DIANA BUDISAVLJEVIĆ

GLOBE The heroine that Tito condemned to oblivion: What does the book that Croatia has been waiting for 75 years reveal about her? The Yugoslav president never publicly acknowledged her merits in rescuing 10,000 Serb orphans from Ustasha camps By: Zdravko MilinovicPosted: September 13, 2020 3:40 pm Diana Budisavljević after the war Diana Budisavljević after the war Copies from the book 'diana Budisavljević - Prešućena Heroina Drugog Svjetskog Rata' Oskar Schindler saved 1,200 Czech and Polish Jews. The Hollywood film "Schindler's List" was made about him and he became a world-famous humanitarian, the greatest in the Second World War. Polish social worker Irena Sendlerowa saved 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto, Italian police officer in Rijeka Giovanni Palatucci several thousand Jews ... And Diana Budisavljevic from Zagreb managed to save about 10,000 mostly Serbian children from concentration camps. Why did it remain unknown until just a few years ago? Why did it have to be a secret for almost 60 years? And that at a time when the direct witnesses of Diana Budisavljević's courage were still alive. This is the question that Dr. Nataša Mataušić is trying to find answers to in her book "Diana Budisavljević - The Silenced Heroine of the Second World War", which has recently been published by Profil. Historian Nataša Mataušić , former President of the Management Board of the Jasenovac Memorial Site, has been researching the life and work of Diana Budisavljević and her associates for several years, so she wrote and defended her doctoral dissertation on February 3, 2020. Under the editorship of the experienced Maroje Mihovilović, a scientific work resulted in a book in which 70 percent of the dissertation was published. Mihovilović rearranged the original material in a different way, shortened it a bit, re-composed it and bypassed the language in which scientific papers are usually written. Diana Budisavljević was an Austrian married to the eminent Zagreb doctor Julij Budisavljević , a Croatian Serb from a well-known and politically and publicly very active family during the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but also during the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The first great turning point in silence and historical injustice towards this true heroine of the war happened in 2003, when the book "Diary of Diana Budisavljević 1941-1945" was published in Zagreb. Until her granddaughter Silvija Szabo discovered them by chance, it was not even known that Diana Budisavljević kept diary notes from October 23, 1941 to February 7, 1947. She wrote in her mother tongue, the Austrian version of German. Unfortunately, this "exceptional historical document about a short but cruel period of Croatian history, written from the perspective of a woman who found the strength and courage to act freely and offer active resistance to the Ustasha regime in extremely difficult war conditions" was printed in only 700 copies. However, the "hidden truth about this brave woman surprised and outraged not only the professional but also the general public", writes Nataša Mataušić in her author's introduction. It turned out that the state, the then Tito's Yugoslavia and the People's Republic of Croatia, which grew up on the bloody anti-fascist resistance, only officially communicated with the (practical) anti-fascist Diana Budisavljević several times after the war. For the first time in 1945, immediately after the liberation, when the competent ministry asked her and took over the file with basic data on 12,000 boys and girls who passed through Zagreb during the war years. She led it so that war orphans could reunite with their parents after the war. She also handed over five albums with photos of the children. "In February 1947, she submitted a report on the work of the Action to the Street Committee of the Anti-Fascist Alliance of Women (AFŽ) ... Until her death in 1978, no one asked her anything about the Action, nor did she talk about it," Mataušić writes. Why such a truth was concealed is a question that has arisen for the author since the beginning of her work on this book. Because, "Diana personally participated in taking over 4306 children from Ustasha camps", proves Mataušić and concludes that only until the end of 1942, thanks mostly to her and all those she managed to start, from the concentration camps Jasenovac and Stara Gradiška and the concentration camps 7277 children left the Mlaka, Jablanac and Košutarica camps ”. However, everything became different after Dana Budisavljević, one of Julij Budisavljević's distant relatives , made the documentary-feature film "Diary of Diana Budisavljević", which won three awards at the Pula Film Festival 2019 (Grand Golden Arena, Audience Award and Award for directing) and broke ratings records in Croatian cinemas, from which the audience came out shocked. Nataša Mataušić collaborated with the film crew, and at the same time she was finishing her work on Diana Budisavljević. And then an important and completely accidental discovery happened. On one Facebook page, her attention was drawn to a photo in which she recognized her heroine. image Diana and Julija Budisavljević with daughter Jelka and grandson Orsan, 1953. Copies from the book 'diana Budisavljević - Prešućena Heroina Drugog Svjetskog Rata' "The picture was taken in 1969 in the salon of Villa Zagorje, today's Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia, the former Zagreb residence of Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito at the top of Pantovčak, where he stayed when he was in Zagreb. The photo shows JB Tito, his wife Jovanka, Julija Budisavljević and - Diana Budisavljević ", writes Natasa