Partisan Monument, Mostar, BiH

This was an unexpected sight for us today. Inside of Mostar, there is a Monument to the fallen freedom fighters of Tito's Partisan army who retook Yugoslavia from Fascists without help from Allied powers. Last July, that monument was vandalized. More than 600 gravestones were destroyed. In the past, this monument was the sight of graffiti of swastikas being painted on the outside gates (I heard about 2 years ago was the most recent).

While we were there, a local man was paying his respects. We started talking, and he said he was taking his grandfather and neighbor's headstones home so they could no longer be vandalized. As near as I can figure, many others have done the same. There were many chips of headstones, but clearly not the remnants of 600.

We helped him carry his neighbor's headstone to the entrance, where he waited for a taxi. This was a bit of a shocking way to start our last full day in Mostar. Very sad.

The Wikipedia page has a good photo of how the Monument used to look.

https://hr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partizansko_gro…Read more