Amiel Shomrony (born Emil Schwarz; he, עמיאל שומרוני; 1917 – 2009) was a

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

survivor, who served as secretary of Zagreb's chief rabbi Miroslav Šalom Freiberger during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Shomrony was born in 1917, the son of physician Milan Schwartz. He had an older sister, Hedva. When he was 13, his mother, Lora, died of cancer. Prior to World War II, Shomrony studied to be a veterinarian. In 1941, after the

German invasion of Yugoslavia The invasion of Yugoslavia, also known as the April War or Operation 25, or ''Projekt 25'' was a German-led attack on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers which began on 6 April 1941 during World War II. The order for the invasion was p ...

, Shomrony and his family were protected by

Dido Kvaternik Eugen Dido Kvaternik (29 March 1910 – 10 March 1962) was a Croatian Ustaše General-Lieutenant and the Chief of the Internal Security Service in the Independent State of Croatia, a Nazi puppet state during World War II. Life Eugen Dido Kvat ...

who had been his father's patient. After the establishment of the

Independent State of Croatia The Independent State of Croatia ( sh, Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, NDH; german: Unabhängiger Staat Kroatien; it, Stato indipendente di Croazia) was a World War II-era puppet state of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. It was established in p ...

and the enactment of race laws, he was forced to stop his studies. He was employed at the Jewish municipality in Zagreb as the secretary of the chief rabbi Miroslav Šalom Freiberger. In mid-1943, Shomrony escaped Zagreb, shortly before the city's remaining Jews were taken to Auschwitz. The route took Shomrony, his wife, daughter, and father from Zagreb to Budapest, through Romania and Bulgaria to Istanbul, and in 1944 they arrived in Palestine. Shomrony twice nominated the war-time archbishop of Zagreb

Aloysius Stepinac Aloysius Viktor Cardinal Stepinac ( hr, Alojzije Viktor Stepinac, 8 May 1898 – 10 February 1960) was a senior-ranking Yugoslav Croat prelate of the Catholic Church. A cardinal, Stepinac served as Archbishop of Zagreb from 1937 until his dea ...

to be listed among the

Righteous Among the Nations Righteous Among the Nations ( he, חֲסִידֵי אֻמּוֹת הָעוֹלָם, ; "righteous (plural) of the world's nations") is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to sa ...

: in 1970 and in 1994. He returned to Croatia in 1996 to participate in a conference on Stepinac. As part of the visit he appeared in the documentary film ''Svjedok istine''. Shomrony died in Israel in 2009.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shomrony, Amiel 1917 births 2009 deaths People from Županja Croatian Jews Jews from Austria-Hungary Israeli Jews Yugoslav emigrants to Mandatory Palestine Date of birth missing Date of death missing