Matilda Kalef -- Three Promises

The destruction of Serbia's Jewry was carried out in two distinct phases. The first lasted from July to November 1941 and involved the mass internment and murder of Jewish men, who were shot as part of retaliatory executions. The second phase, between December 1941 and May 1942, included the incarceration of women and children in the Semlin Judenlager and their gassing in mobile gas vans. Read an article about the Holocaust in Serbia.

The ‘gas van', which in Nazi documents was referred to in euphemisms such as 'delousing truck' (Entlausungswagen), was a normal truck that was refashioned so that the fumes of the exhaust pipe were diverted into the sealed compartment at the back. This way, a 10-15 minute ride was enough to kill as many as 100 people. For a history of the gas van you can read Chapter 3 (p. 57-67) of Christopher R. Browning's book "Fateful Months - Essays on the Emergence of the Final Solution." Read also about Nazi gassing operations.

The staff and patients at the two Jewish hospitals were the first victims of the gas van killings in Belgrade. There were over 800 victims, including Matilda's father Avram Kalef. On 18-19 March 1942, they were loaded into the gas van and died as the van drove to the killing grounds in Jajinci, a village south of the city, where they were buried in mass graves. In August 1942 the puppet government announced that Belgrade was the first city to be Judenfrei or "free of Jews."

Father Andrej Tumpej (1886-1973), who saved the life of Matilda and Breda, was a priest in St. Cyril and St. Methodius parish in Banovo Brdo in Belgrade from 1941 to 1945. He is one of the six Slovenian "Righteous among Nations" or „Righteous Gentiles“ as they’re also called.

„Righteous Gentiles“ is the phrase used for those non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. The criteria established by Yad Vashem are the following:

- Active involvement of the rescuer in saving one or several Jews from the threat of death or deportation to death camps
- Risk to the rescuer’s life, liberty or position
- The initial motivation being the intention to help persecuted Jews: i.e. not for payment or any other reward such as religious conversion of the saved person, adoption of a child, etc.
- The existence of testimony of those who were helped or at least unequivocal documentation establishing the nature of the rescue and its circumstances.

As of 1 January 2012, 24,355 men and women from 45 countries have been recognized as Righteous among the Nations, representing over 10,000 authenticated rescue stories. At the Yad Vashem Museum in Jerusalem the 'Righteous Gentiles' are honored: their names are written at the Honour Wall in the Garden of the Righteous. Most of the Righteous Gentiles – more than 6,000 – are Polish. Here you kind find lists of the Righteous Gentiles per country or look through the database.