{"id":12478,"date":"2023-06-12T04:06:05","date_gmt":"2023-06-12T03:06:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/partizansko.info\/partizan\/esad-m-fejic\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T15:29:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T15:29:08","slug":"esad-m-fejic","status":"publish","type":"partizan","link":"https:\/\/partizansko.info\/en\/partizan\/esad-m-fejic\/","title":{"rendered":"Esad M FEJI\u0106"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n

ESAD ESA FEJI\u0106, son of MUHAMED, born on March 24, 1918, in Mostar. A worker, athlete in the organization “Soko”, soccer player at “Vele\u017e” football club, a local bicycle racer with “his own ice skates for ice competitions,” an activist of the National Liberation Movement (NOP) in Mostar. He was the only fugitive from a Usta\u0161e truck in July 1941 when several hundred Serbs from the city were taken to execution sites. In the same month, he joined the first group of fighters from Mostar to Eastern Herzegovina to organize an uprising. He was wounded and captured by the Usta\u0161e but was freed during an action carried out by Mostar’s underground members (Mladen Balorda<\/a> and Ahmed Pintul<\/a>). The wounded Esad (“muscles of his arm were torn, blood vessels ruptured, bones protruded”) was then operated on by Dr. Zvonko Mari\u0107<\/a> and medical student Alija Krpo, and after the surgery, he initially hid in Ajnija Arap’s apartment but was later transferred to the hospital for treatment under a false name. Upon his return to Mostar, he worked in an underground group that collected weapons, medical supplies, and other necessities for partisan units. As an underground member, he and a group of partisans from the unit infiltrated an Italian camp in Mostar and seized large quantities of ammunition, taking them to Bora\u010dko Lake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was caught as a courier by the Italians in the spring of 1942 above Mostar and taken to the Mamula camp, where his brother \u0160efkija was also interned. He wrote to his mother that “he and his brother and other Mostar residents are being transferred to a new camp (Visco di Udine in Italy, ed.), that they will probably be fine, and that he has received all the money and packages, while his brother hasn’t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A member of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ) since 1943. Twenty days before the capitulation of fascist Italy, Esad and several Mostar residents were sent to Dubrovnik, where they encountered the capitulation of Italy and the disintegration of the Italian army. Esad and his comrades arrived in Mostar, and the Mostar group from the Visco di Udine camp joined the Slovenian partisans, fighters of the \u0160ercer Brigade<\/a>. At that time, Esad became a fighter of the Mostar Partisan Detachment, which carried out sabotage actions on the Sarajevo-Mostar railway, but he soon left on his own initiative with his best friend Huso Orman. They went to Mostar with the intention of carrying out several actions in the city. One of their plans was to capture a German colonel and exchange him for their arrested comrades, but they were told in Mostar that they were not allowed to take independent actions due to possible reprisals. They then decided to confront the “Jasenovac executioners” in western Herzegovina. Before their departure, in Esad’s backyard, in the midst of occupied Mostar, they took a photo dressed as partisans. They were photographed by Salem Masli\u0107, and the film was developed by the owner of the photographic store Kolakovi\u0107, who kept it until the liberation of Mostar on February 14, 1945. A few days after the photo was taken, in the village of Grab near Ljubu\u0161ki, they managed to “eliminate an Usta\u0161e sergeant” while “fighting him in a dark room”. They then continued to the Partisan unit in western Herzegovina, where Esad later became a commissar and Huso became a commander.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Esad was killed in January 1945 in \u010capljina as an officer of OZNA (Department of National Security), hit by gunfire from an Usta\u0161e machine gun that was positioned on a tower in the city center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is described as an “unusually daring and resourceful young man,” “one of the bravest fighters and commanders of the Mostar Battalion.” One of the five deceased members of the Feji\u0107 family (four brothers and one sister): D\u017eemal<\/a>, E\u0161ref<\/a>, Esad, Samija<\/a>. Esad’s two uncles were also killed by the Germans (one of them is dr Asim Opija\u010d<\/a>). The famous song “Mostarska mati” by Mostarske ki\u0161e is dedicated to \u0160efko’s mother, Adila Feji\u0107. You can read about the interview that Mi\u0161o Mari\u0107 published with Adila in 1972 here<\/a>. One of the most famous streets in Mostar is named after the Feji\u0107 brothers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the archives of Radmilo Braca