Dina Büchler was born in Zagreb in 1940. As of April 1941, Zagreb belonged to the “Independent State of Croatia.” The Croatian fascist organization Ustasha immediately began persecuting Jews. That same year, Dina Büchler’s father Dragutin was murdered, and Dina and her mother Blanka Büchler were put in the Croatian Loborgrad camp. A Serbian-German guard helped her mother get the then one-year-old smuggled out of the camp. Hidden in a box, Dina Büchler was brought to the Jewish Community in Zagreb. A tag with her name, date of birth, and the name of her relative Blanka Fürst hung around her neck. Fürst also suffered persecution, so she gave the child into the care of the Catholic Beritić family. To hide Dina Büchler’s true identity, Đina Beritić and her son Tihomil had her baptized. They gave her loving care.
Dina Büchler lived with the Beritić family until 1945, when she was picked up by Blanka Fürst, who had survived the war in a partisan unit. Meanwhile five years old, Dina Büchler learned that she was Jewish and that her parents had been murdered.
Dina Büchler and Blanka Fürst immigrated to Israel in 1948. They stayed in contact with the family that saved Dina.