Marija Bursać
Marija Bursać (2 August 1920 – 23 September 1943) was a Yugoslav Partisan and the first woman named a People's Hero of Yugoslavia. She was born in Kamenica near Drvar to a Serb farming family in what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina. She helped with housework and farming, learned weaving and tailoring, but did not attend school like many village girls.
After the Axis invasion in 1941, Bursać supported the Partisans by collecting food, clothing, and supplies for fighters. She joined the youth and women’s anti-fascist groups and worked to help the resistance. In 1943 she joined the 10th Krajina Brigade, fought in the Bosanska Krajina region, and served as a nurse and a political organizer.
On 18 September 1943, during an attack on a German base at Prkosi, Bursać volunteered to throw grenades despite being weak from illness. She was seriously wounded and died on 23 September at a field hospital in Vidovo Selo. She was awarded the Order of the People’s Hero on 15 October 1943, the first time this honor was given to a woman.
Her legacy lived on in schools, streets, and organizations named after her, and in poems and later works about her bravery.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 21:41 (CET).