The title “Righteous Among the Nations” is awarded by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial center in Jerusalem, to non-Jews who risked their lives, freedom, or social standing during the Holocaust to save Jews from persecution and death. Their actions were not merely symbolic but profoundly courageous: hiding those in danger, forging documents, transporting people across borders and checkpoints, carrying messages, and providing food, shelter, and safe passage. At a time when the authorities demanded either cooperation or silence, every such decision was an act of resistance. In the German-occupied territories—and, after 1943, in Slovenia as well—those who helped Jews risked being treated as Jews themselves.
Among the Righteous are Slovenians and individuals born in Slovenian lands or closely connected with the region, although many carried out their rescue efforts elsewhere in occupied Yugoslavia and Europe: in Zagreb, Belgrade, Skopje, Warsaw, Dalmatia, as well as in Prekmurje and Ljubljana. They came from many walks of life—civil servants, priests, nannies, railway workers, diplomats, intellectuals, labourers, friends, neighbours, and acquaintances. Some saved individuals, others entire families or groups of refugees. Some survived the war; others were arrested, tortured, or killed for their actions.
What united them was the courage to act when others remained silent. In an age of systematic dehumanisation, they chose to follow the demands of conscience and humanity, often at the risk of their own lives.
Uroš Žun — recognized in 1987
Boris and Žarko Dolinar — recognized in 1993
Zora Pičulin — recognized in 1975
Ivan Breskvar — recognized in 1998
Andrej Tumpej — recognized in 2001
Ivan and Ljubica Župančič — recognized in 2001
France Punčuh — recognized in 2004
Smiljan Franjo Čekada — recognized in 2010
Elizabeta Savica Rožanc Horvath, Mihael Rožanc, and Ema Rožanc — recognized in 2016
Aleksander and Agnes Žilavec, and Jožef, Marija, and Franc Fartelj — recognized in 2017
Ana Božič — recognized in 2021
Doroteja / Dorothea Sinigoi (Šinigoj) — recognition in June 2026
“Whoever saves one life, saves an entire world.”
