Olga Humo

From right to left: Josip Broz Tito, Olga Humo (née Ninčić), Jefto Šašić and Ivan Rukavina on Vis, 7 August 1944. Olga Humo (née Ninčić; Belgrade, 17 May 1919 – Belgrade, 4 August 2013) was a Yugoslav partisan, writer and university professor. She was attached to the Partisan Supreme Headquarters as one of the most prominent women fighters and served as personal secretary to communist leader Josip Broz Tito throughout the Second World War.

Biography Humo was born in Belgrade in 1919, to a wealthy family. Her father, Momčilo Ninčić, was a university professor, economist and politician. He had been a member of parliament, government minister, and served as President of the Assembly of the League of Nations from 1926 until 1927. This international exposure and London education ensured Olga spoke in "quiet and perfect English, with no trace of accent".

In 1941, she was arrested by Ustaša police, and, although pregnant, managed to escape the guards at Sarajevo hospital. After the birth of her child, she had to leave the infant with her husband's parents in Mostar and join partisans at Tito's GHQ where her fluency in the English language was very much needed. At their last gathering, she received a gold locket, with the inscription "To Olga from Winston S. Churchill."