarian Shock Brigade, from whom they received the heavy machine gun “Breda.” After that, under difficult conditions, he returned to the battalion. In August 1942, the Mostar Battalion was incorporated into the newly formed Tenth Herzegovinian Shock Brigade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the political delegate of the machine gun platoon, he distinguished himself in battles during the Fourth enemy offensive, at Jajce, \u017dep\u010de, and Prozor. For a period of time, he served as the battalion commander, and after the capture of Prozor in February 1943, a tank unit was formed at the Headquarters of the Third Shock Division. Leo, along with several other distinguished fighters from the Tenth Herzegovinian Brigade, was transferred to this tank unit and appointed as a machine gunner on a tank. The units of the Third Shock Division – the Tenth Herzegovinian, Fifth Montenegrin, and First Dalmatian Brigades – launched an attack on German and Chetnik forces in Konjic. After several consecutive attacks and due to the deteriorating situation near Prozor, the attack was halted on February 26. In these battles, the tank unit of the Third Shock Division, in which Leo was located, operated under the direct command of the Supreme Headquarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was killed on February 26, 1943, as the leader of a tank and a machine gunner in the battles near the village of \u010celebi\u0107i, near Konjic. By the decree of the President of the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito, on July 24, 1953, he was proclaimed a People’s Hero. According to the accounts of his comrades, he “remained in the eternal memory of his comrades because of his personal courage, sociability, sincerity, and the modesty of a fighter and proletarian.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Mostar, on Balinovac, there used to be a bust of Leo Bruk, which was removed before the last war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Leo Bruk is the older brother of Mladen Bruk<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" LEO BRUK, son of FRANJO, born on September 29, 1910, in Rijeka Dubrova\u010dka, in a family of teachers. After the end of World War I, his family moved to Mostar. He learned the trade of a waiter and as a young worker, he joined the revolutionary movement and became a sympathizer of the Communist Party […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":10002,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","categories":[318,315,316,353],"tags":[475,356,317,330],"prezime":[343],"class_list":["post-11961","partizan","type-partizan","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-26-35-g-en","category-poginuli-1943-en","category-poginuli-u-bih-en","category-narodni-heroji-en","tag-bruk-2","tag-hrvati-en","tag-bataljon-en","tag-foto-en","prezime-b-en","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"ptb_metabox":{"ptb_partizan_izvori":" \u0106emalovi\u0107, Enver (1986): Mostarski bataljon<\/a>, Mostar; Leo Bruk - Narodni Heroj Iz Dubrovnika ( Hrvatska ) (yu-nostalgija.com)<\/a>; grupa autora (1961): Hercegovina u NOB 1. dio<\/a>, Beograd, Vojno delo ; Leo Bruk - Narodni Heroj Iz Dubrovnika ( Hrvatska ) (yu-nostalgija.com)<\/a> ; Seferovi\u0107, Mensur (1961): Prozivka na Tjenti\u0161tu<\/a>, \u201cVeselin Masle\u0161a\u201d, Sarajevo; grupa autora: Spomenica Mostara 1941-1945;\u00a0\u00a0https:\/\/sr.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/%D0%9B%D0%B5%D0%BE_%D0%91%D1%80%D1%83%D0%BA<\/a>; Seferovi\u0107, Mensur (1957): \u201eTajna partijske \u0107elije<\/a>\u201c, Sarajevo; Seferovi\u0107, Mensur (1970): Pred o\u010dima grada<\/a>, \u00bbInformativni centar Mostar\u00ab, nagrada \u00bb14. februar\u00ab Skup\u0161tine op\u0161tine Mostar, 1970.;\u00a0grupa autora (1961): Hercegovina u NOB 1. dio<\/a>, Beograd, Vojno delo; https:\/\/www.oslobodjenje.ba\/vijesti\/bih\/povratak-narodnih-heroja-na-ulice-449064<\/a> Photo of the memorial plaque:<\/em> S. Demirovi\u0107, https:\/\/www.klix.ba\/vijesti\/bih\/zasto-nekima-smeta-partizansko-groblje-u-mostaru-i-sta-to-znaci-za-drzavnost-bih\/201124140;\u00a0<\/a>Narodni heroji Jugoslavije A-M, Institut za savremenu istoriju, Partizanska knjiga, Ljubljana, Narodna knjiga, Beograd, Pobjeda, Titograd, 1982.<\/a><\/p>\r\n <\/p>","ptb_partizan_datum_rodzenja":"(1911. 