Andri\u0107, the remains of Esad Feji\u0107 were transferred and buried in the Partisan Memorial Cemetery in Mostar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EXCERPTS FROM LITERATURE:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the liberation of the wounded Esad from captivity:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They all felt safe. They marked their new routes on the maps, thinking that one patrol was enough to secure their carefree rest. But suddenly, a burst of machine-gun fire tore through the air, and rifles blazed from all sides at the group of communists scattered in the bay. A fight broke out. Three communists were captured, while others managed to safely return to Mostar. One Ustasha was killed by the bomb thrown by Esad Feji\u0107, but Esad himself was seriously wounded in the arm. In this injured state, he found himself among the local Ustashas, ten kilometers away from the battle site. The local Ustashas did not recognize him. He, in his own clever way, prepared a new dangerous game for them. When he saw that he couldn’t cross over to the other side, he calmly approached them and said, ‘Quickly give me bandages. Can’t you hear the fight? We were fighting with the Chetniks and the Communists.’<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They bandaged his wound, but still didn’t believe the truth of his stories. To buy time and create an opportunity for escape, he suggested, ‘Alright, if you don’t believe me, then let one of you escort me to the Ustasha headquarters in Mostar. There you will find out who I am.’<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They sent him to the city with two villagers. ‘Do you know where the Ustasha headquarters is?’ Esad asked his escorts. ‘We don’t know!’ ‘I will guide you there.’<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He led them towards Carina. He was convinced that his friends along the way would certainly help him free himself from the Ustashas. And so it was. Soon they encountered Mladen Balorda\u2014shot by the Germans in ’43 as the deputy commander of the Mostar Battalion\u2014and Ahmet Pintul, who died in early ’44 as the commander of the Mostar Partisan Battalion. They were Esad’s best comrades. I also knew them very well. Balorda approached the escorts without hesitation and asked:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Where are you taking that prisoner?’ ‘We are supposed to hand him over to the Ustasha headquarters. We don’t know who he is\u2026’ ‘We are from the Ustasha headquarters. Come with us,’ Pintul intervened.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Confused by their arrival in the city itself, the villagers obediently followed the two ‘city Ustashas’, who provided them with a certificate ‘issued’ by the ‘Ustasha headquarters’ in a house, stating that they had properly completed their task. And so Esad once again gained his freedom, in clandestinity.”<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ESAD ESA FEJI\u0106, son of MUHAMED, born on March 24, 1918, in Mostar. A worker, athlete in the organization “Soko”, soccer player at “Vele\u017e” football club, a local bicycle racer with “his own ice skates for ice competitions,” an activist of the National Liberation Movement (NOP) in Mostar. He was the only fugitive from a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":10413,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","categories":[318,328,316,306],"tags":[317,395,330,396,397],"prezime":[394],"class_list":["post-12478","partizan","type-partizan","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-26-35-g-en","category-poginuli-1945-en","category-poginuli-u-bih-en","category-velez-en","tag-bataljon-en","tag-fejic-en","tag-foto-en","tag-logor-mamula-en","tag-partizanski-snimak-u-okupiranom-mostaru-en","prezime-f-en","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"ptb_metabox":{"ptb_partizan_izvori":"

grupa autora: Spomenica Mostara 1941-1945.; Konjhod\u017ei\u0107, Mahmud (1981): \u201cMostarke\u201d<\/a>: fragmenti o revolucionarnoj djelatnosti i patriotskoj opredjeljenosti \u017eena Mostara, o njihovoj borbi za slobodu i socijalizam, Op\u0161tinski odbor SUBNOR-a Mostar; Seferovi\u0107, Mensur (2014): \u017divot pi\u0161e svoju pri\u010du, Bosanska biblioteka \u010cikago; Seferovi\u0107, Mensur (1981): \u201eIsto\u010dno i zapadno od Neretve<\/a>\u201c, \u201eNarodna armija\u201c, Beograd ;\u00a0Seferovi\u0107, Mensur (1970): Pred o\u010dima grada<\/a>, \u00bbInformativni centar Mostar\u00ab, nagrada \u00bb14. februar\u00ab Skup\u0161tine op\u0161tine Mostar, 1970; Seferovi\u0107, Mensur: Mostarski kolopleti<\/a>, edicija \u201cMostar u borbi za slobodu\u201d, knjiga 8, Mostar;\u00a0Seferovi\u0107, Mensur (1958): \u201cBataljon u okupiranom gradu<\/a>\u201d, Sarajevo;\u00a0\u0433\u0440\u0443\u043f\u0430 \u0430\u0443\u0442\u043e\u0440\u0430 (1986): \u0425\u0435\u0440\u0446\u0435\u0433\u043e\u0432\u0438\u043d\u0430 \u0443 \u041d\u041e\u0411 3.