ZAGREB, 10 July 2022 - The 80th anniversary of the rescue operation launched by Diana Budisavljevic who played a crucial role in saving Serb children and finding a foster home for about 1,600 of them in Zagreb during the WW2, was marked in the capital on Saturday evening.

The commemorative event was held in a yard in downtown Zagreb where a majority of the saved children had been brought from Ustasha-led concentration camps to be taken by their foster families.

The commemoration was organised by the Documenta nongovernmental organisation, the Serb People's Council (SNV), and the Jasenovac Memorial Centre in memory of 10 July 1942 when humanitarian Diana Budisavljević arrived in the NDH-led Stara Gradiška camp and started registering children in a bid to save them.

Documenta leader Vesna Teršelič said that Budisavljević had actually begun her operation in October 1941 as soon as she had got information about the camps in Loborgrad which prompted her to do something and rescue children from those camps.

The commemorative events are also scheduled for Sunday, 10 July.

Teršelič said that Croatia was still dealing with many challenges concerning the legacy of the Nazi-style Independent State of Croatia (NDH), and warned that the For the Homeland Ready salute and Ustasha insignia had not yet been outlawed.

She expressed satisfaction with the attendance of young people from Italy, Germany, Greece, Ukraine, and Slovenia at the commemoration, within the EU-supported project "Between Memory and Oblivion - WWII places of memory".

Born in Innsbruck in 1891, Diana nee Obexer married Julije Budisavljevic in 1917, who at that time worked as an assistant at the surgical clinic in Innsbruck. By 1919, the couple had moved to Zagreb. She lived in Zagreb with her husband until 1972, when they moved back to Innsbruck. She died on 20 August 1978, aged 87.

In 2020, researcher and historian Natasa Matausic issued a book about Diana Budisavljevic in which she writes that this humanitarian woman of the Austrian ethnic background saved about 7,700 children from homes and Ustash-run camps during WWII.

January 4, 2021 – No better technology or camera in the world could detect people under the rubble than search dogs. In the recent earthquake that hit Petrinja, Croatian search dogs found two people alive and thus saved their lives.

The earthquake that hit Petrinja, Sisak, Glina, and the surrounding area on December 29, 2020, caused enormous material damage that is still being added up. Along with 14 teams of the Croatian Mountain Rescue Service (HGSS), search dogs also searched for the missing in the ruins. Unfortunately, seven people lost their lives in the quake's rubble, but, thanks to search dogs, two were found alive.

Deputy Head of the Service and head of search teams Neven Putar Neno told Jutarnji list that there are no such mechanical means or cameras that could detect a person under the rubble as quickly as dogs.

"When it comes to saving human lives in such catastrophic conditions, the dog is the most important resource because it can detect a person under the rubble the fastest. We have an awful lot of actions, several times a week throughout the year, where dogs find people, live and, unfortunately, dead," said Putar.

He also points out what all rescuers say – a successful search is not the result of any individual or individual dog's work, but the entire team. Along with HGSS and firefighters, members of KOSPP, the Zagreb club for training search dogs, were also on the field.

Dog barking already tells if a person is alive or dead

Stjepan Gal, a ranger in the Nature Park Papuk and HGSS member, arrived with his dog at the quake-hit area at 4 p.m. As he says, the scenes they saw were unreal. Gal and his dog Adi were in the village of Žažina, where the local church collapsed.

At the time of the quake, parishioners who had come to clear up the damage caused by the less devastating earthquake the day before were in the church. When it shook at 12.20, most of them managed to escape from the building, but one person did not. Beneath the ruins remained a trapped organist who was cleaning his instrument, the organ. Unfortunately, by the time Gal arrived, it was already clear that he was unfortunately dead, and the dog Adi confirmed this with his barking at 6:46 p.m.

Search dog Adi / Photo: Stjepan Gal Facebook

Namely, as Gal says, when a person is found alive, Adi barks happily, and when a person is dead, he is upset and sad and has a specific bark, akin to a  growl.

In addition to HGSS members, alpinists and speleologists from Split and firefighters were also at the location. They had to flee the church several times because the ground was shaking all the time, and there was a danger that the rest of the church would collapse on them.

From asylum to HGSS rescue team

The HGSS team from Karlovac, led by Dubravko Butala, also recently arrived in Petrinja. Kruno Stipetić from Ogulin entered the Petrinja City Hall with his dog Draco, where it was suspected that one person was buried under the rubble. Draco signaled that there was a living person inside. Already by the frequency of his barking, Stipetić knows how to recognize whether a person is alive or dead.

Draco is a Belgian Shepherd, seven and a half years old. They wanted to put him to sleep, but Stipetić believed in him, and the dog eventually found and rescued the woman trapped in the rubble.

"When I got him from the asylum, he was aggressive, and everyone said I would fail, but I believed in him. He knows it, and now he's giving me back all the effort. Today, the two of us are called to about 80 percent of Croatia's search operations because we are a perfectly coordinated team. We think and work as one person," says Stipetić.

