according to some sources, keserović protected a group of jewish refugees hosted at the beginning of 1942 in the village of dankoviće on kopaonik. in late 1944, keserović released a captured member of the enemy forces whose name was alija izetbegović (who would in 1996 became the first president of bosnia and herzegovina), based on intervention by a group of serbs who informed him that izetbegović's grandfather had saved the lives of 40 serbs in 1914 during an anti-serb pogrom that followed the assassination of archduke franz ferdinand.