This article was submitted by ISA BELLE, a Dutch student studying in Herzegovina.
Partisans or Yugoslav partisans were a communist-led resistance movement during the Second World War who fought both the Axis of power in Yugoslavia and their collaborators. Thanks to them, Yugoslavia was the only country in Eastern Europe not liberated by outside forces but by its own people. This led to a lot of praises for these heroes and massive support for the communists after the war. Because of the overwhelming support for former partisans, their leader, Josip Broz Tito, abandoned other political parties in Yugoslavia as he deemed it unnecessary.
Yugoslavia received a ‘special status’ during the Cold War because they had liberated themselves. Even though a communist country, Yugoslavia was not a member of the Warsaw Pact and gained the freedom to choose its own direction instead of being subjected to the influence of the Soviet Union and Stalin. During communism, the Yugoslavians had a lot more freedom than their Eastern European neighbors and could freely travel around. Furthermore, Yugoslavia did not take sides during the Cold War and remained neutral and inactive during the non-alignment movement.
Currently, in Bosnia, the partisans are still heroes to many people and played an important part in liberating Mostar. Because of this, a memorial cemetery has been dedicated to these partisans who died defending their city. It is a typically socialist memorial, which is very majestic and big, with white stone terraces. Every partisan has a white stone with his name carved in curly letters next to the years of his birth and death. The short journey to the memorial is very impressive as you follow an avenue-like pathway and walk past a pond. The architecture of this place is the brainchild of architecture Bogdan Bogdanovic. It has special designs with unusual shapes and small surprises such as a fountain on the highest level of the cemetery. When it was working in the past, the water from the fountain would stream over different levels of the cemetery all the way down into the pond. Also, there is a corridor on the sides of the memorial, and in several spots along this corridor, there are empty chambers in various shapes, waiting for kids to come and play hide and seek. The unique architecture of this site is hard to describe, and I recommend a visit if you have the opportunity.
During the Bosnian War, the memorial, unfortunately, lost much of its former glory and dignity and turned into a junkyard forgotten by everybody. Gravestones have been broken or removed, and the stones which used to be white are now closer to black than white. Measures have been taken since the war to clean the memorial and reopen it for visitors. There are still fences around it though, and one still has to enter through an opening in the wall. Instead of being a place for remembrance and retrospection, this site has become a popular drinking location for young people, indicated by beer bottles and cans strewn everywhere. Nonetheless, the cemetery still means a lot for Mostarians regardless of their ethnicity.
My hope for the future is that this once majestic memorial will be restored to its original beauty just as Bosnia and Herzegovina is making steps towards a brighter future.
I'm a motivation explorer, personality type hacker, behavioral investigator and storyteller. I help startup founders, entrepreneurs, and corporate managers to understand themselves, the people they manage and how to get the best of their people. Specialty is in psychological personality types and brain-based methods. When I don't do the above, I hop around planet Earth with TravelJo.com to learn the Art and Science of people from everywhere and to give you all the free travel and tips and advice in many cool destinations.
My name is Cindy, also rhymes with travel junkie. A friend said I was probably a gipsy in my previous life. One of my many secret missions in life is to convert you to run off every once in awhile.
