Jovanka was one of six children born to Serbian Orthodox parents in a small town in the Bosnian part of Yugoslavia. Her parents were prominent Serbian nationalists. After Jovanka completed middle school in Foca, she moved with her parents in 1912 to the multi-ethnic city of Sarajevo. There she met and married Marko Babunovic in 1916. The couple raised three children. 1940-44: The Germans invaded Yugoslavia in 1941. That spring, Jovanka's son, Momir, who was studying in Germany, was arrested as an "enemy alien" and sent to Dachau. After Sarajevo was taken over by Croatian fascists that year, Jovanka's husband was arrested because he was a Serb leader and her other son fled to Serbia. Jovanka remained in Sarajevo with her sister and daughter; they were arrested by Croatian police in 1944. Jovanka was deported to a Croatian-run concentration camp. Jovanka died in the Jasenovac concentration camp in late 1944. She was 50 years old.
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