Diana Budisavljević
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Diana Budisavljević (; 15 January 1891 – 20 August 1978) was an Austrian
humanitarian Humanitarianism is an active belief in the value of human life, whereby humans practice benevolent treatment and provide assistance to other humans to reduce suffering and improve the conditions of humanity for moral, altruistic, and emotional ...
who led a major relief effort in Yugoslavia during World War II. From October 1941, on her initiative and involving many co-workers, she organized and provided assistance to mostly Serbian Orthodox women and children detained in the Ustaše camps in the Independent State of Croatia, a Nazi puppet state established in occupied Yugoslavia. The operation, known as "Action Diana Budisavljević", succeeded in saving around 10,000 children. Budisavljević described the course of the Action in a diary, starting with 23 October 1941 and the final entry on 7 February 1947. The diary was released in Croatian in 2003. After her story was better publicized in 2012, she received substantial posthumous recognition.


Early life

Born in
Innsbruck Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol (state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the ...
, Diana Obexer married Julije Budisavljević in 1917, who at that time worked as an assistant at the surgical clinic in Innsbruck. By 1919, the couple had moved to Zagreb, at the time part of Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. Julije Budisavljević was an
ethnic Serb The Serbs ( sr-Cyr, Срби, Srbi, ) are the most numerous South Slavic ethnic group native to the Balkans in Southeastern Europe, who share a common Serbian ancestry, culture, history and language. The majority of Serbs live in their na ...
(and brother of more well-known
Srđan Srđan (Срђан); ; ; ) is a Serbo-Croatian masculine given name, usually written as ''Srdjan'' when the letter đ is unavailable. It is usually considered to be a form of the name Sergius, honoring the Christian martyr and saint Sergius. In ...
), who was known for founding the surgical clinic at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Zagreb.


World War II

During World War II, Yugoslavia was invaded by the Axis forces in April 1941 and the Nazi-allied Independent State of Croatia began a genocidal campaign against Serbs, Jews and
Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council *Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...
, setting up numerous concentration camps in Croatia. After she learned about children held at the camp Lobor-Grad, in October 1941, together with a number of co-workers, in particular Marko Vidaković and Đuro Vukosavljević, she launched a relief campaign named "Action Diana Budisavljević". The Action took care of mostly Serbian children but also women held in various concentration camps including the Jasenovac death camps. With the help from the local Jewish community in Zagreb, which had permission to support the camp inmates, her team sent supplies of food, medicines, clothes and also money, first to Lobor-Grad and later to the Gornja Rijeka camp and the Đakovo camp. Her team also helped the members of the
Croatian Red Cross The Croatian Red Cross ( hr, Hrvatski Crveni križ) is the national Red Cross Society of Croatia. The organization has over 370,000 volunteer members, as well as 550 professionals. The Red Cross has been active in the country since 1878. Externa ...
at the main railway station in Zagreb, providing travel supplies for workers in trains that stopped there on their way to forced labor in Germany – some of those men, women and children returned to Zagreb after they were stopped in
Maribor Maribor ( , , , ; also known by other #Name, historical names) is the second-largest city in Slovenia and the largest city of the traditional region of Styria (Slovenia), Lower Styria. It is also the seat of the City Municipality of Maribor, th ...
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, Budisavljević met the head nurse, 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, with assistance from German officer Gustav von Koczian, she obtained written permission to take the children from the Stara Gradiška concentration camp. 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 Sisak (; hu, Sziszek ; also known by other alternative names) is a city in central Croatia, spanning the confluence of the Kupa, Sava and Odra rivers, southeast of the Croatian capital Zagreb, and is usually considered to be where the Posavin ...
. After the rescue efforts in Stara Gradiška, Budisavljević, wearing the uniform of a Red Cross nurse, took part in the transport of children from Mlaka,
Jablanac Jablanac is a village in Lika-Senj County, Croatia, located on the Adriatic Sea underneath the Velebit mountain, overlooking the island of Rab. The village used to have a ferry port that connected it to Rab, but that moved up the coast to Stinica ...
and
Košutarica Košutarica is a village in Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = ...
. More than 6,000 children had been moved away from those camps 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 and Kamilo Bresler worked together with the
Zagreb Archdiocese The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Zagreb ( hr, Zagrebačka nadbiskupija, la, Archidioecesis Zagrebiensis) is the central archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Croatia, centered in the capital city Zagreb. It is the metropolitan see of Croatia, a ...
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. According to the Correction of the Report from Marko Vidakovic in May 1945, Budisavljević stated that the Action succeeded in saving about 10,000 children from the concentration camps. At the request by Kamilo Bresler in August 1942, she and Ivanka Džakula, with some other co-workers, started to compile card-file information on children, based on transportation lists and sources from various institutions that kept their own lists. By the end of the war the files contained information of approximately 12,000 children. Upon a signed request on 28 May 1945 by a
Federal State of Croatia The Socialist Republic of Croatia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Hrvatska, Социјалистичка Република Хрватска), or SR Croatia, was a constituent republic and federated state of the Social ...
official Tatjana Marinić, at that time Head of Ministry of Social Affairs, Budisavljević handed over the card-files. It is not known where they are now and whether they are preserved or not.


