"The story of the righteous Andrej Vendramin is fit for a movie screenplay! He's 'the Schindler of Goriška'," says historian Renato Podbersič, who revealed his life story. Mr. Podbersič was inspired by the accounts of Cvetko, Vendramin's 87-year-old son, who lives in Solkan.
Teacher Andrej Vendramin was born on the 17th of May 1891 in Štmaver. He namely rescued more than 70 young persecuted Jews. Podbersič refers to him as to the "unknown righteous man from Solkan". Preparations are underway for giving him the status "Righteous Among the Nations", a status given to those who rescued Jews during the Holocaust.
Who are the Righteous Among the Nations?
The "Righteous Among the Nations" title refers to non-Jews, who risked their lives during the Holocaust in order to rescue Jews. Currently there are 24.811 people from 47 countries, recognized as righteous. Seven Slovenes are also on the list. The term "righteous" was introduced by an institution called Yad Vashem (literaly meaning "Memorial and name") from Jerusalem. The institution is a memorial, museum and documentation center, where the memory of around 6 million Jews, killed during the Holocaust, is kept alive. The first Slovene "Righteous Among the Nations" was Zora Piculin, officially from Yugoslavia at that time. The seven Slovenes on that list might now get a new, eighth member - Andrej Vendramin.
"Whoever saves one life, saves the entire world"
The verse from the Talmud serves as the main guideline for naming the righteous. The most famous "Righteous Among the Nations" is surely the German industrialist Oscar Schindler. Director Steven Spielberg made an award-winning movie based on his life Schindler's List. Schindler rescued around 1.200 Jews from horrible deaths in concentration camps. Slovenes on the Yad Vashem list are: Zora Piculin, Ivan and Ljubica Župančič, Ivan Breskvar, Andrej Tumpej, Uroš Žun and Martina Levec Markovič. Zora Piculin, who just like Vendramin was also from Solkan, was the first Slovene to be named on the Jewish list for rescuing a small boy, a Macedonian Jew.
And how does Israel honour the righteous? They invite those still alive to Jerusalem, where they plant a tree in the Avenue of the Righteous. They honour the deceased with a plaque in the Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations, which was created at the Yad Vashem center in 1996.
He rescued children and young people
Andrej Vendramin (1891-1978) graduated from school in Gorica. When he worked as a teacher the fascists forcefully moved him and his family to Nonantola, near Modena in Italy. That is where his heroic story of rescuing Jewish children and young people took place. He helped two groups of Jewish refugees, who fled the Nazi's from the territory of the former Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
40 young people were in the first group. They made it to Nonantola in the summer of 1942 under the leadership of Josef Indig, a Jew from Virovitica. A few months later, in April 1943, they were joined by another 33 children, Yugoslav Jews. Most of them were orphans. They sought help from the local doctor Giuseppe Moreali, an anti-fascist, favourable to Jewish refugees. He connected them with Don Arrigo Beccari, a priest in Nonantola. They arranged a hideout for the majority of Jewish refugees. They hid the rest in trustworthy local families. Under a veil of secrecy they then prepared their escape to Switzerland. Vendramin joined in the rescue operation together with his whole family. At first he was a translator for the young Jewish refugees, as he spoke fluent Italian and German. He then helped with hiding them and providing false papers.
"The Escape of the Innocent" already on the big screen
The faith of the 73 Jewish children and young people, who with the help of Andrej Vendramin managed to escape (with the exception of one young life, all the other Jews survived) can already be experienced in the Escape of the Innocent movie. It was filmed by Italy's RAI TV around 10 years ago, based on the novel of one of the Jewish refugees from the Nonantola group. Most of the Jewish children went to Palestine after the war. Some remained in Switzerland, a minority returned to Yugoslavia, and a handful crossed the ocean to go to the U.S. Vendramin was mentioned as a rescuer in 2001, when a big photo exhibition was opened in Nonantola in memory of the events during the war, the victims and the refugees. The exhibition also served as a reminder of the faith of the Jewish orphans, rescued by the following three: priest Don Beccari, doctor Moreali, and the teacher Andrej Vendramin from Solkan.
Historian Renato Podbersič is to thank for awakening the memory of Andrej Vendramin. He is convinced that the eighth "Slovene righteous one" deserves his own documentary. That, also because of the fact, that we know very little about the Slovenian Schindler.