Every morning when Sarah Pecanac arrives at her job at Yad Vashem, she stops at the copper board bearing the name of her mother, Zejneba Hardaga, the first Muslim ever to be recognized as a Righteous Gentile. During World War II in Sarayevo, Sarah’s Muslim family was in close contact with the Kavilio family, members of the local Jewish community. When the Nazis invaded in 1941, the Kavilios’ lives were in danger. Despite the enormous sign near their home declaring that the fate of anyone caught concealing Jews would be death, Mustafa and Zejneba Hardaga sheltered their Jewish friends. 40 years later, the Kavilio family gave testimony at Yad Vashem that resulted in recognition of the Hardagas as Righteous Gentiles.
But the story does not end there. In 1992, the situation was reversed. Civil war broke out in Yugoslavia. Zejneba Hardaga’s home was blown up and the family was forced to hide in a shelter for a long time. The civil war also threatened the local Jewish population and Keren Hayesod and the Jewish Agency for Israel prepared a daring rescue campaign to save the Jews of Sarajevo.
Through the Kavilio family, the story of the family of Righteous Gentiles living in a state of emergency came to the attention of Shimon Peres, then Minister of Foreign Affairs. Peres asked to include the Hardaga family in the rescue operation. The dangerous operation got underway in 1992, and the Hardagas, along with the Jewish refugees from the region, were rescued and flown to Israel. Sarah found herself in Israel. She settled in very quickly and converted to Judaism, permanently linking her fate with that of the Jewish people.
Photo: Zejneba Hardaga (fourth from right) at a tree-planting ceremony in honor of the family at Yad Vashem, 1985