Diana Budisavljevic, the forgotten saint of WWII

[Radojica]

Diana Budisavljevic is forgotten by everybody. Forgotten by Jugoslavia, by Croatia, by Serbia, Austria... Her name is not in any historian books, there's not a street with her name. SHe did not get any recognition for her work. This is the woman who personally organized saving of Serbian children from Ustasha's concentration and death camps. It is estimated that she saved around 12.000 of children (while Schindler saved around 1.200 people). She wasn't working alone. There was around 100 people helping her to save those children of all nationalities, Germans, Austrians, Croats, Serbs...

Diana Budisavljević began organising the rescue of children from Ustasha camps and providing various forms of assistance for the women and children in Loborgrad and Gornja Reka camps.

With the help of Dr. Kamilo Brössler from the Ministry of Associations of the Independent State of Croatia, members of the Croatian Red Cross, the Committee for People’s Aid, the Zagreb Archidiocesan branch of Caritas and a great number of citizens of Zagreb, Sisak and Jastrebarsko, she organised the reception and accommodation of children from the camps.

The children were accommodated in the Institute for the Deaf and Dumb, the Hospital for Infectious Diseases, the Jeronim Hall, in children’s homes in Josipovac, Vrhovac and one at 19, Kukulić Street, and in an illegal children’s home in Perjavica, where all the care they needed was provided.

Despite the care, many children, especially the youngest, died of sickness and exhaustion.

More than half the total number of children rescued were accommodated with families.

Diana Budisavljević creating a filing system, with the help of her associates, which contained information on about 12,000 children, so that she could discover and preserve the identities of the children and if possible, return them to their parents.

The act of rescuing these children, mostly of Serbian nationality, was one of the most complex, most humane actions of its kind during the Second World War, in terms of its scope, the number of associates involved and number of children rescued (about 10,000), not only in the Independent State of Croatia, but in the whole of Europe.

http://www.jusp-jasenovac.hr/Uploads/61/5020/6793/6933/6934/7393/7398/6_2_5_d-budisavljevic.jpg

Diana Budisavljevic

http://www.jusp-jasenovac.hr/Uploads/61/5020/6793/6933/6934/7393/7394/6.4.1%20364%20Popis-djece.jpg

Diana Budisavljević and Red Cross nurses listing children before their transport to Zagreb, Stara gradiška camp, 10 July 1942.

http://www.jusp-jasenovac.hr/Uploads/61/5020/6793/6933/6934/7393/7396/6.4.2%20368%20RaskuZna-postaja.jpg

Children from Stara Gradiška camp at the Disinfection Station, Zagreb, 11 July 1942.

http://www.jusp-jasenovac.hr/Uploads/61/5020/6793/6933/6934/7393/7402/6_2_4_djeca-zagreb.jpg

Children rescued from camps at the Zagreb railway station, Zagreb, 1942.

http://www.jusp-jasenovac.hr/Uploads/61/5020/6793/6933/6934/7393/7400/6_2_6_broesler_marinic.jpg

Dr. Kamilo Brössler and Tatjana Marinić with students of the Nurses’ School, which joined the efforts to rescue children from the Ustasha camps, Jastrebarsko, 1942.

[Monolith]

I heard of her. I believe she was of Austrian descent, though I suppose there are good people in all nations.

[Radojica]

I heard of her. I believe she was of Austrian descent, though I suppose there are good people in all nations.

Yes, you are right. She was Austrian married for Serb. Ahh, you know the saying " u svakom zitu ima kukolja" ;)

[Sadie]

History of these swarthy peoples is pretty irrelevant. Who cares?

[Tabiti]

History of these swarthy peoples is pretty irrelevant. Who cares?

She was Austrian

[Sadie]

Are you blind not to see what the topic of this article is? Not her being Austrian, but some episodes of Serbian, Croatian and God-knows-which history.

[Monolith]

History of these swarthy peoples is pretty irrelevant. Who cares?
Indeed, my dear Saide. Who cares? Why do you even bother posting? ;)

[lei.talk]

if some one will translate this page (http://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%94%D0%B8%D1%98%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B0_%D0%91%D1%83% D0%B4%D0%B8%D1%81%D0%B0%D0%B2%D1%99%D0%B5%D0%B2%D0 %B8%D1%9B)
and post it in the english wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Article_wizard),
millions will read of her.
In 1942, Diana Budisavljević (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasenovac_concentration_camp#Inmate_help) came into contact with German officers at Stara Gradiška about releasing children from the camp. With the help of the Ministry of Social Affairs, especially prof. Kamil Bresler, she was able to relocate child inmates from the camp to Zagreb, and other places. The Red-Cross is in times accused of insufficient aid of the persecuted Jews in Nazi Europe. In the NDH, however, the operation of the Red-Cross was ambivalent, and although the assistance was perhaps late or insufficient, it was the most help the victims ever got. The local representative, Julius Schmidllin, was contacted by the Jewish community, which sought financial aid. The organisation helped to release Jews from camps, and even debated with the Croatian government in relation to visiting the Jasenovac camp (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasenovac_concentration_camp).

[Toni]

teh eeevil ustashas

[Eldritch]

teh eeevil ustashas

Yeah. And they're lazy and stink. :coffee:

[Toni]

teh most terrible genocide in teh entire history of teh universe

[Radojica]

It's ok, leave it for now, will you? The point are not ustashas, but that woman and her deeds.