Jasna Puljić was born in 1968 in Vinkovci, in Eastern Slavonia. Her paternal grandfather was killed during the Second World War, in Bleiburg, as a member of the Croatian Home Guard. She spent her childhood and youth in the village of Privlaka, near to Vinkovci. At the beginning of the war in the 1990s, her husband was called up to serve in the reserve police forces. In November 1991 he was wounded when a burst of shots was fired into a car that he was in. During one shelling of Privlake, on December 29th, 1991, Jasna Puljić was gravely injured herself. Her kidneys, liver and both large and small intestines were severely damaged. The doctors considered her to have only a slim chance of survival. After leaving the hospital, she went to Županja as a refugee. She returned to her home in Privlaka in the spring of 1992. Today, she is recognised as suffering 70% invalidity, she is a mother of three and is active in the Association of the Civil Victims of the Homeland War in Vinkovci.