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Share<\/a> your stories and photographs. Let's keep the memory alive!","ptb_partizan_ploca":{"1":"http:\/\/partizansko.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Bruk-Leo-IMG_3373-rotated.jpg","2":"http:\/\/partizansko.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Bruk-Leo-IMG_3373-rotated.jpg"},"ptb_partizan_spisak_info":["partizan_spisak_info_1","partizan_spisak_info_2","partizan_spisak_info_3"]},"ptb_taxonomy":{"category":[{"term_id":318,"name":"26-35 y\/o","slug":"26-35-g-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":318,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":160,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":315,"name":"died in 1943","slug":"poginuli-1943-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":315,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":183,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":316,"name":"died in BiH","slug":"poginuli-u-bih-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":316,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":518,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":353,"name":"National Heroes","slug":"narodni-heroji-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":353,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":13,"filter":"raw"}],"post_tag":[{"term_id":475,"name":"bruk","slug":"bruk-2","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":475,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":356,"name":"Fallen Croatians from Mostar in the resistance movement","slug":"hrvati-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":356,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"Numerous Croats from Mostar were members of the resistance movement as fighters, activists, and sympathizers. Among them are three national heroes.","parent":0,"count":48,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":317,"name":"Fallen fighters of the Mostar Battalion.","slug":"bataljon-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":317,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"[gallery link=\"file\" size=\"medium\" ids=\"7114,7116,7122\"]\r\n\r\nMostar Battalion was formed as the \"Konji\u010dki\" in September 1941. Until the formation of the 13th Herzegovina Brigade in May 1944, 827 fighters passed through the Battalion, and 445 of them perished, including 211 from Mostar. Of the 86 women, 43 were killed. Mostar residents also fought in many other units of the NOVJ (People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia) and among the ranks of the activists of the National Liberation War in Mostar and other cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina... According to the records of the organization SUBNOR Mostar, every third citizen was an activist of the National Liberation War, 670 fighters were killed, 1517 were victims of fascist terror, and 206 were civilian war victims. D\u017eemil \u0160arac, article \"Sa Mostarcima\" (\"With the People from Mostar\"), Hercegovina No. 9, p. 221.\r\n\r\n\"And we were all young. Those of us who were 17, 18 years old, some seemed old even though they were not older than 25. The ones over 30 were rare. There were girls and boys with different characteristics and temperaments, robust and calm, talkative and silent, recklessly brave and rational, ordinary and above-average, semi-literate and university-educated, workers and highly skilled craftsmen, high school students and university students, skilled singers and those who couldn't carry a tune, jokers and serious-minded individuals. From all our nations and religions: Muslims, Croats, Serbs, Jews, Orthodox Christians, Catholics, Muslims, Jews, atheists, and semi-atheists. Some were from straight from Mostar and others from the surrounding locations, from Konjic and outside Konjic.\" (Hercegovina Magazine No. 7, p. 238)\r\n\r\nGroups of new fighters arrived from Mostar every 10-15 days, and the Unit quickly grew into a solid military force. The guides for the groups from Mostar were Mehmed Arap, Vasa Maslo, Serif Buri\u0107, Husa Orman, Vojo Ivani\u0161evi\u0107, and Pero Krajina, who were among the bravest and most resourceful fighters. The groups regularly brought not only weapons but also medical supplies, sugar for the hospital, writing materials, large quantities of paper, books taken from the National Library (which formed the library at Borci), and other supplies for the needs of the Unit. 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