Vladimir Perić Valter
| Vladimir Perić | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Native name | Владимир Перић |
| Nickname(s) | Valter |
| Born | 28 December 1919 Prijepolje, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes |
| Died | 5/6 April 1945 (aged 25) Sarajevo, Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia |
| Allegiance |
 Yugoslav Partisans (1941–45) |
| Years of service | 1941–45 |
| Commands held | Yugoslav Partisans in Sarajevo |
| Battles/wars | World War II in Yugoslavia |
Vladimir Perić (Serbian Cyrillic: Владимир Перић; 28 December 1919 – 5/6 April 1945), best known by the nom de guerre Valter, was a Partisan commander in German-occupied Sarajevo during World War II.
Born in the Serbian town of Prijepolje, he became a member of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ) in 1940. The following year, he joined the Partisans and was appointed deputy political commissar of a Partisan unit in eastern Bosnia in 1942. In 1943, Perić became secretary of the Sarajevo committee of the KPJ and took charge of anti-sabotage actions in the city in early 1945. While visiting a tobacco factory at midnight on 5–6 April, Perić was killed after a German soldier hurtled a hand grenade at him. His death made him one of the last Sarajevans killed in World War II.
Vladimir Perić was born in the town of Prijepolje on 28 December 1919. He graduated from a trade school in his hometown and moved to Belgrade to attend business school. His school years were characterized by constant poverty and he struggled to find work to pay for his education. From 1938 to 1940, Perić worked at the Mortage Bank (Serbo-Croatian: Hipotekarna banka) in Belgrade. In 1940, he became a member of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (Serbo-Croatian: Komunistička partija Jugoslavije; KPJ). Shortly afterwards, he was transferred to the bank's Sarajevo branch.
On 6 April 1941, Axis forces invaded Yugoslavia. Poorly equipped and poorly trained, the Royal Yugoslav Army was quickly defeated. After the invasion, Yugoslavia was dismembered, with the extreme Croat nationalist and fascist Ante Pavelić, who had been in exile in Benito Mussolini's Italy, being appointed Poglavnik (leader) of an Ustaše-led Croatian state – the Independent State of Croatia (often called the NDH, from the Croatian: Nezavisna Država Hrvatska). The NDH combined almost all of modern-day Croatia, all of modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina and parts of modern-day Serbia into an "Italian-German quasi-protectorate." NDH authorities, led by the Ustaše militia, subsequently implemented genocidal policies against the Serb, Jewish and Romani population living within the borders of the new state. As a result, two resistance movements emerged – the royalist and Serb Chetniks, led by Colonel Draža Mihailović, and the multi-ethnic, Communist Yugoslav Partisans, led by Josip Broz Tito.
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