Mataušić, who also found the photo on the pages of the Belgrade Museum of the History of Yugoslavia. Along with the photograph, there is also basic information that a "meeting with the Budisavljević family" was recorded on it, that the recording was made on December 19, 1969 in Villa Zagorje in Zagreb, that it was a "private reception". From these scanty data, it could be concluded that Jovanka Broz, born Budisavljević, introduced some of her Zagreb relatives to Tito. Tito was in Zagreb in those days, allegedly, an official car came for Julija and Diana Budisavljević in front of their house on Svačić Square and took them on that unofficial visit to Pantovčak. It is logical to assume that President Tito had information about his guest's war activities. image Diana Budisavljević, official photo from the pass of the Police Directorate of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in Zagreb Copies from the book 'diana Budisavljević - Prešućena Heroina Drugog Svjetskog Rata' "It should be reminded that at that time there was still complete public silence about what Diana Budisavljević was doing during World War II. world war. For the general public, she was the anonymous wife of a retired, once prominent Zagreb doctor. But for Tito, maybe she wasn't just that ", the author assumes. It is even more probable that Jovanka Budisavljević herself knew more or less everything . She had to meet her Zagreb cousins ​​at least once before, only a year earlier at the Mirogoj cemetery in Zagreb, when Julijev's much better-known brother Srdjan was buried in political circles. image Diana and Julija Budisavljević at the funeral of Julija's brother Srđan, Zagreb, Mirogoj, February 1968. Copies from the book 'diana Budisavljević - Prešućena Heroina Drugog Svjetskog Rata' image Savka Dabčević Kučar, Jovanka Broz and Ivan Stevo Krajačić at the funeral of Srđan Budisavljević, Zagreb, Mirogoj, February 1968. Copies from the book 'diana Budisavljević - Prešućena Heroina Drugog Svjetskog Rata' "On that cold winter day, his body was laid in the family tomb of Budisavljević. The funeral of this civic politician, who was not in politics for 23 years, except for members of his family, including his brother Julija and Diana Budisavljević, was attended by people from the very top of SKH and Tito's wife Jovanka Broz. The Prime Minister of Croatia, the future President of the Central Committee of SKH Savka Dabčević Kučar and the head of the Croatian Udba, one of the most powerful people in Croatia, a close associate of Tito Ivan Stevo Krajačić, were there ", writes Mataušić. Between the two wars, Srdjan Budisavljevic was a lawyer, but also a very active politician of civic Yugoslav orientation. He was twice a minister in the royal governments. After the capitulation of Yugoslavia in 1941, he flew to London as a minister. He played a crucial role as one of the three members of the Royal Governorate, which after Churchill's pressure was formed as a transitional solution in 1945. King Peter was forbidden to return to the country, and before the referendum in which the Kingdom went into the past, the Governor's Office was formally legal. Young King Peter, aware that Tito had won a historic victory, opposes Churchill at the last minute and decides to abolish the Governorate. Srdjan Budisavljevic was one of the three members who rejected the king and completed the transition of Yugoslavia to the republic. This historical role of a member of Jovanka's extended family could have been the reason for him to be accompanied on Mirogoj by a part of the then Croatian political leadership. However, Jovanka Broz probably learned about Diana Budisavljević's humanitarian work from Vera Becić-Velebit, the wife of Tito's most important diplomat, Vladimir Velebit . Namely, her mother Ljuba (the wife of the painter Vladimir Becić ) was one of the closest associates of Diana Budisavljević in the action of rescuing and fostering Serbian war orphans. She even adopted a girl who was left without parents after the Goat's Calvary. Vera Velebit herself helped Diana. She was very close to Jovanka Broz, who was hosted in Rome in 1953, where Vladimir Velebit was the Yugoslav ambassador. Jovanka, then only Budisavljevic, was sent to Rome to marry Tito for a while, spent in an orderly bourgeois family in which good (“gentlemanly”) manners were part of family upbringing and daily life. "Vera Velebit and Jovanka Broz were so close that they knew a lot about each other. Jovanka also knew that Vera had adopted a much younger sister Seka, and Vera also told her about Diana Budisavljević's Action. She also told Tito about Seka, who until then - to the surprise of Vera Velebit - knew nothing about Diana Budisavljević's Action. Vera Velebit was indignant: I told Jovanka about Seka and Diana. Jovanka was a wonderful woman, a Lika villager with a lot of charm and a lot, a lot of kindness. I even told Tito once that we have Seka. He didn't know anything about such an action… they hid it from him too… But Jovanka Broz knew that and obviously, organizing Tito's meeting with Diana and Julija Budisavljević, she wanted Tito to know it first hand. Vera Velebit said that it certainly sounds unbelievable that Tito would not know that Vera has a sister, an adopted Kozara child, so she told him that, so that he would not know how she found herself in Zagreb and who saved her, after all. " , writes Nataša Mataušić. image Reception in Villa Zagorje: Tito, Julija Budisavljević, Jovanka Broz and Diana Budisavljević, December 19, 1969. Copies from the book 'diana Budisavljević - Prešućena Heroina Drugog Svjetskog Rata' The answer to the question why the role of Dijana Budisavljević was hidden from the public eye could be sought in two directions. The