CROATIAN FAMILY DECORATWED AS RIGHTEOUS AMONG PEOPLES

( Editorial: --> 7623 ) ZAGREB, May 29 (Hina) - Vice-president of the Zagreb Jewish community, Igor Francetic, decorated the family of the late Mr. Karlo and Mrs. Marija Car as Righteous Among Peoples. Francetic handed the medal to the Cars' daughter, Andjela Cibilic. The Righteous Among Peoples is the highest decoration which the state of Israel and the Jewish people bestow upon any gentile in the world. The Memorial holocaust museum in Israel, Yad Vashem, gives this decoration to people who had saved Jews during WWII, endangering their own lives. Among the thousands of people in the world who were decorated with the medal and plaque are over 50 Croatians. During the spring of 1942, the Car family kept hidden in their home in Zagreb a Jewish family Weiss who had fled Osijek and from racist laws of the then Independent State of Croatia (NDH, 1941-1945). Ivan Weiss, a mere boy at the time, suggested the Car's for the decoration. He died last year. (hina) lm 301047 MET may 98