Jasenovac Survivor Dobrila Kukolj Dies at 94 A child survivor of Jasenovac who turned private trauma into a public mission, Dobrila Kukolj has died in Banja Luka at 94, leaving Republika Srpska’s leadership to frame her legacy as both moral compass and political touchstone.

From “girl from Jasenovac” to public witness

News of her death broke on May 20, when the Banja Luka Association of World War II Prisoners confirmed that “Dobrila Kukolj, a child from Jasenovac, has passed away.” Born in 1932 in the village of Međeđa near Kozarska Dubica, she was taken to the Ustaša-run Jasenovac camp at age ten and imprisoned for three months, an experience that “destroyed her childhood, life and family.”

In post-war decades, Kukolj emerged as a leading figure in survivor circles, eventually becoming the long‑time president of the Banja Luka Association of World War II Prisoners. From that position, she “tirelessly spoke about the suffering of the Serbian people,” regularly visiting the Jasenovac monastery and the Donja Gradina memorial site as long as her health allowed.

Official Republika Srpska framing

By May 21, her passing had been elevated to a state-level moment of remembrance. At a commemoration in Banja Luka’s Banski Dvor cultural center, attended by top Republika Srpska officials, Serb member of the BiH Presidency Željka Cvijanović declared that “Dobrila Kukolj carried the scars of an evil time that must not be forgotten.”

Cvijanović called Kukolj’s life “a testament to suffering, but even more so to dignity, truth, and strength,” praising her as an “untiring fighter for the truth” and a “precious collaborator” of RS institutions in “the struggle for justice and respect for victims.” Her words underlined a broader political message: that Kukolj’s quiet testimony about “the genocide in the NDH” should be preserved as “the most important historical lesson we are obliged to know and repeat.”

In this pro‑government reading, Kukolj’s death is not only a family loss but “a huge loss for the whole Republika Srpska, which owes her eternal gratitude for every testimony, lesson, and above all, the truth she left behind.”