Janković Ratko

Janković, Ratko Ratko Janković lived in Sarajevo, was married to Gordana Alkalaj, a Jew, and had many Jewish friends. Following the German invasion of Yugoslavia and the subsequent persecution of the Jews, Janković realized that as an employee of the railway authority, he would be able to help many Jews, including his wife’s family. One of the Jewish women that Janković helped was Hagara Kajon from Sarajevo. After her family had already been deported he provided Hagara with false Identity papers under a Muslim name. Dressed as a Muslim she boarded the train, accompanied by Janković, who then found her a seat, and saw her off. Hagara arrived safely to the Italian occupied zone and joined Tito’s partisans. In the same way he came to the rescue of Zlata Bartfeld, a high school teacher from Sarajevo. Janković found a place for Bartfeld on a train and decided to accompany her to Mostar. A group of youths dressed in Ustaša uniforms entered the carriage and Bartfeld was recognized by one of her former students, who asked her what she was doing on the train. Janković stood up, approached the group, and by giving them money and cigarettes, he managed to buy their silence. When his wife’s parents, Albert and Berta Alkalai, were arrested, Janković, dressed in the uniform of a railway employee, entered their carriage and whispered to his mother-in-law to pretend that she was extremely sick. Janković then received permission to escort the woman to a doctor in the station. The doctor was Janković’s close friend, and he claimed that her illness was contagious and required his supervision. Berta’s husband remained on the train but Jankovic arranged with his friend, the conductor, that Alkalai would be escorted from the train in Mostar, where his son Isidor was living. A few days later, Berta joined them there. After the war, Janković and his wife remained in Sarajevo where they had two children. In 1991, Janković’s grandchildren moved to Israel with Youth Aliyah. One yearlater, Janković and Gordana immigrated to Israel as well. When they arrived there, Janković was already sick. He died in Israel and was buried in the cemetery for Righteous Among the Nations. On March 7, 1990, Yad Vashem recognized Ratko Janković as Righteous Among the Nations.