Diana Budisavljeviæ (15 January 1891 - 20 August 1978) was a humanitarian of Austrian descent who led a major relief effort in Yugoslavia during World War II that rescued over twelve thousand mostly ethnic Serbian children from the concentration camps operated by the Independent State of Croatia.
Contents
[hide] 1 Early life
2 World War II
3 Later life
4 Legacy
5 References
6 Sources
7 Further reading
Early life[edit]
Born in Innsbruck as Diana Obexer, in 1917 she married Julije Budisavljeviæ, an ethnic Serbian medical doctor[1] who at that time worked as an intern at the surgical clinic in Innsbruck. In 1919, Dr. Budisavljeviæ was appointed professor of surgery at the School of Medicine, University of Zagreb, so the couple moved to Zagreb, at the time in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
World War II[edit]
See also: Jasenovac concentration camp
During World War II, Yugoslavia was invaded by the Axis forces in April 1941, when a fascist puppet state called the Independent State of Croatia started a genocidal campaign against the Serbian, Jewish and Roma minorities, setting up numerous concentration camps. After she learned about children held at the camp Lobor-Grad, in October 1941, together with a number of collaborators the most important of whom were Marko Vidakoviæ and Ðuro Vukosavljeviæ, she launched a relief campaign named "Action Diana Budisavljeviæ". The Action took care of mostly Serbian children but also women held in various concentration camps including the Jasenovac death camps.[2][3]
With help from the Agency of the Jewish religious company, her team sent supplies of food, medicines, clothes and also money, first to Lobor-Grad and later to another camp at Gornja Rijeka, both situated north of Zagreb.
Her team also helped the members of the Croatian Red Cross at the main railway station in Zagreb, providing travel supplies for workers in trains that stopped there on their way to Germany - some of those men, women and children returned to Zagreb after they were stopped in Maribor and Linz and were not allowed to travel further due to their illness - they were taken care by the Red Cross and the Action. During that work, in March 1942, Diana Budisavljeviæ met the Headnurse Dragica Habazin, who became a close collaborator in the following months and years in helping the inmates from various camps that were relocated to Zagreb and other places.
At the beginning of July 1942, Diana Budisavljeviæ, with the help from the German officer Albert von Kotzian, obtained written permission to take the children from the Stara Gradiška concentration camp.[4] With the help of the Ministry of Social Affairs, especially prof. Kamilo Bresler, she was able to relocate child inmates from the camp to Zagreb, Jastrebarsko and later also to Sisak.[5] After the rescue efforts in Stara Gradiška, Diana Budisavljeviæ, wearing the uniform of a Red Cross nurse, also took part in the transport of children from Mlaka, Jablanac and Jasenovac. More than 6,000 children had been moved away from those camps by the "Action" in July and August 1942.
After obtaining permission in August 1942 to move the children from the institutions in Zagreb into the care of families, she worked together with the Zagreb Archdiocese branch of the Caritas and in that way made it possible for several thousands of children to be placed with families in Zagreb and rural communities.[6]
Eleven members of her team were killed during World War II.
On the basis of transport lists and other sources, a card-file of children was made, which by the end of the war contained information of approximately 12,000 children.[4] Upon request by the Ministry of Social Politics in May 1945, she handed over the card-files that she managed for 4 years together with Mrs. Ivanka Džakula.[6]
Later life[edit]
Diana Budisavljeviæ was almost forgotten after the war, publicly unmentioned in Yugoslavia for decades, because the post-war authorities did not look favorably upon her.[1] She lived in Zagreb with her husband, for a total of 43 years before 1972, when they moved back to Innsbruck. She died in 1978.
Legacy[edit]
Her granddaughter Silvija Szabo later wrote that, as a 1980s Vjesnik story had described her as a mere Communist Party activist inside the Red Cross, which she knew had not been the truth, she decided to read Diana's diary in 1983 to learn the full extent of her grandmother's deeds.[7]
In 2003, the Croatian State Archives' director Josip Kolanoviæ edited and published Budisavljeviæ's war-time diary, translated from German to Croatian by Silvija Szabo.[8][9]
A Zagreb film production studio Hulahop produced a documentary about her called Dianina lista, made by Dana Budisavljeviæ and Miljenka Èogelja, that won an award at a European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs event in January 2012.[10]
On February 15, 2012, at the Serbian Statehood Day, the President of the Republic Boris Tadiæ posthumously decorated Mrs. Diana Budisavljeviæ with the Golden Medal of Miloš Obiliæ for courage and personal heroism.[1][11]
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b c "Hrabrost Diane Budisavljeviæ jaèa od zaborava". Veèernje novosti (in Serbian). February 12, 2012. Retrieved April 6, 2013.
2.Jump up ^ Koljanin, Milan (2007). Akcija Diana Budisavljeviæ (Tokovi istorije) (in Serbian). pp. 191–207.
3.Jump up ^ Dragoje Lukiæ, Rat i djeca Kozare (Beograd: Književne novine, 1990), p. 27
4.^ Jump up to: a b Kolanoviæ 2003, p. 284.
5.Jump up ^ Ajdukoviæ 2006.
6.^ Jump up to: a b Kolanoviæ 2003, p. 285.
7.Jump up ^ Ajdukoviæ 2006, p. 8.
8.Jump up ^ Ajdukoviæ 2006, p. 4.
9.Jump up ^ Kolanoviæ 2003.
10.Jump up ^ "‘Dianina lista’ hrvatskih autorica osvojila Trst". Slobodna Dalmacija (in Croatian). 2012-01-26. Retrieved 2012-06-03.
11.Jump up ^ "Tadiæ odlikovao Ðokoviæa" (in Serbian). Radio Television
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