Biography
Jasmina Tutunović-Trifunov (b. 1974) is a historian, senior curator, and archivist at the Museum of Genocide Victims, where she leads the Department for Preservation, Archival Access, Documentation Processing, and Digitization. She is currently a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Philology in Belgrade. Since joining the Museum, she has been involved in the processing of archival collections and the development of educational programs, including the project Genocide Against Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia – The Suffering of the Civilian Population in Yugoslavia During World War II, in collaboration with the Association of Camp Survivors and Descendants "Jasenovac." She has also contributed to teacher training initiatives on genocide education and participated in the UNESCO and U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's international educational project IPHGE. Tutunović-Trifunov is the author and co-author of several exhibitions at the Museum of Genocide Victims and has served as a consultant and guest expert in various documentary films and programs focused on civilian casualties, particularly children, in wartime. She has published multiple scholarly and academic works, including the monograph Camp Prisoners: A Memorial Book. 60 Years of Preserving the Memory of Genocidal Crimes Committed in the Independent State of Croatia During World War II (co-authored with Milinko Čekić and Nenad Antonijević) and the scientific study The Diana Budisavljević Action (1941–1945).
Jana Koch’s Testimonies as a Source for Research: The Suffering of Children During World War II
Abstract: Jana Koch, a leftist by choice and an activist of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia within the Society for Women's Education (later the Antifascist Front of Women – AFŽ), was engaged as a voluntary nurse for the Croatian Red Cross from 1941. Her work primarily involved providing care for displaced Slovenians as well as interned Serbs and Jews who were deported in organized transports to the concentration camps of the Third Reich. In her records, she preserved significant information on the persecution of Serbs and Jews from Zagreb and the existence of NDH-operated prisons and camps in Gospić, Lobor-Grad, Gornja Rijeka, Kruščica, Sisak, and Stara Gradiška. While addressing the suffering of the youngest victims in the mass war crimes committed in the occupied Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Jana Koch devoted particular attention to rescue operations involving Serbian children from Jasenovac camps. She personally participated in these efforts alongside Diana Budisavljević and other associates. Her records, documenting the medical and support personnel engaged in hospitals and shelters housing these children, as well as notable individuals and benefactors involved in the rescue operations, provide invaluable firsthand insight into the tragedy of children during World War II. Through a critical examination and expert analysis of her texts, these testimonies serve as a significant supplement to archival sources and published scholarly and journalistic literature on the conditions of children and the civilian population in armed conflicts within the former Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
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