Later life

Budisavljević was almost forgotten after the war, for decades publicly rarely mentioned or not at all, and if mentioned then described in a role not according to her real importance, because the post-war authorities did not look favorably upon her. She lived in Zagreb with her husband until 1972, when they moved back to Innsbruck. She died on 20 August 1978, aged 87.


Legacy

In 2003, the Croatian State Archives published Budisavljević's war-time diary, translated from German to Croatian by Silvija Szabo. Silvija Szabo is a granddaughter of Budisavljević and a retired professor at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, who in 2005 stated that she had read an April 1983 '' Vjesnik'' feuilleton that had described Diana Budisavljević as a ''"mere Communist Party activist inside the Red Cross"''. She knew that that had not been the truth, so she decided to read Budisavljević's diary to learn the full extent of her grandmother's deeds. A Zagreb film production studio Hulahop produced a documentary about Diana Budisavljević, titled ''Dianina lista'', and produced by Dana Budisavljević and Miljenka Čogelja. The documentary won the prize from the EAVE European Producers Workshop at the When East Meets West Forum in January 2012 in Trieste. One of the authors is a distant relative of Diana Budisavljević's husband, yet had not heard of her heroism until seeing a 2009 documentary about Zagreb in World War II. On 15 February 2012, at the Serbian Statehood Day, the President of the Republic Boris Tadić posthumously decorated Diana Budisavljević with the Golden Medal of Miloš Obilić for courage and personal heroism. In October 2013,
Serbian Patriarch Irinej Irinej ( sr-cyr, Иринеј, , en, Irenaeus; born Miroslav Gavrilović; 28 August 193020 November 2020) was the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church from 2010 until his death in 2020. He had first been the bishop of Niš between 1975 and 2010, ...
posthumously awarded Diana Budisavljević with the high distinction of the
Serbian Orthodox Church The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, Christian churches. The majori ...
– the order of Empress Milica. Since May 2012 a park in the Dubrava district of Zagreb has been named "Park Diane Budisavljević". Streets in Belgrade, Kozarska Dubica, and Gradiška have been named for Diana Budisavljević, and an initiative was active in 2015 to do so in Banja Luka as well. In October 2017, a Sisak park area with a memorial plate for children that had been hurt in the local concentration camp has been named "Park Diane Budisavljević". In September 2018, the local district representation of
Donaustadt Donaustadt (; literally, Danube City; Central Bavarian: ''Donaustod'') is the 22nd district of Vienna, Austria (german: 22. Bezirk, Donaustadt). Donaustadt is the eastern district of Vienna.Statistik Austria, 2007, webpage statistik.at-23450. ...
(Vienna), decided to name a local alley "Diana-Budisavljevic Gasse". In 2017,
Radio Television of Serbia Radio Television of Serbia ( sr-Cyrl, Радио-телевизија Србије, sr-Lat, Radio-televizija Srbije, italics=yes; abbr. RTS/PTC) is Serbia's public broadcaster. It broadcasts and produces news, drama, and sports programming thro ...
, the Serbian public broadcast service, made a TV documentary film "Diana's Children" focusing on her work and the testimony of the children still alive who were saved in Operation DB. A feature film '' The Diary of Diana B.'' premiered at the Pula Film Festival in 2019, and won numerous Golden Arena awards. Her birthplace on Maria Theresia Street in
Innsbruck Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol (state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the ...
is known as ''Obexer House''.


See also

*
Rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust During World War II, some individuals and groups helped Jews and others escape the Holocaust conducted by Nazi Germany. Since 1953, Israel's Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem, has recognized 26,973 persons as Righteous among the Nations. Yad Vashe ...


References


Sources

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Further reading

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Budisavljevic, Diana 1891 births 1978 deaths 20th-century Austrian writers 20th-century Austrian women writers People from Innsbruck People from the County of Tyrol Austrian expatriates in Yugoslavia Austrian humanitarians Women humanitarians Austrian people of World War II Recipients of the Medal for Bravery (Serbia) 20th-century diarists Women diarists Women in World War II People from Zagreb