The Embassy of Israel yesterday organized the Righteous Among the Nations Medal Award Ceremony at the Belgrade Synagogue
At the Belgrade Synagogue Righteous Among the Nations Medal was posthumously awarded to Živorad Bećagović.
On behalf of Yad Vashem, the honor was presented by the Ambassador of Israel, Avivit Bar-Ilan, to his grandson, also named Živorad Bećagović, after his grandfather.
The ceremony was attended by Beti Đilda Kabiljo (89), who, together with her mother Lea, was hidden by Bećagović during World War II.
The Righteous Medal and the inscription of one’s name in the Garden of the Righteous at Yad Vashem represent the highest honor Israel bestows upon those who saved Jews during the Holocaust. The event highlighted the importance of testimony and the responsibility of passing remembrance on to future generations.
The memorial center Yad Vashem was established in 1953 on the basis of a law adopted by the Israeli Parliament – the Knesset – in order to preserve the memory of the six million Jews who perished at the hands of the Nazis and their collaborators during the Holocaust, as well as to honor the small number of non-Jewish individuals who, at the risk of their own lives and the lives of their families, saved Jews from certain death.
These individuals are the Righteous Among the Nations. They are awarded the Righteous Medal and an accompanying certificate (in the case of a posthumous recognition, the medal is presented to the closest relative), and their names are inscribed on the Wall of Honor in the Garden of the Righteous at Yad Vashem. This is the highest honor that the State of Israel, on behalf of the Jewish people, can bestow upon non-Jews.