<\/a>, \u0411\u0435\u043e\u0433\u0440\u0430\u0434\u00a0 Photo<\/em>: Seferovi\u0107, Mensur (2014): \u017divot pi\u0161e svoju pri\u010du, Bosanska biblioteka \u010cikago; \u00a0S. Demirovi\u0107<\/p>","ptb_partizan_datum_rodzenja":"(1918. Mostar - 1945. \u010capljina)","ptb_partizan_godina":"27","ptb_partizan_galerija_1":{"url":["http:\/\/partizansko.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/fk-velez-1937.jpg","http:\/\/partizansko.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Fejic-Esad-fudbaler.jpg","http:\/\/partizansko.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Fejic-Esad-i-Husa-Orman.jpg","http:\/\/partizansko.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Esad-Fejic-takmicenje-gimnastika-29-30-9-1934-Sokolski-glasnik.jpg","http:\/\/partizansko.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Esad-Fejic-takmicenje-gimnastika-29-30-9-1934-Sokolski-glasnik-2.jpg","http:\/\/partizansko.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Brace-Fejica.jpg","http:\/\/partizansko.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/adila-fejic.jpg","http:\/\/partizansko.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/adila-fejic-Sloboda-1972-Miso-Maric.jpg"],"link":["","","","","","","",""],"title":["FC \"Vele\u017e\" in 1937. Esad Feji\u0107 is third from the right (standing).","Esad Feji\u0107 as a football player from Vele\u017e in 1937","Husa Orman and Esad Feji\u0107, photographed in occupied Mostar before the action in 1944. Photographed by Salem Masli\u0107, and the film was developed by the owner of the photography shop Kolakovi\u0107, who preserved it until the liberation of Mostar on February 14, 1945.","Esad Feji\u0107, won the third place, 29-30.9.1934. Source: \"Sokolski glasnik\" ","Esad Feji\u0107, won the first place, 29-30.9.1934. Source: \"Sokolski glasnik\" ","Bra\u0107e Feji\u0107a street in Mostar (google maps)","Adila Feji\u0107, mother of Esad (and four other fallen fighters)","An interview with mother Adila Feji\u0107, by Mi\u0161o Mari\u0107, \"Sloboda\" 1972, "],"description":["1937.","","","","","","",""]},"ptb_partizan_poruka_":"Do you have more information about this fighter? Share<\/a> your stories and photographs. Let's keep the memory alive!","ptb_partizan_ploca":{"1":"http:\/\/partizansko.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Fejic-Esad-IMG_3267-rotated.jpg","2":"http:\/\/partizansko.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Fejic-Esad-IMG_3267-rotated.jpg"},"ptb_partizan_spisak_info":["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":328,"name":"died in 1945","slug":"poginuli-1945-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":328,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":197,"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":306,"name":"FC \u201cVele\u017e\u201d","slug":"velez-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":306,"taxonomy":"category","description":"[gallery link=\"file\" size=\"medium\" columns=\"5\" ids=\"4320,4325,4328,4327,3733\"]\n\nNumerous players and supporters of FC \"Vele\u017e\" actively engaged in the fight against fascism from day one. Seventy-seven of them perished in the war, and among them, eight of nine football players - national heroes.","parent":0,"count":67,"filter":"raw"}],"post_tag":[{"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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Read about the fallen fighter Esad Feji\u0107 and this photograph.","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"}],"prezime":[{"term_id":394,"name":"F","slug":"f-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":394,"taxonomy":"prezime","description":"","parent":0,"count":13,"filter":"raw"}]},"ptb_featured_image":{"url":"http:\/\/partizansko.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Fejic-Esad-2.jpg","title":"Feji\u0107 Esad 2","caption":""},"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/partizansko.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/partizan\/12478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/partizansko.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/partizan"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/partizansko.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/partizan"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/partizansko.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/partizan\/12478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36028,"href":"https:\/\/partizansko.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/partizan\/12478\/revisions\/36028"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/partizansko.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/partizansko.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/partizansko.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/partizansko.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12478"},{"taxonomy":"prezime","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/partizansko.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/prezime?post=12478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}