fact that one bourgeois, a woman who had nothing to do with the Communist Party and the partisan movement, had done so much aroused the suspicion of the orthodox Bolsheviks who had come to power from the woods. As the partisan illegal movement itself did everything it could to help these unfortunate children, they were not ready to share the credit with this foreigner who "in who knows what way" obtained permission from the Ustasha authorities for her activities. Because of her contacts with numerous German military and civilian officials, she was already suspicious as a quisling collaborator of the occupiers. Tatjana Marinić, a pre-war member of the Party, herself took part in rescuing children from the camp before joining the partisans. When she returned to Zagreb in 1945 with a partisan victory, as a representative of the social welfare department (as she would be called today), she gave an order to confiscate Diana's files and photographs of the rescued children. That wasn't enough either. She personally excluded statements about the role of Diana Budisavljević from the testimonies of key witnesses. For rescuing such a large number of children, not only those who found themselves homeless after the partisan defeat at Kozara, the official credit was taken by the illegal partisan movement, but also by Tatjana Marinić personally. However, there is another, perhaps politically deeper reason why the then authorities could not recognize Diana's merits. Taking care of so many war orphans would not be possible without the help of Caritas and Kaptol itself. Diana Budisavljević met with Archbishop Alojzije Stepinac many times during those war years, and some of her closest associates even more often. The relationship between Diana and Stepinac did not start well. After the first meeting at Kaptol, she wrote in her diary: “I tell him that I came to ask him to save an entire nation, and he tells me about the apartment of a Jewish woman ... Then he started criticizing the Germans, Nazism, Hitler, that they are for everyone wrong. I tell him that the German bishops are very interested in their faithful and oppose Hitler. Many of those persecuted here have converted to the Catholic faith and it is his duty to intercede for them… In the end he promises to intercede. Since I don't believe much in that, I call Canon Bakšić in the afternoon and ask for a reception. I ask him to influence the archbishop. I ask that the canons meet and that all together stand up for the persecuted from Kordun. " Natasa Matausic notes that this relationship still had an ascending line. Over time, Kaptol and Archbishop Stepinac personally, through Caritas, of which he was president, helped more and more significantly. “Stepinac was at first uninterested in helping Diana and her Action, insensitive to her pleas and sermons, then made promises he did not keep, and from August 1942 on colonization, and especially from January 1943 he provided help in rescuing children and accommodation insurance. Stepinac's biographer Aleksa Benigar considers the colonization of children through Caritas solely to his credit, which many will later use for the phrase that Stepinac saved 7,000 Orthodox children ", writes the author of this book. image Stara Gradiška camp Copies from the book 'diana Budisavljević - Prešućena Heroina Drugog Svjetskog Rata' image Stara Gradiška camp Copies from the book 'diana Budisavljević - Prešućena Heroina Drugog Svjetskog Rata' In January 1943, Diana asked Stepinac for help in rescuing pregnant women and mothers with small children caught on the battlefield, and the archbishop “accepted without hesitation. The question is not whether to help at all, but how to organize the help ”. Nevertheless, Diana Budisavljević had, to put it mildly, a reserved attitude towards Stepinac all the time and until the end of the war. But the fact that she cooperated with him, with Kaptol and Caritas could not be viewed favorably by the communist government, which very soon after the war decided to settle accounts with the Catholic Church, try and imprison the Zagreb metropolitan for many years. Therefore, it is not unimportant to mention the fact that Julije Budisavljević wanted to testify in court in defense of Stepinac, but he was never summoned to the hearing. The wife of Dr. Andrija Štampar, Dr. Desanka Ristović Štampar, who also wanted to testify in Stepinac's defense, was not invited. Namely, if it had acknowledged the merits of Diana Budisavljević, the new communist government would have had to revise its positions at least on the humanitarian work of Archbishops Stepinac and Caritas. And that, with the court and political verdict against Stepinac, could not pass. That is probably why the otherwise almighty Tito avoided correcting historical injustices. Perhaps because of the complexity of political relations with the Church and the Vatican, perhaps because of the pragmatic daily political need not to open old wounds within the communist movement, Tito chose to do nothing. "What Tito knew about Diana Budisavljević and her heroic deed at the time of that meeting on December 19, 1969 in Villa Zagorje, or what he learned about it at that meeting, may never be established," image Natasa Matausic Darko Tomas / Cropix "Even if he knew, he did nothing to correct the great injustice inflicted on Diana Budisavljevic by members of his party." And one more thing. After that photo appeared, there was a rumor that Tito decorated Julija and Diana Budisavljević after that meeting. I asked Belgrade historian Ana Panic of the Museum of Yugoslav History to try to find any confirmation that Tito had decorated them. She did not find any supporting information for that. 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