Derviš Korkut

Korkut also saved a Jewish girl, Mira Papo by bringing her into his family and hiding her identity.

Early in his life, Korkut wanted to become a doctor, but after urging from his parents to continue learning, he went to study in Istanbul and at the Sorbonne.

He was mobilized into the Austro-Hungarian army in July 1917 as a military imam at the rank of II Class captain.

[2] He worked as a chief in the Muslim section of the Ministry of Religions in Belgrade from 1921 to 1923, when he was forced to resign due to pressure from members of the People's Radical Party.

[2] From September 1923 to October 1925 he was Secretary of the Yugoslav Muslim People's Organization, gathered around Ibrahim Maglajlić.

His Ustaše militias became notorious for their violent policies against the Serb, Jewish and Roma populations in the region.

Later that afternoon, he drove out of the city to a remote village where he gave his friend who was imam of a local mosque the book.

She called me Auntie Servet.” Derviš and Besim also contributed to the signing of a resolution condemning atrocities committed against Serbs and Jews living in the NDH.

Mira stayed with them for months until August 1942, when a family member living in the Italian occupied zone gave her a train ticket to travel toward the Adriatic where she hid out for the rest of the war.

[1] Derviš was tried after the war and convicted of allegedly collaborating with the Nazis in a show trial, because he refused to join the communist party.

[5] Korkut's surviving family were impoverished and blacklisted for most of the communist regime and moved back to Albania for a while before returning to Sarajevo.