Search dog Draco / Photo: Kruno Stipetić Facebook

Stipetić also says that search teams have a great responsibility. They are the ones who, after inspecting the ruins, establish that there is no one inside and suspend the further search.

"There is no room for error because human lives are at stake," says Stipetić.

'Saving human lives is our biggest motivation'

Dubravko Butala Bana, an HGSS member with forty years of experience, arrived in Majske Poljane, where the scenes were horrific – the village disappeared in a matter of seconds. His dog Thor first discovered two dead people under the rubble of a house.

According to Butala, unlike some other search dogs, his Toho does not bark differently when he smells a living or dead person. "But he feels my vibe, feels when I'm sad or upset," Butala says.

Dubravko and his search dog Thor / Screenshot HRT

While they were at the first house with the victims, they were informed that there were missing people in another ruin. They hurried there.

"Grandparents were under the ruins. Grandpa was sadly dead, but grandma was alive. As we dug her up, we talked to her, and we checked her pulse. We managed to get her out, and that's our biggest reward. That's why we do this job. Us HGSS members are volunteers, and the saved human life is our biggest motivation," says Butala, who tells us that a dog can smell one human molecule under all those ruins.

Crying comes later

Zoran Laslavić is a firefighter from Opatija who set off to Petrinja immediately after the earthquake, along with his search dog Rain and with a team of firefighters from the Primorje-Gorski Kotar County.

"The search with dogs is just one part of the job we do. The dog is always with me and, if the need arises, that is, when there is a suspicion that we have a missing person, then we go in search, and we do all the other work all the time. Although, as firefighters, we see everything, we have never seen anything like this before," says Laslavić on the situation in Petrinja.

Firefighters Zoran Laslavić (left) and Zoran Ravnić (right) with their dogs / Photo: Zoran Laslavić Facebook

Firefighters are relatively new to working with dogs, compared to HGSS. Laslavić was the initiator of introducing search dogs into firefighters' work in the search for the missing. Today, the service of teams with search dogs has been established, and there are more and more of them all over Croatia. Laslavić is an instructor and leads the training of these dogs in Šapjane.

His wife is also a firefighter and has a search dog, but she did not go to Petrinja. They got a baby a year ago, and their dog Rain adores it.

The search and rescue for missing people was a very emotional experience for all those involved, and they also comforted and helped those who survived. As they work and save lives, rescuers don't think about all that tragedy around them. Emotions come only later when they come home and relax. Then they often cry.

For more on the Petrinja earthquake and to see how you can donate money, food, humanitarian, sanitary and material aid, follow our dedicated section.

A woman who lost control of her car, which hung precariously off the side of a wooden jetty in Zadar, was rescued and escaped without injury. Early this morning there was a car accident along the Zadar shoreline for which a picture speaks more than a thousand words.

The dramatic rescue operation and rapid intervention was performed by Zadar firefighters, which prevented a woman and her vehicle from falling into the sea on Trpimirova obala near Starački dom (Nursing Home). The driver escaped without injuries, and firefighters are trying to save the vehicle as well, according to Toni Pajkin/HRT on January 23, 2020

Nissan Hung Precariously Off Wooden Jetty

This morning didn’t start off well for the driver of a Nissan. Going around the bend on Draženica, she lost control of her car, while attempting straighten the steering wheel. Although she didn't end up in the sea; most of her car hung off a wooden jetty suspended over water.

The car had stopped before it crashed. But even a slight motion posed a threat of the car tumbling down into the sea. Although the water is not very deep in this area, crashing into the water would have meant that the woman, who was trapped in the car, could have sustained serious injuries.

She could have sustained arm and leg fractures, head injuries or suffered even more severe consequences. Although the possibility of drowning was ruled out, because the firefighters and ambulances arrived quickly and were already on the scene, it is not difficult to imagine a potential ugly outcome.

Zadar Driver Remained Calm, Didn’t Move, Called Husband

The woman didn’t panic and remained calm in her car. She called her husband – and you can see him in the video wearing a black hat watching the rescue. She stayed still so as not to rock the car and waited for rescuers to arrive. Within 20 minutes, firefighters secured the car and had extended a brace over the water. Then they looped a strap through the window openings and attached it to the crane, which stabilized the car.

After that, the woman climbed out of the vehicle, kissed her husband and breathed a huge sigh of relief. She then spent a few minutes in the ambulance to so that professionals could conduct preventive check-up. But when she came out, she said repeatedly to her husband, "I'm still shaking all over; hold me!"

‘My wife parked the car the wrong way!’

Who wouldn’t shake after this experience on this foggy morning in Drošanjica. At the end of the rescue operation, the husband gave his thoughts on what happened: "Aw, no big deal. My wife parked the car the wrong way!" Both husband and wife were up for a little humor after the successful rescue.

Follow our Lifestyle page for keep track of driver and car rescues and creative parking techniques in Croatia.