Jean-Michel Nicolier to be buried in Vukovar, funeral date known

by croatiaweek
October 30, 2025
in News

Jean-Michel Nicolier (Photo: Fair Use)

The funeral of Vukovar hero Jean-Michel Nicolier, a French volunteer who gave his life fighting for Croatia during the Homeland War, will take place next Thursday at 1 p.m. at the Memorial Cemetery in Vukovar, RTL Danas has confirmed.

Following the funeral, a requiem mass will be held at the Church of St Philip and St James in Vukovar. Nicolier will be laid to rest just a few kilometres from the place where he was executed in 1991.

For decades, Nicolier’s family expressed their wish to have him buried in Croatia if his remains were ever found. “I would like, before I die, to be able to bow before my son’s grave,” his mother Lyliane Fournier said several years ago.

After 34 long years, she has finally found peace. Nicolier’s remains were among those of three Croatian defenders exhumed from a mass grave discovered at Ovčara on 25 September this year.

Another soldier was found at Petrovačka Dola earlier in 2024. Nicolier was formally identified among the victims from Ovčara.

A young Frenchman of just 25, Nicolier came to Croatia in 1991, moved by the suffering of the Croatian people, despite never having visited the country before. He first joined the front near Karlovac before later fighting alongside the final HOS volunteers in the Battle of Vukovar.

He was wounded on 9 November at the Vukovar Fairgrounds and, after the fall of the city ten days later, was taken from the hospital with other wounded soldiers and civilians to Ovčara. There, he was tortured and executed.

Jean-Michel Nicolier Bridge in Vukovar (Photo: Sokac121/ CC BY-SA 4.0)

Despite confessions regarding his murder, no one has ever been held accountable.

Next week’s funeral will bring long-awaited closure for his family and for many Croatians who continue to honour Jean-Michel Nicolier as one of the true heroes of Vukovar, a foreigner who chose to fight and die for Croatia’s freedom.