Marija Bursać

Marija Bursać
Photograph of Bursać from 1939
Born	(1920-08-02)2 August 1920 Kamenica, Drvar, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
Died	23 September 1943(1943-09-23) (aged 23) Vidovo Selo, Drvar, Independent State of Croatia
Allegiance	Yugoslav Partisans (1941–43)
Years of service	1943
Battles/wars	World War II in Yugoslavia  (KIA)
Awards	Order of the People's Hero

Marija Bursać (Serbian Cyrillic: Марија Бурсаћ; 2 August 1920 – 23 September 1943) was a Bosnian Serb member of the Yugoslav Partisans during World War II in Yugoslavia and the first woman proclaimed a People's Hero of Yugoslavia. Bursać was born to a farming family in the village of Kamenica, near Drvar. After the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers and their creation of the Independent State of Croatia in April 1941, Bursać supported the Partisan resistance movement led by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (KPJ). Like other women in her village, she collected food, clothing, and other supplies for the Partisan war effort. Bursać became a member of the League of Communist Youth of Yugoslavia in September 1941. The following August she was appointed political commissar of a company of the 1st Krajina Agricultural Shock Brigade, which harvested crops in the Sanica River valley, and was admitted to the KPJ at the end of that summer.

Bursać became a Partisan in February 1943, joining the newly formed 10th Krajina Brigade. With the brigade, she fought in the Grahovo, Knin, Vrlika and Livno areas and served as a nurse. In September 1943, Bursać was wounded in the leg while throwing hand grenades during an attack on the German base at Prkosi in northwestern Bosnia. As she was being transported to a field hospital at Vidovo Selo, she sang Partisan songs. Bursać's wound soon developed gangrene, and she died at the hospital on 23 September 1943. She was proclaimed a People's Hero of Yugoslavia the following month. Schools, streets and organisations were named in her memory following the war, commemorating her service to the Partisan cause.