Background
Haas was born 1914 in Maribor, Slovenia, which was part of the Austrian Empire at the time.
Haas was born 1914 in Maribor, Slovenia, which was part of the Austrian Empire at the time.
She joined the revolutionary workers movement in high school and worked as a courier between groups in Yugoslavia and France. In 1940, Haas travelled to Istanbul, Turkey, to deliver a passport to Tito, who was returning from a trip to Moscow, Soviet Union. Their relationship soon turned romantic, according to Tito"s authorized biography, The Loves of Josip Broz Tito.
The couple married in 1940 and returned to Yugoslavia using aliases.
She was swapped for a German officer in a 1943 prisoner exchange between the Germans and the Partisans. By the time Haas was released and rejoined the Partisans in 1943, Tito was having an affair with Davorjanka Paunović, who was code named "Zdenka".
Haas and Tito suddenly separated in 1943 in Jajce during the second meeting of Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia after she reportedly walked in on him and Davorjanka Paunović, his personal secretary. Haas spent much of the rest of World World War II in Slovenia, away from Tito.
Haas reportedly met Tito only once after World World War II during a visit to his presidential office in Belgrade.
Following the end of the war, Haas worked at several Yugoslavian state government institutions. She remarried and gave birth to two daughters. She lived much of her later life in relative obscurity.
Herta Haas died in Belgrade, Serbia, in 2010, at the age of 96.